2010-2019 Design of a Decade: My Writerly Life, part 1

     This blogpost is about the decade that changed my writing career.  The 2010s was a huge decade for me— both professionally and personally.  At the start of the decade, I was fresh and fly with my beautiful dredlocks a flow.  These photos were taken during a significant week in 2010– professionally (finished teaching my first year at the first ever publicly-funded Africentric school in Canada, I was part of the inaugural staff), personally (I just got engaged), and physically (my doctor discovered a lump in my neck).  Below, you will find the highlights of my 2010s decade which focuses on my writerly life and some of my personal life.  (I have not included much about my teaching career other than what is connected to my writing.). I also have not included all of the things I got rejected from because then this post may get dull.

So here goes...

2010-2019 DESIGN OF A DECADE: MY WRITER LIFE!

2010

• I took my first writing course (Writing for Children 1 at George Brown College Continuing Education then took part 2)
• I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer 
• I got engaged
• I completed my first year teaching Grade 1 at the Africentric Alternative School
• moved

2011

• I had my total thyroidectomy (thyroid gland removal), radiation, and hormone therapy adjustments
• I started sharing about my cancer and transition to veganism is journey on a blog called Blue Butterlfy.  Check it out here.  
• I travelled to Newfoundland to take part in a Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC) Survivor retreat
• I returned to teaching part-time
• I applied to MFA Creative Writing program at UBC (I did not get in)
• I meet publisher Sheila Barry (then at Kids Can Press) at panel about How to Get Published in Children’s Books at A Different Booklist bookstore
• start attending CANSCAIP meetings
• teaching kindergarten at Africentric then leave to focus on health
• Became a vegan, then switched to vegetarian (added back in cheese, desserts I like) by the next year

2012

• I took Writing Non-Fiction for Children 1 at George Brown College
• I got married in Jamaica
• thyroid cancer follow-up clear
• return to teach full time 
• moved
• I go to my first Packaging Your Imagination (PYI) CANSCAIP Conference
• became volunteer editor of the Thyroid Cancer Canada newsletter

2013

• I cut off my waist-length dreadlocks
• I enter my manuscript Malaika’s Costume to a writing award it loses
• I decide the manuscript was ready to query. I sent it to two publishers— one is a contact through a writer I know and the other is Sheila Barry, then at Groundwood Books
• Dec 2019 (same week) I apply to two PhD programs, I don’t get in, Sheila Barry likes my manuscript and wants to publish it, I get an e-mail asking if I can write books for the Sankofa Black Heritage Collection series.  I say yes.
• I visit VCFA and fall in love with the campus.  I apply to the MFA Writing for Children and Young Adults program but don’t get in.
• car accident, no more car
• started African-Canadian Writers for Children and Young Adults (ACWCYA), later became on an online group renamed Sankofa’s Pen

2014

• I wrote two books— #1 Music and #2 Media.
• I visited Ghana— my first international solo trip— to study Orff music education and connect with my roots.
• Took Orff music level 2
• articles published in the Orff Canada journal and Canadian Children’s Book News magazine
• moved again
• Took courses
• my grandfather (last surviving grandparent) passed away

2015

• visited Bahamas
• #1 Music and #2 Media are published (finally)
• health stuff
• attended writing non-fiction for children and SCBWI NYC conferences in New York City and SCBWI Canada in Montreal, PYI in Toronto
• completed Humber College School of Writers program with author Richard Scrimger
• attended Highlights Foundation in Pennsylvania
• launch of my writing website and blog
• started Brazilian Portuguese class
• research trip to Quebec City from Ontario Arts Council grant
• new car (well technically used new car)
• took part in NaNoWriMo and finished draft of middle grade novel that I worked on through Humber College School of Writers
• won the Isabel Sissons Children’s Book Award through PACE for my manuscript of Malaika’s Costume

