Chris Kay Fraser

Chris has always been fascinated by the place where creativity and community touch.

It started in her early 20’s when she found a thin book in the basement of the library about running memoir writing groups, and realized that she could just… do it. She called up a local senior’s center to ask if she could facilitate a weekly writing circle. Seeing the participants light up when they shared their first stories, Chris was hooked.

Over the next few years she volunteered and scrambled for grant money to start creative groups of all kinds — photography with teens, poetry with Grade 4’s, documentary-making with Grade 6’s. She and a friend gathered over 100 children to paint a mural on a shipping container and then plant a veggie garden beside it. Meanwhile, she was working through an uninspired BA and making lattes to pay the bills. She was exhausted most of the time, and ended up with a major illness.

Recovering, she decided to throw herself into her passion and she applied to do a Master’s Degree in Adult Education and Community Development at the University of Toronto. There, she explored ways that creativity can be a force for community cohesion and personal change, and she turned writing workshops into an obsession, attending every one she could find, researching their logic and processes, asking anyone who had run them out for coffee to talk.

At the end she printed off a stack of colourful flyers, bought a case of thumb tacks and set out to spread the word. She’s amazed every day at the vibrant community those small seeds grew into.

One of the things Chris loves about writing is seeing the authentic, raw and delightful places written words can reach. She encourages writers to clear away their emotional blocks and write from the true heart of their stories. She strongly believes that each person knows how to write already, and that freedom, inspiration and courage are our greatest tools.

Chris identifies as queer and is especially passionate about making space for stories from the LGBTQIA+ identities that so often go unrecorded and uncelebrated.

Known for her generosity, optimism and hard work, Chris has poured her life into Firefly. She is always finding new ways to bring people together and make the world a little softer. As everyone who has been in one of her workshops knows, she adores this work, and everyone who shows up to do it.

A perfect Saturday would include earl grey tea, a long run, a good book, and cuddles with her long-time partner Ian and their sweet mutt, Marshall.