Jan Redford was raised in Yukon, NWT, and the Ottawa Valley, but after high school, she bolted for the Rockies to climb, kayak and ski. She financed her fun by waitressing, tree planting, ski patrolling, and instructing climbing. After her two kids were born, she went to the University of Calgary to become a French immersion teacher, and eventually gave up her grade three class in Golden, BC to pursue writing on the coast of BC. Jan is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio at SFU and holds a master’s in creative writing from UBC. Her stories, articles, and personal essays have been published in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Mountain Life, Explore, Room, Catapult, LitHub, Gripped, Alpinist, and various anthologies, such as Rock, Paper, Fire: The Best of Mountain and Wilderness Writing and have won or been shortlisted in several writing contests. Her memoir, End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood, published by Random House in Canada, and Counterpoint Press in the U.S. (April 2018), has been called “a wonderful combination of adventure and introspection” by Publishers Weekly.  Jan lives with her family in Squamish, BC, where she mountain bikes, trail runs, hikes with her 95 lb pandemic pup, skis, and occasionally still climbs. She’s working on a prequel to her first memoir, with the working title: Who Shall I Be Today?.     /*-->*/