Stories of people doing great things.

Donna Kakonge

I started writing seriously at the age of seven. My grade two teacher, Mrs. Chen, had the whole class keep a journal. I wrote a story about dinosaurs that Mrs. Chen deemed “outstanding.” Ever since then, I have been hooked. I went to journalism school at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where I graduated with the Marjorie Nichols Award for being the graduating student with the most promise of becoming an exceptional journalist. The monetary donation came from Pamela Wallin. I have also been nominated for a Gemini Award for work done with the Discovery Channel and have been part of a W Network project “Tell it Like it Is” that won a Hugo Award. I worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Radio Canada International (RCI) on and off for 14 years at the local, national and international levels of both television and radio. I have also worked for the Discovery Channel and Discovery Channel International, Vision TV, the BBC and various publications around the world. My education continued with a Master of Arts in Media Studies/Communications from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. My thesis was on the politics of black hair. I have written many books that can be found on this site. I have also edited Being Healthy: Selected Works from the Internet and have a CD called “Nine” of radio documentaries done with the CBC and RCI and How to Write Creative Non-fiction is published by Lulu and is available for international distribution on websites such as Amazon.com. I can speak both French and English, a bit of Italian and Spanish, and Mandarin and Greek when my head is in outer space. I have received a Quebecor Documentary Fellowship from DOC Toronto. I teach at many schools in Toronto. My subject areas are writing and broadcast. I truly believe that "with knowledge, equality thrives, that information is critical and that everything is a story." I hope you enjoy this site.