Shelly sanders biography

Shelly Sanders (born 17 July 1964) is a Canadian journalist and novelist writing in English.
Shelly Sanders has her feet planted in both Canada and the U.S., having been born in Toronto, Ontario and raised in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.
Shelly Sanders is a Canadian journalist and novelist writing in English.

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Alum and author Shelly Sanders intertwines Latvian family history and fiction in "Daughters of the Occupation"

While Shelly Sanders (external link) , ‘88, was going through old family photos from her grandmother, she found some had ‘Dvinsk’ written on them, now known as Daugavpils in Latvia.

No one in her family talked about Latvia in their family history. Sanders was told by her mother that her grandmother never mentioned Latvia.

This is where Sanders’ idea for "Daughters of the Occupation" (external link) began. After doing more research through a Jewish genealogy site, she discovered that her great-grandparents were actually married in Riga, Latvia, and, in 1905 they were exiled to Siberia for being involved in the workers' revolution.

“I went to Latvia for the first time and met with the curator of the Jewish Museum in Riga. I had sent him family information ahead of time, and he was the one who told me that my great grandparents were exiled for the revolution and filled me in with some other information,” Sanders said.

Sending informa

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When I was eighteen, I discovered that my grandmother had been Jewish, but had given up her faith after escaping a Russian pogrom. I wanted to ask Nana about her experiences, but she'd died five years earlier. I was sad that this information was withheld from me; I'd always envied religious people, and felt as if I'd missed out on something. When I became a mother, years later, the need to learn more about my grandmother flourished. From Nana's sister, I found out that their family left Russia when fires were set in their village. They fled to Shanghai. After high school, Nana worked for a couple of years, and learned English. Then, she went alone by ship to California, worked as a nanny and completed a science degree in 1930 from the University of California, at Berkley. My grandmother gave up her Judaism when she met my grandfather. They settled in Montreal where Jews were not welcome. I wondered if Nana ever regretted her decision, was impressed by the forward-thinking woman she'd been, and had to know more about what life would have been like in pre-re

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Shelly Sanders

Canadian author and journalist

Shelly Sanders (born 17 July 1964) is a Canadianjournalist and novelist writing in English.

Early life and education

Sanders was born Shelly Ann Sanders in Toronto, Ontario. Her father, Richard Eric Sanders, worked in advertising, and her mother, Ann Louise Sanders (née Geary), was a schoolteacher. When Sanders was eight, the family, which included her younger brother and sister, moved to Rolling Meadows, Illinois where her father took a job in wallpaper sales. Sanders attended Willow Bend School, Central Road School and Carl Sandburg Junior High before moving back to Canada where she went to high school. The family settled in Waterloo, Ontario and Sanders worked at Dairy Queen, and was a lifeguard with the City of Waterloo. Sanders graduated from the University of Waterloo^[1] in 1986 with an honors degree in English. She then attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) where she obtained a graduate degree in journalism in 1988.^[2]

Career

Sanders began h