Margaret Pilkey (Peggy) is a writer living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to the age of eighteen, the first half of her life included frequent moves within the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, and the latter half–her formative years–between the cities of Tokushima on Shikoku Island, Japan and Kobe, on the mainland. Like other expatriate children home schooled in early childhood, she became fluent in the language of her host country, speaking Japanese while playing with her sister and their friends in the neighbourhood. During her teenage years, she attended and graduated from Canadian Academy, an international day and boarding school in Kobe where she studied alongside students who at that time, represented twenty-four nationalities.
This international experience shaped her worldview and stoked her desire for travel and service, both of which were realized after her graduation from university when she and her husband, newly married, accepted a two-year teaching contract with CUSO (now Cuso International.) Their first posting as secondary school teachers took them to Guyana, S.A. and their second, to Jamaica.
A few years after returning to Ontario, she and her husband with their two preschool-aged boys made their home in Halifax, where her interest in other cultures continued to be enriched by long-lasting friendships formed over two decades. Over a period of twenty years, her family hosted over fifty-five ESL students from eleven different countries and the province of Quebec. As a way of preserving her memories of living overseas, her creative writing often includes one or more characters from diverse cultural backgrounds. Peggy is a member of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) and an associate member of the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP.)
M.E. Pilkey (Peggy) 