Leaf

Hi, I'm Rachel Thompson

You’re here, luminous writer. I feel your ache to share your truest, bravest, most heartfelt writing. I love that, because…

I am here to help you write, publish, and shine.

To do this, I share free resources in the form of articles and love letters to luminous writers, and I teach courses on writing, self-editing, and getting published.

Rachel Thompson

I believe you already have all you need to write:

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The bravery to reveal your voice.

The tenacity to go for your dream.

The self-trust to stay true to your heart.

If you’re ready to believe you can be a luminous writer, then read on…

Rachel Thompson

Where I come from, there was a lot of shushing and stoppering that made me yearn to be truly seen and heard.

Writing is where I express my hidden feelings and observations. 

As writers, we get to live fuller lives.

By writing honestly and attentively, we are genuinely seen and can see others.

About Me

As a child, I drew a self-portrait of myself as a bottle full of inky swirls, pushing toward the top, where a giant stopper held everything tightly inside.

This is to say, I have always felt flooded by emotions and full of swirling ideas.

It is also to say…I have long felt silenced.

Where I come from, there was a lot of shushing and stoppering that made me yearn to be truly seen and heard.

So, like many quiet children, I turned to books.

I could live loudly and vicariously in their pages and did until an elementary-school teacher encouraged me to write.

Writing became the place where I expressed my hidden feelings and observations.

I grew up, got an English degree, and built a career in communications. I continued creative writing on and off over the years until I landed in the poetry and lyric prose program at Simon Fraser University, The Writer’s Studio. There the program founder, Betsy Warland, taught me my most important lesson about writing:

We write alone, but we can only keep writing with the help of a community of writers. And I had found mine.

Meeting and working alongside other writers helped me understand what had been missing in my on-and-off writing years. With their help, I generated enough writing to complete my first collection of poems, Galaxy, published by Anvil Press, in 2011.

I believe that by writing honestly and attentively, we express our true hearts and can connect in a fundamentally disconnected world.

My Values

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Community

Just because we write alone, we don’t need to be lonely writers.

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Transparency

I share openly and honestly, especially when I make mistakes.

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Empathy

I read and write to deeply understand, to feel with others, to explore what it means to be human.

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Social Justice

I stand for racial, LGBTQIA2s+, and disability justice and put these words into action.

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Bravery

I bravely show up and tell the deep truths writing requires. What I’m afraid to do creatively is usually where I need to go.

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Self-trust

I tune into my intuition and knowing (this is a work-in-progress). And I am patient with my progress.

A Little More About Me…

introversion

In the Myers-Briggs system, I’m an INFP. INFPs make up 4% of the population, and are said to live authentically and according to their internal values and feelings. This checks out! INFPs are also said to  want people to stay true to themselves. I love to help writers reach their potential and to become their most authentic and ideal selves.

Rachel Thompson INFP
Rachel Thompson Canadian Writer
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I'm a grateful guest on many lands...

I’m a settler Canadian, born on Treaty 1 territory and raised on Treaty 2 territory in Manitoba. I have also lived for a time on the traditional territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka, and the Anishinabeg peoples in Montreal, Quebec, and on the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands in Vancouver, B.C. When I travel, I love to spend months living and working somewhere, which I’ve done in both Central America and the U.K. At present, I’m a guest in Egypt, living with my Egyptian spouse and our children by the Red Sea in the South Sinai, the traditional territory of the Al-Muzzina Bedouin. (Imagine where Moses received the tablets, and that’s about where you’d find me right now!)

My Writing Life requires finding balance, too...

I know the challenges of juggling work-life, family-life, and writing-life. All of what I teach is informed by what I’ve learned the hard way. I share with transparency and openness any wisdom I have gleaned through publishing my first book, plus all of the highs and lows I experience as I prepare my next book for publication.

Rachel Thompson Writing is a Balancing Act

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