Sheree Fitch | Seriously Joy-Filled World of Words

Sheree Fitch wrote her first book of nonsense verse, Toes in My Nose, for her two year old son Jordan when she was twenty. After many rejections and rewrites, the book was published when she was thirty. Illustrated by celebrated Canadian female war artist, Molly Lamb Bobak and launched in 1987 by Doubleday Canada, Toes was a Canadian best seller. Two years later, Sleeping Dragons All Around, illustrated by Michele Nidenoff, published by Doubleday Canada, was released. An interview by Peter Gzowski on Morningside brought Fitch's words to a national audience. Sleeping Dragons All Around won the Atlantic Bookseller's Choice Awards in 1990 and the hearts of a generation of readers. Often described as a much loved Canadian “classic, an anniversary edition of Sleeping Dragons All Around is in the works.

A contract for a third book and a Canada Council Arts Grant “B” in 1988, convinced Fitch, then a single parent of two, it was time to risk. After completing her course work for her masters in English with a focus on children's literature, she made an intentional choice to make a living as a full-time writer. She has been a working writer ever since.

As a regular panelist on “Good Friends” panel on CBC's Morningside for two years in the early nineties, Fitch credits Peter G and his producers, as well as the power of radio as one of the reasons her books began to have a readership. The twenty or more books following Toes have garnered numerous awards. Fitch received the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for a body of work inspirational to Canadian Children in 1999.

Inspired by many writers living and dead, Fitch believes, as William Blake did “imagination is divine .“ But writing was and is also her “job” and her livelihood.. “ It's a job like any other except you get to daydream and call it work. You put in long hours and there's no salary.” For years Fitch said yes to nearly every request for readings, criss-crossing Canada and journeying into many small communities outside of urban areas. A popular visiting author in schools, libraries, and daycares—Fitch's poem-telling, teaching, and speaking put food on the table, paid the rent and sold some books. This “eyeball to eyeball and cheek to cheek communication” also convinced a grateful Fitch that writing was about sharing and books were about forging community. “Souls not sales.“ Her master's thesis, years in the completing.,explored the complexity of childhood nature through the poetry of Dennis Lee and examined how the oral tradition of children's poetry creates and is dependent upon community. This web of interconnectedness has been a theme in her work and informed her work in education and social justice. Fitch's multi-award award winning book, If you Could Wear My Sneakers, illustrated by Darcia Labrosse, was based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child . Commissioned by Unicef. published by Doubleday, the book marked another turning point for Fitch. Writing with intent on issues she cared about was as satisfying as it was different than writing from inspiration.

Her work as literacy educator lead her to the Arctic as eight-time poet laureate for Peter Gzowski's fundraisers for literacy. She has continued working in the Arctic with women and children, most notably in the innovative land based literacy program called Somebody's Daughter. In the country of Bhutan, she taught writing to college students and teachers to help foster an indigenous literature for the children of Bhutan. She participated in that country's first National Reading week. Author readings in schools. libraries and communities have taken her to Africa: Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, as well Belize and Mexico and the US.

A favourite author at major Canadian literary, writers and reader's festivals, in demand as writing workshop leader, keynote conference speaker and visting in libraries and communities, Fitch still divides her time between home and away. When not at her desk, she's on the road. “A book cannot be book unless it is read, a poem cannot be a poem unless it is said.” She's taught Children's Literature at St.Thomas Univeristy and Teaching poetry and Writiing in the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick.

Currently, Fitch is Honorary Spokesperson for the New Brunswick Coalition for Literacy.The coalition recently initiated the Sheree Fitch Adult Learner Scholarships. She is also Honorary Spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Read to Me Program. This program provides literacy information to new parents and books for newborns. Kisses-Kisses Baby ĐO, illustrated by Hilda rose, a board book for babies, will be given to every new born in Nova Scotia in 2008. Each year Fitch sponsors a writing competition for New Brunswick Youth for NB Writers Federation.

Fitch's written work, both children's and adult, has been described as “exuberant, joy filled and wise” Her readings have been described as magical, her presentations as inspirational. In 1988, Fitch was described as “an important artistic presence” in the National Globe and Mail. Twenty years later, in the February 2008 issue of More Magazine. Fitch was included in their Top forty over forty list of Canadian women.

She lives with her husband, Gilles Plante, Technical Supervisor of US operations of the CBC, and divides her time between Washington D.C. and River John. She enjoys the outdoors, gym time, yoga and amateur gardening. She studies theology formally and informally. In July 2008, her first novel for adults KISS the JOY AS IT FLIES has its launch.. Fitch is working on a new young adult novel for Doubleday entitled Pluto's Ghost.