DIANA HAYES was born in 1955 in Toronto and has lived on both coasts of Canada. She studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria, receiving a BA and an MFA in Creative Writing. She has six published books, her most recent being This is the Moon’s Work: New and Selected Poems. Her narrative photography has been featured in galleries in coastal B.C. and commissioned for book covers. Her practice of year-round ocean swimming inspired the formation of the Salt Spring Seals in 2002. She lives on Salt Spring Island, home since 1981, with her husband Peter, ginger cat, and myriad water birds and raptors on five forested acres near Little Stevens Lake.