As the child of missionaries, Tama got her start in stories sitting around the fire inside a mud-and-thatched hut in the mist-shrouded highlands of central Kenya listening to Kikuyu folktales.
Back in Canada Tama completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature and anthropology at Trent University, then later pursued a master’s degree in theology at McMaster Divinity College.
In 1994 she was ordained with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and went on to serve as a preaching pastor and religious educator with the Canadian Baptists for twenty years first in Ontario, then in British Columbia.
During this time Tama founded the Eastside Story Guild, a performing arts initiative committed to the telling of stories from the Jewish and Christian scriptures.
In 2010, following her most formative spiritual guides, Tama joined the wide and storied landscape of the Catholic Church.
She currently divides her time between her writing and her work as the Minister of Children, Youth and Families at Canadian Memorial United Church on Vancouver’s westside.
Tama lives in a third-floor apartment in the historic town of New Westminster with her husband, Loren Balisky, and their two university-aged adult children, Abigail and Oliver. On a clear day if she stands on her tippy-toes off her south-facing balcony and looks beyond the concrete jungle she can catch a glimpse of the river that divides her town in two.
