Alumni Book Nook: Jennifer S. Wallace (BA’98, BEd’00)

University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Jennifer S. Wallace earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from USask’s College of Arts and Science in 1998, followed by a Bachelor of Education degree from the College of Education in 2000. A Saskatoon-based writer, author, artist, and French immersion teacher with more than 20 years of experience in education, in 2009 Wallace published her first book, When He Opened His Eyes: Gordon’s Story, a nonfiction children’s story about her firstborn child.

Wallace’s latest book is Miss G and Me, published by DriverWorks Ink. The nonfiction book tells the story of Wallace’s mother, Ruth Williamson, who was born in Jamaica, travelled to England for nursing training, and then moved to Canada and began working in rural Saskatchewan. In 1971, Williamson married Ian MacLeod in Saskatoon, and the book explores Williamson’s experiences of blending cultures as a Black woman on the Prairies in the 1970s and the progression of her nursing career, which spanned four decades.

Earlier this year, the Government of Saskatchewan declared April 2024 as One Book One Province Month in Saskatchewan, and Miss G and Me was chosen as the book selection. The One Book One Province program encourages readers, book clubs, and libraries across Saskatchewan to unite in reading a book and in sharing discussions about the story.

It tells the story of my mother who left her home in Jamaica at 17 to train and become a nurse and midwife in the U.K. She came to Canada in the late ’60s, when a job offer for an RN came up in Weyburn, Saskatchewan.

My mother inspired me; she showed tenacity and resilience in a time when she didn’t see much representation of herself on the Prairies.

Yes. When I was 22, I took a creative writing in education course that started the process. We read “A Letter to My Mother.”

Heartfelt, lyrical, warm, non-linear, and engaging.

It has won third place in the John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award (non-fiction) in 2020. I was awarded a publishing grant from Creative Saskatchewan in 2022. It was chosen for One Book One Province by the Saskatchewan Library Association for 2024.