Acknowledgements

More than 1,000 adult learners, over many years, helped me invent the Never-Fail Writing Method. Sometimes they worked with me and sometimes they resisted me; always they made their own decisions for their own reasons. In doing so, they taught me how to teach and brought joy to my working life.

Vicki Noonan, my department head at Vancouver Island University, always found a way to say, “Yes!” when I asked her to make space (and find money) for my “unusual” ideas. Her leadership was inspiring.

Jenny Horsman’s work on learning and violence gave me a new framework for working with adult literacy learners and helped anchor my practice.

Berniece Gowan, at Calgary Learns, and Rebecca Still and Corrie Rhyasen Erdman, at Community Learning Network, created a legacy project for me and helped me wrestle the Never-Fail Method into written form for the first time ever.

Jenny Horsman, barbara findlay, Evelyn Battell, and Sheila Gilhooly read early versions of this work and gave me valuable feedback.

Emily Robinson Leclair, Ellen Rodgers, and Malinda Brewster brought my work to life in this e-Learning in a way I hardly imagined possible, with graphics and video and imagination. 

My heartfelt thanks to all.

Kate Nonesuch