biography

Rae Bridgman is the author and illustrator of young adult fantasy adventure novels, including The Serpent’s Spell (Great Plains, 2006), which was a finalist for the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award, Amber Ambrosia (Great Plains, 2007) and Fish & Sphinx (Great Plains, 2008), which received an Honourable Mention by the Speculative Literature Foundation (2008) and was nominated for a Cybils Award in Fantasy and Science Fiction (2008). Reviews of her young adult novels have been glowing: “a unique feel,” “in a class of [their] own,” “sentence after sentence of melodiously evocative language,” “superb page-turning flight of fancy,” “characters are exciting and fresh and the [plots are] fast-paced and creative,” and “extraordinary in a delightfully ordinary way.”

She is a Professor in the Department of City Planning, in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. She is also the author of StreetCities: Rehousing the Homeless (Broadview Press, 2006) and Safe Haven: The Story of a Shelter for Homeless Women (University of Toronto Press, 2003), co-author of Braving the Street: The Anthropology of Homelessness (Berghahn Books, 1999) and co-editor of Feminist Fields: Ethnographic Insights (Broadview Press, 1999). She has been the recipient of many research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and is a practicing visual artist with many exhibitions and arts grants to her name.

As well, Rae Bridgman is an urban planner and founding member of BridgmanCollaborative Architecture, an award-winning Winnipeg architectural firm that specializes in new design and heritage buildings, participatory design and planning, green architecture and community revitalization.

She is a member of CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers, SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators), CCBC (Canadian Children's Book Centre), the Writers' Union of Canada, SF Canada (Canada's National Association for Speculative Fiction Professionals), Manitoba Writers' Guild and Winnipeg's Writers' Collective.

She grew up on an old farm in Maple, Ontario north of Toronto, and earned her B.A. (classics) and Bachelor of Music at the University of Toronto, and her Master's (interdisciplinary studies) and PhD (cultural anthropology) at York University.