2016

• #3 Malaika’s Costume is published
• Book launch and tour to Toronto and Greater Toronto area (GTA), Boston, NYC, Atlanta, Detroit, UK
• attended SCBWI and Kweli conferences both in NYC and VONA Workshop for Writers of Color in Miami, PYI in Toronto, SCBWI Canada in Ottawa
• went to Essence Fest in New Orleans
• moved to teach in Abu Dhabi
• health stuff
• divorce
• returned to Toronto for Word on the Street and Kingston Writersfest
• visit Germany, France, Italy, England
• joined writing community in Abu Dhabi
• more Brazilian Portuguese class
• juror for the TD Children’s Book Award (Norma Fleck Award for Non-Fiction)

2017

• Wrongfully ”let go” from teaching job in Abu Dhabi 
• got new teaching job to finish school year, move to Dubai
• visited Sri Lanka, Egypt, Trinidad, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Barbados, Portugal, Spain, Kuwait
• Accepted teaching job in Vietnam for new school year
• brother passed away suddenly, I decided to stay in Canada
• Groundwood Books publisher Sheila Barry passed away
• joined writing community in Dubai, participate in UAE literary events including the Emirates Air Literary Festival
• Malaika’s Winter Carnival is published and launched
• attended Highlights Foundation workshop in Pennsylvania
• I presented in Trinidad, Philadelphia, and GTA
• I go to Washington DC to accept the Americas award nomination for Malaika’s Costume at the Library of Congress
• took a Writing Science Fiction course at George Brown College
• presented in Toronto public libraries
• looked for and found publisher (Owlkids) for A LIKKLE LABRISH (which became A LIKKLE MISS LOU: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice)

2018

• Took Brazilian Portuguese class
• visited Brazil​ to research and study with American teachers
• Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter is published on the last day of 2018
• attended Kweli in NYC and SCBWI in LA, SCBWI Canada in Ottawa
• Book tour to NYC, Boston
• Attended Highlights Foundation workshop in Pennsylvania and present at the Eric Carle Museum in Massachusetts
• presented in Toronto, Kingston, and local public libraries, schools in Ontario and Word on the Street
• received Canada Council grant
• participated on #kidlit and #yalit panel in Ottawa
• facilitated panel 
• ran NaNoWriMo club with students and teachers at the school I teach.  Finish first draft novel manuscript and now editing it.
• do Humber School of Writers again but this time with author Cherie Dimaline
• my Abu Dhabi friend Angela passed away
• juror for the Children’s L

2019

• Join the FOLD Kids team to organize the first ever book fest focused on diverse books for young people in Canada
• On faculty at SCBWI Canada Montreal
• attend PYI in Toronto, KWELI in NYC
• attend Highlights illustration workshop
• I presented at Frye Festival in New Brunswick, Telling Tales in Hamilton (ON), various schools 
• Writer in residence at the Historical Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, BC
• presented in Jamaica (at mom’s school and another school), Toronto, NYC, Baltimore, Vancouver, Victoria
• I was part of 50-person delegation to the unveiling of Miss Lou Square and statue in Jamaica.
• took 4-day train trip across Canada, visited Whistler, Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland
• A LIKKLE MISS LOU featured on the front page of entertainment section of the Toronto Star and on CBC (Weekend Edition)
• I was presenting author for TD Children’s Book Week, toured schools and libraries in southern Alberta.  My tour coordinator, contact, and chauffeur Richard Chase passed away.
• featured author at NCTE in Baltimore, signings, etc.
• A LIKKLE MISS LOU published by Owlkids
• I start presenting in the school board in which I teach
• signed Malaika’s Surprise with Groundwood Books (2021)
• took 4 month leave from full-time teaching in the fall
• organize and host the Diversity in #kidlit panel at the CANSCAIP AGM in Toronto
• offered the opportunity to teach Writing for Children (introduction) course at the University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies in spring 2020.
• record Owlkids Behind the Book for A LIKKLE MISS LOU
• participated in Inktober.  For my participation, check out my Instagram page at @nadialhohn_author
• for more details, check out my 2019 Highlight Reel here

I am so blessed to be alive!  Each day is a chance to live my best life.
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