Hi, I’m Naomi Racz, a writer and editor based on Vancouver Island. I’m originally from Manchester in the UK and studied a BA in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. It was here that I met my husband, who is originally from Massachusetts.
After graduating, I went on to do an MA in Writing, Nature and Place at the University of Exeter in Cornwall. I got my first taste of editing other’s words during my MA. My course mates and I formed the editorial board of Peninsula Magazine. I edited my course mates writing, solicited submissions, wrote an original essay, and provided input on the images and layout.
After two years of long distance, my husband and I were reunited in Nottingham, England, where my husband completed his master’s degree and I worked at the university as the managing editor of the politics blog Ballots & Bullets. In 2013, we moved to Amsterdam and lived there for four and half years. My husband completed his PhD and I worked in communications for environmental non-profits.
In 2018 we moved to Canada and lived in Toronto for two years, where I again worked for an environmental non-profit, as well as starting on the publishing program at Toronto Metropolitan University and completing a publishing internship.
At the beginning of 2021, we finally (hopefully!) settled down in a small village on Vancouver Island. We have a three-year-old daughter, another baby on the way, and a five-year-old dog.
In my spare time, I like to read memoirs and creative non-fiction books about nature, the environment, sense of place, and parenting. You can see what I’m reading over on Goodreads. My husband and I (and now our toddler!) love cycling. Pre-baby, we cycled along the Rhine from Zurich to Bonn; around Scotland; from Prague to Budapest via Vienna; and around New Zealand’s South Island from Christchurch to Haast. These days I can mostly be found cycling around our village with my daughter in a trailer and we’re hoping to start exploring the mountain bike trails around our home. We also like to go for long hikes on those trails and I sometimes manage not to think about bears. Mostly, I like drinking tea.
I am currently working on the first draft of a memoir about home, belonging, mental health, and motherhood. The working title is Tethered. See some of my published creative writing and read my blog Notes From a Far Isle.