Ashley Foley

Writer

While other kids were finger painting and playing dress-up, I was folding small pieces of paper together to form a small, homemade notebook; colouring each and every page differently with purple and green crayons. I was born a story teller. 

I won a number of writing contests including Remembrance Day essay contests growing up. I didn’t know why, but I craved seeing my name at the top of the stories I’d written. I got a rush every time I saw them printed in books I knew many strangers would read. 

I wrote a number of small pieces for my smalltown newspaper, school newspaper, school yearbook, newsletters – I was would write anywhere and everywhere. Eventually, when I was fourteen, I was published by the Canadian Poetry Institution. My first breakthrough. My head was pounding when I got the letter and as I wrote my first “author’s release form”. Since then, I have annually been published by not only the Canadian Poetry Institution but also by the International Poetry Institution. 

I think the reason why I crave to write is because the written word creates such a place where adults can imagine like children again: where dragons and dinosaurs are only a notepad away. 

Today, I am studying journalism at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto with the hopes to someday inspire others with the art of the written word as I have been inspired.