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Barbara Florio Graham
is a writer, teacher and communications consultant
whose clients have included 14 Canadian federal government
departments, 12 national and international organizations, 14 regional
organizations, as well as many corporate and business clients in
the U.S. and Canada. Barbara has contributed to more than
100 magazines and newspapers around the world, websites in 46
countries in 11 time zones, and more that 40 print anthologies in
five countries.
Her award-winning Christmas Story, first published by
Nelson Bros. Canada for grade seven students, has been reprinted in
high school textbooks for students learning English in Sweden,
Denmark and Norway.
In 2019, Ottawa
Independent Writers awarded Barbara First Prize for her short
story in their anthology, Twenty in Eighteen.
Barbara was the 2010 winner of the prestigious Shojai Mentoring
Award from the international Cat
Writers' Association. A description of the mentoring award is HERE,
and a profile of her on the Writers-Editors Network is HERE.
Testimonials from those she has mentored are HERE.
A graduate of Barnard College
(Columbia University), Barbara majored in English with
specializations in theatre and writing along with a minor in music.
She received her broadcast training at NBC in New York, and taught at
two prestigious private schools in the United States, the Calhoun
School in New York City and The
Latin School of Chicago. While in Chicago she took post-graduate
courses in psychology at the University of Chicago. |
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She currently serves as an officer of the Barnard Class of 1956,
writing Class Notes for Barnard Magazine.
After moving to Canada in 1967, Barbara continued a freelance
career that she had begun, part-time, much earlier.
Bobbi was a successful freelancer for newspapers and magazines
when she wrote her first book. Five Fast
Steps to Better Writing was launched
at Ottawa City Hall in February, 1995. The 20th anniversary edition
was published in 2005. |
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First published at the age of nine, she won a Regional Award in the
National Scholastics Writing Awards for a short story she wrote
while a freshman in high school.
She freelanced part time for various organizations during her
career as a teacher and public relations director.
Five Fast Steps to Low-Cost Publicity
grew out of a demand from non-profit organizations to put Bobbi's
popular workshops into book form. It was cited as the reason for the
Communicator of the Year award given to Bobbi in 1990 by the Ottawa
chapter of the International
Association of Business Communicators. The book first appeared in
1987, has been revised twice, and has had multiple printings.
Mewsings/Musings, a compilation
of award-winning humor by Barbara Florio Graham and Simon Teakettle,
won an Award of Excellence in the Cat Writers' Association's
international contest in 2001 |
HOW BOBBI GOT HER NICKNAME
When
Carl & Jean Florio were expecting their third child, they were
sure this time they'd have a boy.
Jean
didn't want to name a son after one of Carl's brothers, because that
tradition in the Florio family had produced lots of confusion. Over
the years, there were two Bill Florios, a Tony, a Nathan, a John, a
Carlo and a Carl, all named in honor of the children's uncles.
She
came up with the perfect solution. Their little boy would be called
Robert: a nice Italian first name but not yet in the extended Florio
family. They began to refer to the little baby to come as
"Bobby." So when the expected boy turned out to be a girl,
there was a hasty change in plan. Her name would be Barbara, but she
would always be called Bobbi by friends and family. |
Bobbi served as Managing Editor for Prose
to Go: Tales from a Private List, which was published by Bridgeross
in 2011. A collection of 34 personal essays from 18 members of the
Private List Bobbi formed in 2007, this book was edited by Irene
Davis, with Fred Desjardins serving as Aquisitions Editor.
A "book shepherd" for the late self-publishing guru Dan
Poynter, Bobbi continues to mentoring authors who found her via
her website or from friends.
She has been a regular contributor to Freelance
Writer's Report and SCRIBE
(the newsletter for newsletter editors) for many years, and has also
become a regular contributor to the SPAWN
newsletter, and to The Byline, the newsletter from the National
Capital Region of the Canadian Authors' Association.
Barbara handled public relations contracts for a number of US and
Canadian organizations, including First Aid to Hungary in New York,
the Oakdale Musical Theatre in Connecticut, the Illinois Society of
Certified Public Accountants, the Christmas Exchange of
Ottawa-Carleton, the Canadian Square & Round Dance Society, the
Ottawa YM-YWCA, Medica Publishing, and the Canadian Association of
University Teachers.
Often, writing and public relations have been combined, as in
contracts for Law Enforcement Supply Company (Florida),
The Versailles Group Ltd. (Boston), and the Catholic Health
Association of Canada.
A member of the founding board of the Macdonald Club in Ottawa
(established 1978), Barbara has also served on the boards of the
Canadian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the
National Cultural Sector Training Committee, and the Cultural Human
Resources Council.
Barbara was a member of the
Professional Writers Association of Canada (formerly the
Periodical Writers Association of Canada) for 29 years. She served as
President of the Ottawa Chapter, and founded and chaired the
Mentoring Committee. Barbara received one of PWAC's first Outstanding
Service Awards in 1992.
She is also a founding member of the Cat
Writers' Association, and became a Life Member of Ottawa
Independent Writers just before their 30th anniversary. She is
also affiliated wth the Media
Club (formerly the Canadian Women's Press Club) and Canadian
Association of Journalists.
Barbara has taught seminars and workshops in writing, media
relations, public speaking and creativity for two of Ottawa's largest
consulting companies, Lemmex & Associates and Performance
Management Consultants, and has also served on the faculty of The WritingSchool.com.
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Bobbi's photos appear in the
2013 calendar produced for
Ottawa Photo and the new
Perpetual Calendar.
Simon Teakettle's blog
See the Media Room for
the latest news. |
In 2011, Barnard College produced
a book honoring
Millicent C. McIntosh,
the ground-breaking first
President of the College.
Bobbi (class of 1956) is among just 17 students whose memories
were selected for this compilation.
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Using Fido To Clinch The Sale appeared in U.S.
Business Week, quoting publicity expert Joan Stewart, who cited
Simon Teakettle as the cat who owns the company.
This has been on NBC websites in Seattle,
Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, New York City, San
Francisco, and Hartford, CT. |
First
Prize: OIW Short Story Contest in 2019
SPAWN
life membership awarded in 2015
OIW
Life
Membership awarded in 2014
Shojai
Mentoring Award, 2010
Featured
author at Writers-Editors Network
Interview
on Alastair Luft's blog, 2017
Interview
in WOT Magazine, January/February 2011
Bobbi explains what publishing consultants do in a podcast
posted at: http://www.shareddreamspodcast.com/
Profile of Simon Teakettle and Bobbi in 55 Plus.Go
to: http://www.fifty-five-plus.com/
and look in the Archives for the Ottawa/Kingston edition of the
October, 2010, issue. This article was also mentioned in the blog/newsletter
of The Publicity Hound,
as an example of using a specific angle to garner publicity.
Bobbi replied to a series of questions on creativity for a popular
blogger, and her answers appear HERE.
2006 Profile
by Kate Aley in the West Quebec Post
THE FLORIO CONNECTION
Bobbi's
grandfather, Giacamo Florio
