I wear many hats - both real and metaphorical. I am an editor, publisher, writer, consultant, and budding playwright. I have been active in the communications and publishing fields for over 25 years. I started selling books at Simpson's on Queen street in Toronto then got a full-time job writing technical manuals in Toronto in the pre-Internet, newly-hatched desktop publishing environment. I was a senior editor of publications in the defense industry for nearly eight years and co-established and co-ran quality organization for a major corporation.
In recent years... I returned to academia in 2004 to get the university degree I always denied myself. Six years later, I am finishing up my Honours BA in professional writing with a minor in science & society at York University. While a full-time student and working full-time, I have donated over 2000 hours in two major areas. I spent over 1500 hours establishing and developing YUMSO - York University Mature Students Organization - now a thriving student club & community of adult learners. I ran it for four years and gathered 600 members. Through the Office of the VP Academic, in 2007, I also helped establish, develop, and launch ACMAPS - Atkinson Centre for Mature and Part-time Students; which is a service bureau that now handles mature student affairs. YUMSO has inspired the creation of a similar club at Ryerson University and another at the University of Toronto. I am currently writing a book on being a mature student and have begun a new group called CAMSO - Canadian Assembly of Mature Student Organizations which is gaining members across Canada.
My second major enterprise was undertaken in 2007 when I revived Existere - Journal of Arts and Literature at York University. I have spent well over 500 hours reviving the journal, creating infrastructure, building teams, and producing a fine high-quality magazine twice a year with all-student volunteers. I wanted to provide students with an opportunity to gain practical experience to augment their studies at York and provide them with knowledge - and a reference - they can use after leaving school for their careers.
My current day job is as a webmaster and communicator handling the needs of York International & the Office of the Vice-president International. I also consult for individuals and corporations.
A third endeavour is the Words Alive Literary Festival - an annual event in Sharon, Ontario, Canada. In 2008, I joined the organizing committee as the publicist and guest wrangler for the 2009 festival. I had assisted a wee bit the previous year by bringing Anthony De Sa aboard as a guest as an extension of my work with Existere (I had interviewed him that summer). This year I was very pleased to bring aboard Albert Moritz, Molly Peacock, Lauren Kirshner, Diana Fitzgerald Bryden, Andrea Gunraj, Andrew Pyper, Jeffrey Round, Natalie Ghent, Penn Kemp, Priscilla Uppal, Kristen den Hartog, Ward McBurney, and many others this year.
I have begun to rediscover my creative writing side and am working on some poetry and plays. I have enjoyed some competition wins at York and have had two plays produced there so far. The plays I have written thus far are:
The Prodigal Father
Fire Burial
Grim Business
The Tesla Chronicles
I live in the greater Toronto area, have been married to my lovely wife Linda for 22 years so far, have three cats (Remy, Lily, and Pumpkin - all named after the time we got them: Nov 11, Easter, and Halloween). My academic plan is to continue on with the masters program at York University in Science and Technology Studies.
I can also be found on other time vampires: Facebook and Twitter. I am in the process of developing my new edwardfenner.ca website to replace my old Sympatico site and hope to release that before the end of 2009.
Cheers,
Edward
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