The daughter of missionaries, Tama got her start in stories sitting around a cooking fire inside a mud-and-thatched hut in the mist-shrouded highlands of central Kenya listening to the tales of Kikuyu elders.

Back in Canada she completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature and anthropology at Trent University, then pursued a masters at McMaster Divinity College.

In 1994 Tama 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, 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 flat in the historic town of New Westminster with her husband, Loren Balisky, and their two university-aged children, Abigail and Oliver. On a clear day if she stands on her tiptoes and peers through the concrete jungle off her south-facing balcony she can glimpse the river that divides her town in two.