About I.M.N. Vaissi
I.M.N. Vaissi is a storyteller with a classic word nerd background in history, literature, language and education. She won an award from the Ottawa International Film Festival (now the International Film Festival of Ottawa) for her graduate scriptwriting portfolio. She recently spent several years up north, apprenticed to hundreds of students - a ruthless audience who demand that you leave out the boring bits - and now works as a copywriter, producer and voice actor in local radio.
The Land
Vaissi was born and has lived, studied, worked and dreamed on the unceded, ancestral and traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, Ojibway, Anishnabek, Coast Salish, Tahltan, and Tsáá? Ché Ne Dane Peoples, the Nations of Treaty 6 and the Métis.
She thanks them for her whole life and everything in it.
Trivia
I.M.N. Vaissi is a pen name.
She is Finnish-Canadian.
Her indirect ancestor, Maria Raunio, was one of the first female MPs elected to a national parliament. That’s her on the postcard (Girl in the Old Church of Keuruu by Akseli Gallen-Kallela).
Her aunt Tupuna Vaissi was a writer, illustrator and children’s entertainer in Finland.
She has three cats, a giant sled dog, a living room jungle, and an excellent human partner.