Sophie Lees
Embarrassing to admit, perhaps, but my greatest transformation was going from a thin person to a fat person. Not the most positive transformation, but it wasn’t all bad. I quit tap dancing – no one likes people who bounce, right? And I have more time because I’m not chasing boys. And I am a great eater. Best of all, my will power has been put to better things like… writing! I didn’t know I could write until I gained weight, but now I do it all the time, for magazines such as Utne Reader, AlbertaViews, Alberta Venture and Avenue (Edmonton). I also teach other people how to write. And hey, I’ve won a National Magazine Award and a Western Magazine Award. Of course, I’ll probably drop dead before I write that novel.
Bryce Krynski
In a past life, I cooked lunches for a tugboat crew on the Panama Canal, deep inside a rumbling ship kitchen where everything was either bolted down or had a cage around it to keep it from escaping. Later, writing for a magazine in Bangkok, I rode the transit system for 24 hours straight. When the photographer with me crapped out after 17 hours, I picked up my point-and-shoot camera to finish the job. By the time I came back to Canada to finish my journalism course, I knew that the camera was more suited to how I connect with the world. That said, I don’t believe in transformations (though deciding that I don’t believe in Jesus changed my life a lot). These days I’m a Calgary-based photographer, shooting for the Globe and Mail, Swerve, Mexico City’s Picnic and Tank in the U.K.
Lindsey Norris
I became a journalist (and, I suppose, unlimited’s assistant editor) by default. I wanted to pen the Great Canadian Novel, but in first-year university I slept in and missed the registration deadline for fiction. Instead, I took creative non-fiction, where I learned that you aren’t lying if the stuff you make up brings the reader closer to a truth. To pay for tuition, I became a fitness instructor. I died my hair blonde and, three times a week, I taught step classes and boxfit. A gym is a good place to see people’s desire for transformation firsthand. It’s pretty scary, and it made me resolved to transform as little as possible, though one day I would like to become a unicorn. I’ve since retired my headset to write for publications like the Edmonton Journal, This Side of West and Alberta Venture.
Tina Chang
I suck at writing my own bio and hate having my photo taken. That said, I offered the editor coffee and apples to let me sit this one out. He called that the “worst bribe ever.” So here’s the thing: my photography has appeared in such magazines as Maclean’s, Report on Business and Edmonton’s Avenue. My style leans towards the dramatic – using lighting to tell stories. I took design at the University of Alberta but learned most of what I know about photography through trial and error. That’s how I’ve transformed: At the beginning of my career I was still finding myself, trying out different styles. Now, rather than being everything to everyone, I know what I have to offer. (Though maybe not when it comes to bribery.)
Chris Turner
My second book, The Geography of Hope: A Tour Of The World We Need, was published this past fall. I write a monthly sustainability feature series for the Globe and Mail, a food column for Swerve magazine, and my writing on pop culture, technology and the environment has appeared in publications such as Canadian Geographic, Time, The Walrus and Utne Reader. I live in Calgary with my wife, photographer Ashley Bristowe, and our daughter, Sloane, in an inner-city house that we wish was a little greener and a little closer to a C-Train stop. The most dramatic transformation I’ve made in my life, by far, was becoming a father two and a half years ago. It’s a cliché to say that it changes everything, but it’s true nonetheless. I wouldn’t have written a book about solving the climate crisis if I hadn’t become a dad.
featured reader: Ethan Bodnar
I’m graphic designer, write a blog and live in Connecticut. I don’t really work for anyone other than myself, though I am doing an internship in online marketing and advertising, and I’m working on two books. One, my Grab Bag Book, features contributions from artists around the world and will be published by F+W Publications’ HOW Design Books in spring 2009. The second is about what’s wrong in the world and how we can create new systems and re-work old ones to solve our problems. I’m 17 and plan to move away from home to study graphic design at college in the coming years. This, unfortunately, means I’ll have to make my own blueberry pancakes. If you want to, feel free to Google me. I won’t think it’s weird.
This could be you. In every issue, we’ll feature one reader as a contributor. Promote yourself! Win prizes! Tell us why you should be featured here next by sending a note to drubinstein@unlimitedmagazine.com.
Category: Articles
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