Residencies

Introducing our 2023 Writer in Residence - Jennifer Chrumka

Jennifer Chrumka is a B.C.-based writer and graduate of UBC’s Master of Journalism Program and more recently The Writer’s Studio graduate workshop at Simon Fraser University. She is an award-winning journalist and storyteller with CBC radio.

Her long-form radio documentaries have aired on CBC’s The Sunday Magazine, The Current and Unreserved. Jennifer teaches writing and journalism at Thompson Rivers University as a sessional instructor. She has published personal essays and non-fiction stories in The Globe and Mail, the CBC website, The Tyee, The Metropolitan Magazine and SFU’s anthology, Emerge. She writes in several genres including non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and memoir. She is currently working on an eco-fiction story about love and loss in the face of climate disaster set in the Interior of B.C.

Jennifer is the second Writer in Residence for the Thompson-Nicola Regional Library. Her term will run from September to December. She will spend half her time hosting public writing workshops and one-on-one consultations and half her time on her own
writing projects.

Programs

Jennifer Chrumka on Tour

Join our Writer in Residence as she tours the TNRL!

Consultations

Book an appointment with Jennifer Chrumka to discuss your work and help you grow as a writer! Jennifer will be available to discuss publishing, non-fiction writing, tips on developing a writing routine, or review your writing. 

Writing reviews will require 2 appointments. The first will discuss what you are looking for from the review and the second will be a review of your work. You may upload your work when you book your first writing review appointment (limit of 5 pages).

Past Residencies

Collier grew up in Ottawa and Montreal and is a graduate of McGill University. She is the author of Confined Space and Open Secret, both set-in-the-Kootenays mystery novels published by Simon and Schuster Canada. Confined Space was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for best first crime novel by the Crime Writers of Canada, and was the One Book One Kootenay selection of the Kootenay Library Federation. She is currently at work on a new series of mysteries set in Montreal in 1947, in which she turns one of her ancestors into a fictional sleuth.

  • Born and raised in Kamloops
  • Was the Vancouver Public Library 2019-2020 Screenwriter in Residence
  • Written for networks such as CBC, TSN, & the Comedy Network
  • Co-wrote the Opening Essay for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics (which was narrated by Donald Sutherland!)
  • Winner of the Gemini Award for excellence in Canadian television
  • Has three feature film scripts optioned by production companies
  • Filmed his feature film Outrunners in Kamloops

A composer, songwriter, and Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc band member from Kamloops B.C, Jeremy became a full time musician in 2015. From early beginnings in piano at age 2, Kneeshaw is an established multi-instrumentalist – playing Guitar, Piano, Drums, Bass, Mandolin, Banjo, Accordion and more. Jeremy has played at venues of all sizes throughout western Canada, with bands ranging in genre from funk, to country.

Raised in Toronto and then Vancouver, Margit grew up listening to rock, folk and classical music. Her parents were music lovers. After moving to Kamloops in 1992, she built a successful career as a local musician and hasn’t looked back since her first gig at Sun Peaks Resort.

Raising her two sons in the country, the only thing to do in the evening was to teach herself guitar. Within a year Margit was playing small shows up at Sun Peaks and around Kamloops.

In 2001 Margit begin teaching private guitar, piano, vocal and songwriting lessons out of her home. Through word of mouth, she has been teaching for 26 years. Her love of kids and passion for music has made this a very successful career.

In 2008 Margit met Rod Bandura and there was an instant connection. Rod’s First Nations name is Little Sky. They decided to combine names and became the Margit Sky Project. The two have averaged over 100 shows a year since 2012. They have had the pleasure of opening for Kevin Costner and Modern West, Burton Cummings, Trooper, Barney Bentall, Elliot Brood and Ridley Bent. The connection between the two on stage and in life is instantly recognized. Their music is now being played across North America, the United Kingdom, Austria, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Tina has been around music most of her life. She grew up listening to her grandfather play the violin and spent many hours with him in his woodshop, watching him build violins. The songs he played when she was a child still linger in her heart.

She started guitar lessons as a teenager and soon fell in love with classical guitar. Tina furthered her musical education at Capilano University and studied with a variety of guitar teachers afterwards. Although she had ukulele lessons in the classroom as a student in elementary school, she hadn’t played one for a long time. Then she became inspired to pick it up again, and the rest is history!

Residencies Program

Each year the TNRL holds a local residency program where we bring in a Canadian writer, musician, or screenwriter to put on workshops for the public and work one on one with local writers/artists.

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