My name is Wendy Bancroft and I’ve been helping people tell their stories for over 30 years. Okay, fine, 40 years. I love hearing stories. I loved it as a journalist; I loved it as a researcher; and I loved it as a video story producer.
As a journalist and story producer, I’ve worked for CBC Television Current Affairs in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver. Most recently, I owned my own video production company, it’s about us productions. Examples of my work as a film producer and videographer can be seen on Vimeo.
As a writer and editor, my work has included being lead author of UBCM: The First Century, a book chronicling the Union of BC Municipalities 100th anniversary. I also provided a structural edit for the book, In Praise of Strong Women, by psychiatrist, David Kirkpatrick. This work included conducting hours of interviews with David to flesh out his narrative—work that I love doing. In Praise of Strong Women went on to win the Independent Publishers Award for Non-fiction.
As a researcher, I specialized in qualitative research (in-depth interviews) and designed and facilitated hundreds of focus groups for major national studies. I was privileged to do this work in the context of two national research organizations: The Angus Reid Group and Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, or SRDC. Examples of my research can be seen at SRDC (search for my name).
Since 2014, I’ve been helping others write about meaningful times in their life using Guided Autobiography. Until recently I led workshops where people shared their stories in small groups. Now my focus is helping individual writers craft memoirs and carving out time to write my own.
I hold a master's degree in political science from the University of British Columbia, and I am a member of the International Center for Life Story Innovations and Practice (University of Connecticut), the National Association of Memoir Writers, and the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies. In 2022, I was honoured to receive the James and Betty Birren Award for Excellence in Practice from the International Center for Life Story Innovations and Practice.