Michael Armstrong, Prince George, BC
Drama teacher, PGSS, age 48
Michael has been an actor and a writer for over 30 years.
He is past-president of the Federation of BC Writers and
has served on their board for over three years. Michael
writes about love, history, and spirit, in various combinations.
He has won a couple of writing awards: His short story,
"The Last Roman," a creative truth from his
childhood, was second prize in the Literary Writes Contest
in 2000. In 2001, Michael attended the Banff playRites
colony with his play, "In Their Nightgowns, Dancing,"
about the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. He will
very soon be living and teaching in the BC coastal community
of LaxKw'Alaams where he hopes to work on a number of
new writing projects.
Michael was born in California in 1955, and after immigrating
with his family, he became a Canadian citizen in 1971. He
has worked on the green chain, like many British Columbians,
and as a waiter, an actor, a newspaper editor, a janitor,
a labourer in a carboard plant, and for 15 years, a building
contractor and designer in the Gulf Islands. He hung up
his tool belt and went back to complete his BA at UNBC.
For two years he managed Art Space, a gallery and performance
space over Books and Company in Prince George.
He has acted in theatres, schools, cafes, community halls,
and fields from Salt Spring Island to Toronto. Since coming
to Prince George, he has published (through his small
Roaring Heart Press) five chapbooks, including a festschrift
for Barry McKinnon, and a play. He has two daughters who
live too far away and a mother who is a poet.
"To be closer to God
is not to be reverant or moral
or even good.
It is to be alive."
from the poem "Shelley's Thoughts As
He Is Dying" by Michael Armstrong.
