Biography / Career / Education

BIOGRAPHY

Born, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, 1968. Grew up in Toronto. Attended East York Collegiate, then University of Waterloo, then University of Toronto. Also completed the New Media Design Program at the Canadian Film Centre.

Married, 2007. Widowed, 2012. Two step-children.

The Bryson-line arrived from Ireland (Carrickfergus, County Antrim) to what is now Ontario in the 1830s on land now covered by Williams Treaty First Nations settlement with Canada.

Michael's father's mother's line arrived from England to Colonial America ~1640 and came to areas north of Lake Ontario (see Gunshot Treaty) ~1793 following the American Revolutionary War.

VISIT - Michael's father's recipe collection @ Soup Therapy

Michael's mother's family's home was in Ireland (Castlewellan, County Down); she grew up in London, England, and came to Canada as an adult.

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CAREER / EDUCATION

• Deliver flyers and Sears catalogue - 1980-81
• Shelve books at S. Walter Stewart Library - 1981-82
• Deliver drugs for Rumball's Drugmart - 1983-84
• Weekend and evening janitor at St. Clair-O'Connor seniors home - 1985-87

East York Collegiate - 1987

• Gas jockey, hole digger, warehouse worker - 1988
• Canoeing instructor, Fraser Lake Camp - 1988
• Tax return filler outer,  co-op - 1989
• Federal government co-op, Ottawa -1989
• Provincial government co-op, Toronto -1990
• Federal government co-op, Ottawa - 1991

BA, English - University of Waterloo - 1992

• Editorial Assistant, Alternatives Magazine (summer job) - 1992
• Community Development Worker, Saskatoon Community Mediation Services (contract) - 1992-94
• Editorial Assistant, Mennonite Reporter (part-time) & freelance writer (various journalism, etc.; one contract was to write daily reports of the High Level Nuclear Waste Burial Concept Proposal Environmental Assessment Hearings) - 1994-95

MA, English - University of Toronto - 1996

• Opinion survey taker (CNE, temp) - 1996
• Database researcher (updating mailing lists, temp contract; quit) - 1996
• News writer/editor (taking wire copy and making blurbs, part-time) - 1996-98
• Course pack compiler "Editorial Assistant" (a lot of photocopying, part-time) - 1996-98

New Media Design Program, Canadian Film Centre - 1999

• Legal "editor" (taking raw scan of legal decisions; cleaning it up; temp contract) - 1999
• Y2K Administrative Assistant, Ontario government (temp contract) - 1999

Thirteen Shades of Black & White published - 1999

The Danforth Review launched - 1999

• Intranet editor/writer, Ontario government (temp contract) - 2000

Only A Lower Paradise and Other Stories published - 2000

• Unemployed. Went to Pender Island, BC, to house-sit/write - Winter 2000-01
• Intranet editor/writer, Ontario government (temp contract, hired back to do essentially the same job all over again) - 2001-02
• Communications Planner, Ontario government (first full-time non-contract position) - 2002
• Progressively senior positions in communications/policy, Ontario government - 2002 to present

The Lizard and Other Stories published - 2009

The Danforth Review suspended - 2009

The Danforth Review re-started - 2011; ended - 2018