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Allen W. Wright
More photos of me. Hmmmmm..... where to begin? How about the beginning? I was born on May 5, 1970 in Hamilton, Ontario (that's in Canada, eh?). Or so my parents tell me. I honestly can't remember being born, and so I'll just have to trust them on this one. I live in Toronto, Ontario. It's a nice city -- home of the world's tallest free standing phallic symbol. Over the years, I have held a variety of jobs. I have recently finished a short-term contract as a media librarian at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC. I am most interested in journalism and library jobs. In my spare time, I have done some freelance writing. Please click here to see my resume.But a lot of my spare time, passion and sense of self-worth goes into this website. The Robin Hood section of my website has won various cool site awards from sites such as The Open Directory Project and Britannica.com. I have presented papers on the Robin Hood legend at several academic conferences, and have also assisted both radio and television documentaries on the subject. I have made many friends at these conferences. I have two university degrees to decorate my walls. My first is an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History and English from McMaster University. My second is a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism from Ryerson Polytechnic University. BA, BAA. Sounds a bit like a sheep, doesn't it? And as one can never have enough wall decoration, I'm currently taking the Librarian and Information Technician programme online through Mohawk College. I have a variety of interests including history, science, politics, journalism, literature, science fiction, fantasy and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I'm also an avid comic book fan. Among my all-time favourite comics are The Sandman, Green Arrow, Starman, and the Big Red Cheese (and his Marvellous family). Naturally, I also like cartoons. I love both serious mature and mythological comics and animation, and nostalgic silly Golden and Silver Age stories. One of my conference papers was on the Robin Hood comics of the 1950s. Religions, myths and legends fascinate me. There's something deep within in our psyche that needs those kinds of stories. In particular, I am fond of trickster myths, Robin Hood tales and Arthurian legends. However, I don't subscribe to any one religion. There are praiseworthy things in most religions -- Christianity, Wicca, Islam, Buddhism and too many others to list. But all religions also have some elements I don't like. I am an agnostic, with some tendencies towards both pantheism and atheism -- depending on what kind of day I'm having. My musical tastes include Celtic music, classical, jazz and rock. My favourite performers are Clannad, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and that famous wethifl musician, Crackers. I've been a vegetarian since 1994, which may seem strange for a scholar of the venison-eating Robin Hood. But Joseph Ritson, the 18th century ballad-collector who defined much of our modern conception of the outlaw, was also one. I
write both fiction and non-fiction. My short stories are usually either
contemporary or historical fantasy. |
