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. However, I decided I wanted to explore a career in book publishing and so I took courses in trade publishing and editing through the publishing program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Being a student on this program also allowed me to apply for a publishing internship with one of the “big five” trade publishers.
Just after completing the internship, my first child was born. While I hadn’t initially planned to spend a, extended time at home with her, and began applying to jobs shortly after she was born, when I was offered a job when she was three months old, I found that I actually did want to be home with her. And in March 2020, of course, the world shut down, including job boards and daycares.
In July 2020 we moved from Toronto to Victoria, and at the beginning of 2021, we finally (hopefully!) settled down in a small village on Vancouver Island. We now have two daughters and a dog, and I work remotely and part-time as an editor for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia. This allows me to spend plenty of time out in nature, manage our household, do creative projects with my crafty five-year-old and home preschool with my almost three-year-old.
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 love cycling. We’ve 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 daughters in a trailer. We also like to go for long hikes in the forest 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 This Little Life.