Home

Hello, I’m Naomi Racz (they/them). That blurry blob on top of a rock is me. I’m a writer and editor living on Vancouver Island. I’m originally from the UK but left 13 years ago. Since then I’ve lived in Amsterdam and Toronto and now I’m an island dweller.

I write creative non-fiction, usually about nature, the environment, sense of place, and parenting. I also write book reviews from time to time. 

1996 – I started writing in my first journal.
2004 – I was selected to be a Young Writer in Residence at Manchester’s Contact Theatre and had my short play “The Dove in the Magnolia” performed by a cast of professional actors.
2012 – I earned an MA in Writing, Nature and Place from the University of Exeter.
2019 – I co-launched Stonecrop Review.
2020 – I was awarded the Claudette Upton Scholarship for student editors.
2021 – I was accepted onto the Orion Magazine Environmental Writers’ Workshop.
2025 – I completed an artist’s residency at The McLoughlin Gardens in Merville, BC.

I am currently working on a long essay/short book about breastfeeding. When I’m not writing, I work as an editor. When I’m not working, I’m hiking, reading, drinking tea and spending time with my family.

My Writing

Creative non-fiction

Swift migrations in Toronto Journal (print and online, subscribers only, 2026)
Smash it ’til you break in MUTHA Magazine (online, 2022)
Funny weather in FieldFair (print and online, 2022)
Postcards and boxes in Sea & Cedar Magazine (print and online, 2021)
I came late to a love of birds in Zoomorphic Magazine (no longer available online, 2019)
Shopping centres, caves and the fate of us all in The Learned Pig (online, 2018)
Carrying the Wild Home on the City Creatures blog (online, 2016)
All the Wild Horses on the City Creatures blog (online, 2015)
On the Benefits of Urban Monomania on the City Creatures blog (online, 2014)
In Search of the Perseids in The Real Story (online, 2014)

Non-fiction

Building a safe haven for queer asylum seekers in Faith Tides (online, 2026)
Making transgender history visible in Faith Tides (online, 2025)
Day school Survivor calls for justice and true reconciliation in Faith Tides (online, 2024)
Various articles in The Anglican (online and print, 2022)

Book reviews and author interviews

A Review of The Best Most Awful Job: Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood in Literary Mama (2021)
Q&A with Tamara Goranson for Victoria Festival of Authors (2021)
A Review of My Wild and Sleepless Nights: A Mother’s Story in Literary Mama (2020)
Q&A with jaye simpson for Victoria Festival of Authors (2020)

Audio

Swift migrations read by the author for Toronto Journal (print and online, subscribers only, 2026)
Naomi’s story – breastfeeding grief an interview with Emma Pickett for Makes Milk Podcast (2026)

Blogs

Small Rain a blog about urban nature writing (2015 – 2020)
This Little Life a Substack about life with little people and other small things that make a life (2025-I still intend to revive this one day)