“

So, when are you going to start your Phd?”

That was the first thing people asked me after I finished my master’s of education degree several years ago–and I never knew quite how to answer them. On the one hand, it almost seemed inevitable that I should continue on the path I had started and work towards a doctorate, and yet I just didn’t feel like it. I wanted to write–with my imagination and heart, not a bibliography.  However I didn’t have the courage to say what I was really feeling until I had the good fortune to watch Camilla Gibb speak at a conference in Saskatoon on academic research. Camilla described completing a Phd in social anthropology at Oxford University and then completely turning her back on it to pursue a career in creative writing–and producing a best selling book, Sweetness in the Belly, as a result. I figured, hey, if she could do it, then so could I.

So here I am.

So thank you Camilla Gibb, you inspire me.