In this episode Mark interviews Nadine Williams, a storyteller, a writer, a poet, keynote speaker and entrepreneur.

Prior to the interview Mark shares some recent personal comments, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation, Mark and Nadine talk about:

• How being a writer, speaker, and poet was something that Nadine stumbled upon after life threw her some curve balls
• The way that writing became therapy
• Nadine's career in construction and a trade show encounter that led to her first published article
• The idea of a book being the result of the marriage between a writer and her pen
• Nadine's use of the term "tears to ink" to describe the earliest therapeutic writing she had done
• The early reading Nadine did as a child, and the oral storytelling tradition she grew up with
• The experience of opening up for a talk that Michelle Obama did in Toronto in 2017
• The poem "Us Women" that Nadine read for the Obama event, which was originally the poem "Us Africans" that she re-adapted
• A custom line thrown in to page homage to Michelle Obama specifically
• What Nadine learned from an error made at that event
• The art of performance poetry and how all of Nadine's writing has that element of performance
• The way that an entire poem can come from a single word
• The significant event that led Nadine into speaking at libraries and schools
• The art installations and nominations that Nadine was involved in
• Advice that Nadine would offer to beginning writers
• Some of the issues we have in Canada related to intolerance and people not being aware of their prejudices and biases
• Nadine's 2021 Black History Month Theme - "Nurturing Hope through Allyship"
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on Nadine's ability to adapt and re-adapt both creatively and in an entrepreneurial way.

Links of Interest

• Nadine Williams Website
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
• Black History Organizations & Resources
• EP 175 - ScribeCount
• EP 133 - Anatomy of a Rebel with Sacha Black
• EP 155 - Rebel Reflections with Guest Host Sacha Black
• EP 163 - Getting a Creative Edge with Mickey Mikkelson
• The Indy Author Podcast - EP 063 - Wide for the Win with Mark Leslie Lefebvre
• Rebel Author Podcast EP - 71
• Findaway Voices
  • 7 Audiobook Trends for Authors to Watch in 2021
• Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
• Nano-Chameleon Parody Video
• Wide for the Win
• Wide Writer Survey
• Wide for the Win Submission Form
• Patreon for Stark Reflections

Nadine Williams is an avid child reader, turned wordsmith, turned working Artist. She is a storyteller, a writer, a poet, an arts educator, a Keynote Speaker and host workshop Facilitator, a visual artist, and entrepreneur.

Nadine is the author of the books The Culmination of Marriage Between Me and My Pen, Love Rocks, With This Pen I Do Tell, and Pen on Fyah.