The Author’s page has been was revised. Any authors who have not made submissions since 2025 have been eliminated. Their work can still be accessed through the pages for Local Authors, if they are/were from Greater Campbell River or qathet, or Reporters from Beyond. The following authors have all been active in the past year:
Manda Aufochs Gillespie
(articles from 2018-present)
Manda Aufochs Gillespie has a (Folk U) partnership agreement with Cortes Currents. She is a writer and of the author of the Green Mama series of books. Manda is also a mother, neighbour, and founder of Folk University (folku.ca). She has been a contributor to Cortes Currents since 2019, is host of Folk U Fridays on Cortes Radio, CKTZ 89.5 FM, and was one of the Cortes Currents producers for the Cortes Radio 2020 Local Journalism Initiative Grant. Click here to access her posts and here for articles mentioning her.
Rochelle Baker
(articles from 2018-2025)
Rochelle Baker was a staff reporter with Canada’s National Observer. She previously worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer in BC’s Lower Mainland for over 7 years and is also a former board member of the Cortes Community Radio Society. Click here to access her articles and here to access articles mentioning her.
De Clarke
(articles from 2019-present)
De Clarke is a contributor to Cortes Currents and was also one of the producers for Cortes Radio’s 2020 Local Journalism Initiative Grant. She is a sailor, photographer, retired software engineer and intermittent author who since the late 70’s has published both technical writing and essays on various topics ranging from feminism to technology and environmental issues. She has lived on Cortes since late 2011. Her motto: Show me the math. Click here to access her articles and here for articles mentioning her.
Ray Grigg
(articles from 2022-present)
Ray Grigg was a teacher in senior secondary schools of British Columbia, prior to becoming a professional writer in 1985. He is the author of numerous internationally sold books on Taoism and Zen (The Tao of Relationships, The Tao of Being, The Tao of Sailing, Zen Brushpoems, The Tao of Zen, The New Lao Tzu, The Sage’s Way, The Zen of an Earth Mythology and Zen Tzu), and The EcoTrilogy: Ecologos, Ecopathy & Ecocide. Ray also wrote the environmental column ‘Shades of Green’ in the Campbell River Courier-Islander for 15 years. You can access his articles on this website here and click here for articles mentioning him.
Roy L Hales
(articles from 2013-present)
Roy Hales is the editor of Cortes Currents, one of the former producers of the Deep Roots Initiative, and a former reporter for both Cortes Radio’s t2020 and 2021 Local Journalism Grants (LJI). He is also a former President of the Cortes Community Radio Society, where he has produced a web platform and radio program (originally called the ECOreport, now Cortes Currents) since 2014. He has had over 2,500 articles published, in print or web publications, since 1982. A large number of the latter were republished on the environmental news website Clean Technica. Roy lives at Squirrel Cove, on Cortes Island. Click here to access his articles and here for articles mentioning him.
Melissa McKinney
(Beginning 2026)
Melissa McKinney is the editor and owner of The Bird’s Eye, a Quadra–based weekly newspaper with coverage that extends across the Discovery Islands. She’s known for translating complex topics into clear, engaging stories for her community. She can also often be found working on her poetry manuscripts and other creative projects. Click here to access Click here to access The Bird’s Eye, and here to she what has been republished on Cortes Currents
Annie Smith
(2025-Present)
Annie Smith has flirted with journalism since she was the Tahsis Correspondent for the Gold River Record in the late 1970’s. Later she discovered that interviewing theatre artists for academic journals was one way to stay in the academic game while teaching in postsecondary institutions. Now living outside Campbell River, she finds events worthy of interest to Cortes Islanders. As well as being a theatre director, she teaches life writing, Indigenous theatre and Canadian women playwrights for SFU Liberal Arts & 55+. Annie is a member of the Campbell River Chapter of the Council of Canadians and the NIPR Federal Green Party. Click here for her articles and here for articles mentioning her.
Max Thaysen
(articles from 2020-present)
Max Thaysen is a contributor to Cortes Currents and one of the producers for the Cortes Radio 2020 Local Journalism Grant. He immigrated to Cortes Island from Vancouver in 2007. He has been elected to the board of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) in 2009, and served as president from 2012 until 2024. His recent submissions are from the Cortes Climate Action Network. – Click here to access his articles and here to access articles mentioning him.
Maureen Williams, ND
(articles from 2020 & 2024/25)
Maureen Williams comes to us through her associations with Folk U and, later, the Cortes Climate Action Network. She earned her doctorate in naturopathic medicine at John Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1995 and has been practicing for 22 years. She also teach community health classes and does literature-based research and writing, which keeps her current in the scientific findings regarding natural therapies. Click here to access her articles and here for articles mentioning her.