Andi Wiseman worked the frontlines of Vancouver Canada’s notoriously ghettoized Downtown East Side for two decades. She now lives on the west coast of British Columbia and coordinates a complex care program serving marginalized communities across the qathet regional District.Prior to non-profit work, Andi's vocational highlights included go-go dancing, bowling alley attendant-ing, waitressing, office reception, bartending, telemarketing, and felonious horticulture.In 1981, Andi received the Neilson Young Writer’s Award. Her name was engraved onto a perpetual plaque displayed prominently in her principal’s office. This achievement left Andi’s grade-school counterparts - and any chance at her own popularity among them - in the dust.In 1992, fresh out of detox and with an optimistic liver and outlook, Andi stayed briefly in an inner-city convent and a nun there called her “uniquely special.” Twenty-one years later, she entered the Surrey International Writers’ Conference 2013 writing contest. Her short non-fiction piece “Handful of Moonlight” won a second-place Honourable Mention. That nun may have been onto something after all. With irreverent humour and a steady photo-train of cats, crafts and/or food, Andi has long voiced, campaigned and written about unpopular truths, and all the inconvenient reflections and inclusions they invite. As such, she remains as popular now as she was in grade-school. “The Unsubtle Art of Unf*cking Your Life” is Andi’s first published book.Read more about this authorRead less about this author