AWOL

Jennifer Barclay was born in 1968 and grew up with one younger brother in a village on the edge of Saddleworth Moor in the north of England. The family travelled to Europe every summer in search of sunshine. Her father is a football journalist while her mother has worked variously in catering, care for handicapped kids, and as information officer for an automobile company.

After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, and gaining some journalism experience with The Independent and student magazines like the Oxford Author, she ended up teaching English in Greece. Following a roller-coaster year and a summer job in a hotel overlooking a volcano, she had caught the travel bug and saved up to follow a friend to Guyana, to learn the thrill of jungles, rivers and wild savannahs. Eventually a career beckoned. She found herself in Toronto, working for a large literary agency, and in a few years became an agent, representing Canadian authors.

Though being an agent was exciting, she wanted to do something about her love of travel and her creative itch. At 32, she left and headed to Korea and China. Returning, she set up as an editor and writer, published travel articles and book reviews in the Globe and Mail, and researched the idea of a travel magazine. Then she met Amy, and AWOL: Tales for Travel-Inspired Minds was born.

She enjoyed living in Canada, but after a decade felt drawn to Europe again. She and her partner currently live in Montpellier, a lively and historic university town in southwest France. Email allows her to continue assessing and editing manuscripts in English from Canada, the U.K. and elsewhere. The country and sea are easy to reach. ?It's great to be in love with where you live.?

Born in 1972, Amy Logan says it was excellent growing up in Bowmanville, Ontario, where her ?family is loving, incredible friends were abundant, the schools encouraged creativity, and summer jobs like strawberry-picking and working at the local marina made life even more interesting.? She moved to Montreal in 1990 to attend McGill University, and her original plan was a B.A. majoring in political science, followed by law school. She enjoyed university and completed the degree, but once the LSAT time came around, law was no longer of interest.

She soon found herself on a plane to Japan, where she lived for eighteen months on the island of Shikoku: a palm- and orange-treed place largely known to the Japanese as ?the sticks.? She met wonderful people and filled journal after journal. Her favourite memories include standing transfixed at the edge of a volcano with friends yelling ?Amy, no!? and road-tripping around Kyushu with three Japanese friends in a tiny, doily-laden car. Japan is also where she learned to love mountains.

On a flight layover on her way home from Japan Amy took one look at Vancouver and cancelled her plans to move to London, England. She lived in Vancouver for three years, working at a newspaper, in a marketing department, and finally a publishing house called Hartley & Marks. She found her niche working in books and hasn't left since.

Now based in Toronto, Amy works full-time for the International Festival of Authors and the Harbourfront Reading Series. Prior to that, she worked with ECW Press. She edits and writes on her nights and weekends, and has two passports, Canadian and British, which she tries to use as much as possible.