Heather Taylor

Heather Taylor (born 9 September 1977 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) is a Canadian poet, writer, filmmaker, and social media and community specialist whose work has been produced throughout Europe, Asia, Australia & North America. She has been a host on Resonance FM & Sound Radio with guest slots on CBC, CKUA (Edmonton), CKUF (Victoria) & BBC London Radio. Her writing includes poetry, short stories, journalism (web and print), plays and films. Her collections include Horizon & Back (Tall Lighthouse, UK, 2005) and Sick Day Afternoons (Treci Trg, Serbia, 2009).

Poetry and Performance

She studied music, acting and writing in western Canada. After working on over 30 film and theatre productions both onstage and off, Heather began performing her own solo work in Vancouver. Since arriving in the UK, she has been a featured performer at events/ venues including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Borders, Poetry Café, Book Slam, RADA, Camberwell Arts Festival, Harrow Festival, Runnymede International Literature Festival, and Glastonbury Festival. She has also performed at the Arnolfini Gallery (Bristol) and Guardian Newsroom as part of the Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa project and has been a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen since 2006.

From 2005-2007, Heather toured the 2-woman poetry and music show, Accents on Words with Aoife Mannix. It was launched at the Poetry Café in London in November 2005 and has since been performed at a number of venues, including The British Library with BBC Radio London, BAC with Apples and Snakes, The Aran Islands (Ireland) and India with the British Council for Mumbai Poetry Live. In December 2007, Heather Taylor took part in first Belgrade International Poetry festival "Beogradski Trg".

Writing for Stage and Screen

As a playwright, her work has been seen at the Tricycle, Soho Theatre, Greenwich, the Pleasance, & Theatre 503 in London as well as New Place in St. Albans, G12 in Glasgow as part of the NewWriting NewWorlds Festival and various venues in Canada. She graduated with an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from City University in 2009 and her first feature film, The Last Thakur, premiered at the London Film Festival 2008. The short documentary, Wild West Dream, she produced and co-directed through Red on Black Productions was at the Atlantic Film Festival and the Edmonton International Film Festival in 2009. Heather is working toward turning the short into an hour long television documentary with Free @ Last TV.

Social Media

Heather is actively working towards creating projects that combine creativity and technology and will be joining the BBC as Corporate Community Manager in March, 2011. She was the former social media and PR manager for giffgaff and the former editor and filmmaker for PayPal’s social media and consumer advocacy site, Let’s Talk. While in that role, in addition to PayPal related topics, she regularly produced video interviews with experts in mobile, finance, social media and web development, to help consumers use PayPal and the internet better. She also featured merchants and individuals who use PayPal to find out how it works for them.

She has been a speaker at Reputation Online Live, Media Camp London, Social Media in Business, a roundtable discussion on Customer Service for National Complaints Day and unGeeked Elite Retreat in Toronto. Heather has also run training courses attended by companies including PayPal, Disney, Eurostar, Pepsi, Associated Press, Digital White and Unison.

Work as an educator

As an educator, Heather has worked in schools (primary and secondary), community groups, prisons and with businesses developing creativity through writing and performance. Her approach is to bring a hands-on and interactive format to her work which includes the morphing of different art forms in order to teach one area which could include technology drama, music, art, writing and social issues. Past projects include poetry and performance with the BlackFriars Settlement (girls aged 11- 16) and Women’s Library, performances and writing projects in London and South-East England primary and secondary schools, the Deptford Identity Project (Artefacts Edutainment) with refugees, lone parents and pensioners, pre-school aged puppetry as part of the Oxfam festival, and historical drama/ writing workshops at Hampton Court Palace for primary/secondary level. Heather also has her TESOL Certification to teach children English as a second language.

Poetry Collections

• Sick Day Afternoons (Popodnevna Bolovanja) (2009), ISBN 8-686337-29-0
• Horizon and Back (2005), ISBN 1-904551-17-3
• She Never Talks of Strangers (2003), a chapbook, ISBN 1-904551-07-6.

Films

• Wild West Dream at the Internet Movie Database
• The Last Thakur at the Internet Movie Database

Anthologies

• A View from the Lighthouse (2009), ISBN 1-904661-70-6
• City Lighthouse (2009), ISBN 1-904551-58-4
• Storm Between Fingers (2007), ISBN 1-905233-13-2
• His Rib (2007), ISBN 0-9789695-2-9
• This Poem Is Sponsored By... (2007), ISBN 0-9553431-1-9
• Malika's Poetry Kitchen's Handmade Fire (2006), ISBN 1-905233-10-8
• Future Welcome: The Moosehead Anthology X (2005), ISBN 1-897190-06-9
• Dance the Guns to Silence : 100 poems for Ken Saro-Wiwa (2005), ISBN 1-905233-01-9
• Audition Arsenal for Women in Their 20s: 101 Monologues by Type, 2 Minutes & Under (2005), ISBN 1-57525-396-8
• Tall-lighthouse Poetry Review (2004), ISBN 1-904551-19-X
• In the Criminal's Cabinet (2004), ISBN 0-9546268-1-8
• Teen Angst: A Celebration of Really Bad Poetry (2005), ISBN 0-312-33474-5

External links

• Official Website
• Tall Lighthouse Books
• Heather Taylor at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC
• Let's Talk PayPal
• Acting CV (as Heather Arness)
• Plays by Heather Taylor listed on Doollee Playwright's Database
• Technology for Marketing & Advertising - Day 1
• giffgaff - showing us the future, Headstream
• Tips for managing an online community
• Digital Surrey, giffgaff and a model for a community powered business
• Communities – Legacy Platforms And Structures Can Hamper Community Building
• Social Media Week in Review, Gorkanapr
• Extended podcast from the Fonecast with Heather Taylor, 28th January 2011
• Social Recruiting Conference Feedback
• The Positive Cult of giffgaff, the Fonecast
• Giffgaff proves communities respond to being rewarded, New Media Age
• First step when building online community is weighing up customer desire, New Media Age
• Geeks Speak: The social media machine, IT in Canada
• Transcripts of Foviance Customer Service roundtable discussion [PDF, Fovience]
• Article on National Complaints Day discussions, MyCustomer.com
• Social Media Workshop Success, Digital White
• Community Relations, Redcatco
• Social Media in Business Conference, Social Recruiter
• Recording of Heather Taylor's talk at SMIB10, PCM Creative
• The Media Coach – 28th May 2010 interview, The Media Coach Radio Show
• Heather Taylor returns to E-Town for EIFF, The Gateway
• Hometown advantage, The Edmonton Journal
• The Last Thakur review, Telegraph
• Review: The Turner Plays At Camden Fringe, Londonist
• London Theatre Guide Review of Hostage/ Bleach/ Burn, London Theatre Guide
• Metaroar review : Hostage/ Bleach/ Burn, Metaroar
• Londonist Review: Hostage/ Bleach / Burn, Londonist
• Writers on Writing: Heather Taylor, Writers on Writing, Issue # 10
• Accents on Words : Lewisham Library, Edit Red
• Stand up for your Writes, Metro
• Wolf Review: She Never Talks of Strangers, The Wolf, Issue 6