I’m the author of The Haunting of Vancouver Island and have been published in Nelson’s Canadian Corrections textbook, Times Colonist, and several other publications online and in print. I’m a Folklore Thursday host on Twitter every week.
I have a degree in Creative Writing from Vancouver Island University where I was given the Barry Broadfoot Award for Journalism and the Gisele Merlet Creative Writing Award.
My focus at VIU was on First Nations topics, which included Elder teachings, field school at the University of Fairbanks in Alaska (learning Indigenous oral history recording guidelines) and as an intern for Snuneymuxw Elder in Residence Geraldine Manson. I’m most interested in Indigenous ghost and spirit stories: their own and colonial fakelore (e.g. naming of Forbidden Plateau, regalia trope ghosts, and burial ground urban legends).
I am a veteran and cancer survivor. Nerve damage from chemo left me with permanent non-visible disabilities (peripheral neuropathy, scarred lungs) I deal with to this day.
Q & A with Shanon Sinn – Joshua Gillingham
Talking to Shanon Sinn on the writing of “The Haunting of Vancouver Island” by Ed Sum, Otaku No Culture
Spaced Out Radio: Ghosts of the Great White North with Shanon Sinn
Some Other Sphere podcast – Shanon Sinn
A few other podcast and film interviews