Ann Alma
Author
Contact Information
annalma [at] shaw [dot] ca
R.R.1, S8, C5
South Slocan BC
V0G 2G0
p. (250) 359-7936
Selected Bibliography
Brave Deeds: How One Family Saved Many from the Nazis (Groundwood Books, 2008)
Summer of Adventures (Sono Nis Press, 2002)
Summer of Changes (Sono Nis Press, 2001)
Skateway to Freedom (Beach Holme Publishing, 1999)
| Location: South Slocan, BC | Availability: national | Available: anytime |
Reading Location:
libraries,schools
Grades:
4 to 7
Audience Size:
one class to one class
Fees:
$200.00 per one-hour school reading; $250.00 per one-hour library reading; plus reasonable expenses (negotiable). Two or three readings in the same school or other school in same area, $175.00 per one- hour reading (up to 3 readings a day.). Half-hour for primary AND one-hour for intermediate, total $275.00 plus expenses (negotiable.
Language:
english
Readings
After 25 years of teaching and endless travels, Ann can adjust her readings to any age and occasion. Parts of a regular author talk consist of:
- Storytelling of one of her many African adventures. (Over the years Ann has held her audiences spell bound with these true tales (and at times photos) and has had frequent requests for repeats.
- Short intro of a country bumpkin’s writer’s life and the books she’s written.
- Talk, short readings from, and PowerPoint presentation of her latest published book. As of spring 2008 this will be previously unpublished photos and documents from the Second World War as well as a short audio-visual clip (only available at author visits) featuring the heroes of the book, Frans and Maria Braal, the couple who sheltered 26 people from the Nazis during the Dutch hunger winter of 1944-1945.
- Question and answer session.
Ann can also do a talk with visuals on Emily Carr, or on the Summer Series, with antics from the books’ dog, Shira, or read from Skateway to Freedom and talk about immigration and refugees.
Special Equipment:
A screen to show PowerPoint.
Book Sales:
Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.
Workshop Location:
libraries,schools
Grades:
4 to 7
Audience Size:
one class to one class
Fees:
$200.00 for one-hour school workshop, $250.00 for one-hour workshop reading; plus reasonable expenses (negotiable). $350.00 for half day workshops.
Language:
english
Workshops
As a former teacher Ann gave workshops for teachers on professional days. Now she can discuss the writer’s vs. the teacher’s life. She can talk about the writing process and how to “build” a story or book from the foundation up, one paragraph at a time. She can discuss which motivational tools she uses, how she gets published, how she sets the scene, shapes a character or finds a plot, and how she uses the first or third person and present and past tense to fit her story. Ann has written both fictional and non-fictional books for young people, has won prizes for her adult fiction and has taught creative writing classes for adults at Okanagan University College.
Special Equipment:
A screen to show PowerPoint.
Book Sales:
Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.
Biography
Ann Alma was born and raised in the Netherlands. She travelled around the world twice with a backpack, settled in British Columbia in 1970, and became a Canadian Citizen in 1975. She taught for 25 years in public schools on four different continents. She taught kindergarten to adults, and in her free time became an instructor in canoeing, skiing, aerobics and ESL. To satisfy her curiosity and wear off her overabundant energy she worked at many odd jobs, for example, volunteering to help collect firewood in a Somali refugee camp in Kenya, working with AIDS orphans in Zambia, doing interracial art projects with Maori children in New Zealand, bottle-feeding orphaned lambs in Australia, riding horses to check pasture fences in Canada, giving aid to isolated seniors in Holland, selling flowers on a street corner in Vancouver and lying face down on a picker to harvest asparagus in the Okanagan.
In 1992 Ann quit teaching and moved to a small acreage in the Kootenay mountains with her cat, Miepke, and her dog, Shira. Ann now works at her latest writing project, grows all her own vegetables and fruits, hikes, skis out her back door and travels and camps whenever she can. For this, she and Shira often hit the road in their camper van, the bookmobile.
Ann loves to do promotional tours and has done author visits in such places as Tuktoyaktuk, (NWT), Haida Gwaai, (Queen Charlotte Islands), Groningen, (Holland), Monze, (Zambia, Africa), Seattle, Corner Brook, Halifax and Vancouver. She has also read at the acclaimed Vancouver international Writers Festival, the Victoria televised Author Breakfasts, CBC Radio 1, Shaw television, and The Japanese International College. Ann is an experienced speaker: young and old enjoy her travel stories about her adventures, especially the ones set in Africa and involving close encounters with wild animals.
OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
Available for teacher professional development, discussion of writing process and requirements for publishing. Also talks on HIV/AIDS in Africa (is a member of a grandmother to grandmothers group--Stephen Lewis Foundation), Dutch resistance in the Second World War, motivational talks with PowerPoint.
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