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Bio

Alison is most alive when dancing, but she also thrives while telling stories, laughing, singing with her head thrown back, hiking escarpments, cooking over an open fire, snuggling with her guys, performing her one-woman extravaganzas, doing yoga in the snow, doing absolutely nothing, and writing. She blooms in the mountains of central Mexico and aspires to someday embody a magenta bougainvillea in all of its scintillating and ever-flowering splendour.

SHORT BIO:

Alison Wearing is the author of the internationally acclaimed travel memoir Honeymoon in Purdah – an Iranian journey and the writer/performer of two award-winning one-woman plays. Alison is also a touring musician. She is currently at work on a memoir about growing up with a gay father.

DETAILED BIOGRAPHY:

Born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Alison Wearing has spent most of the last decade in central Mexico and she continues to divide her time between Tepoztlán and Stratford (Ontario, Canada), where she lives with her partner and son.

A wanderer since the age of seventeen, Alison has travelled and lived throughout Europe, Israel, the Occupied Territories, the former Soviet Union, China, Thailand, and the Amazonian regions of Ecuador and Peru. Her 1995 travels through the Middle East resulted in the internationally bestselling memoir Honeymoon in Purdah – an Iranian journey (Vintage Canada).

Alison’s writing has been awarded a National Magazine Award Gold Medal, a Western Canada Magazine Award 1st Prize, has been a finalist for the Journey Prize, and has appeared in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Queen’s Quarterly, BorderCrossings, Geist, Canadian Forum, enRoute, ascent and Shambhala Sun, as well as in the Dropped Threads, AWOL, and Journey Prize Anthologies.

Since 2001, much of Alison’s energy has been devoted to performing and recording music. She appears on the CDs Hole in the Sky, Rites of Passage and What is Your Dream? with world/folk musician Jarmo Jalava and has participated in the North American tours of those CDs as a vocalist and percussionist, playing concerts across Canada, the United States and Mexico.

A devotee of yoga for more than twenty years, Alison leads yoga journeys/retreats in Mexico, as well as yoga, dance, writing & meditation workshops in Mexico and Canada.

Giving Into Light marked Alison’s debut as a playwright and monologue performer. The script was drawn from a full-length manuscript, which looks forward to being born in book form soon. A screenplay adaptation is also underway.

Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter is Alison’s most recent project. She premiered the monologue in March 2011 and a Spring 2012 tour is being planned for Canada and the US. When not performing, Alison is at work completing the book of the same title. And doing yoga whenever she can.

  • Alison Wearing

  • Alison is a writer and performer. Her one-woman plays have won awards across the country and her travel memoir, Honeymoon in Purdah - an Iranian journey, became an international bestseller. Alison performs in theatre festivals, concerts and literary events across North America, leads yoga retreats in Mexico, and offers writing, performance and dance workshops by invitation. She is based in Stratford, Ontario.

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