About the Author

Lorraine Thomson was born and brought up in Victoria B.C. She received a BA and an MFA from Simon Fraser University. After a career as a choreographer/dancer, a painter, and a therapist, she returned to her hometown of Victoria where she lives with her husband Michael and their cat Scarlett. This is her first book.

HalfLife: The Way of the Witness

"An irresistible read - a study in how family shapes the artistic mind, propelling it to transform trauma into something meaningful."

At once adventure, self-discovery and spiritual quest, Lorraine Thomson's memoir tracks the flight from childhood illness and trauma towards independence and equilibrium through a life in the arts. Set in Victoria, Vancouver, Paris, Indonesia, India, London and San Francisco, the journey takes us deep into the engine room of personal healing and the creative process. In this steadfast pursuit of embodied meaning, we are gently led inside to look out at the world and then outside to look inward to the soul.

Read an Excerpt

Download this PDF sampler of HalfLife.

Buy This Book

• Buy the quality paperback edition from Amazon.com (USA)
• Buy the quality paperback edition from Amazon.ca (Canada)
• Buy the ebook version from Amazon.ca
• your local bookstore can special order a copy for you through Ingram Book distributors

Reviews

• "An irresistible read... a study in how family shapes the artistic mind, propelling it to transform trauma into something meaningful."
  -- Terence Young, author of Give Us This Day
• "Lorraine Thomson's memoir is a finely detailed portrait of a life lived wide open to the liberating possibilities of the creative process, the creative moment."
  -- John Gould, author of The End of Me
• "An intimate and vivid story of coming of age through movement... mining the expressive body in both Western and Indonesian dance, integrating the worlds of embodiment, emotion and spirituality."
  -- Santa Aloi, Professor of Dance, Emerita, Simon Fraser University
• "Personally fearless and culturally illuminating, Halflife is Part One, perhaps, of a life quest shaped in equal parts by passion, willpower and the sly conspiracies of chance."
  -- Sean Virgo, author of Dibidalen and Waking in Eden