Yasmin John-Thorpe
Literacy Award Winner/Author/Founder
Yasmin John-Thorpe lives in British Columbia, Canada, and is a children’s author, fiction and non-fiction writer and mentor to writers. In 1994, with the help of four writers, she co-founded the Penticton Writers and Publishers, a local group of writers helping writers.
In 1998, MacMillan Publishers of London, England, published two of Yasmin’s stories in a school reader. In 2004, she had one of her stories published by Glaxo/Smith/Kline for children at Caribbean Hospitals. This story was later used during the Covid-19 Pandemic by a local Caribbean Comedienne, Auntie Nikki, to raise funds to purchase laptops for schools and students without a way to communicate.
In 2010, Yasmin trekked El Camino de Santiago de Compostella in Southern France to Northern Spain (500 miles), to raise funds for the Raise a Reader program. From 2007 to 2016 Yasmin organized and ran the South Okanagan Raise a Reader Program, which saw multiple published authors and their books visit local schools. The RAR program purchased and gifted a copy of each book for every student.
After hosting several creative writing contests for young Okanagan Valley writers, Yasmin also hosted, from 2008 to 2016, the British Columbia Youth Writers Camp for 8 – 18 year old writers, which was held the first week of July annually, at the Penticton Campus of Okanagan College.
Yasmin has received several awards honoring her work with youths and literacy.
After retiring from numerous literacy programs, Yasmin now spends her winters in Southern Arizona, where she continues to pursue writing. She has released the Sonoran Desert animals series (9 books). Yasmin has also written several middle school chapter books and adult romances.
Before the pandemic, Yasmin visited Southern Arizona area schools during Career Week, and she read her books to the students during Reading Week! In 2018, Yasmin joined Cheryl Anthony, to create books to assist students with dyslexia. The First Decodable ABC Activity Book was inspired by the need to assist these students, during the endless lockdowns of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
You can learn more about Yasmin and her children’s books at www.yasminjohnthorpe.com
Yasmin’s books are available on Amazon – click here to find them.