
I write
Fiction + Creative Non-Fiction + Content for clients & media
I write about
being a late bloomer books cults dogs family fashion flash fiction girlhood hippies kids memoir memory my strange childhood places I've worked politics reading Red Star Tattoo relationships revolutionaries secrets sisters talking to strangers tattoo the Downtown Eastside Vancouver work writing

Red Star Tattoo My Life as Girl Revolutionary won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, Shortlisted for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston award for Creative Non-Fiction
and was named one of the Best Books of the year list 2016 by National Post | CBC Books | Now Magazine
“I picked up the book in an afternoon and – each page turned in steady anticipation – did not put it down until I was finished.” Globe and Mail
Press for Red Star Tattoo
Other writing projects
- Winner of the Sub-Terrain Lush Triumphant non-fiction 2018
- Creative Non-fiction Society 2019 long list
- Geist postcard contest shortlist
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ICSA Meet the author interview
I am sometimes cautious about who I use the word ‘cult’ around when I talk about my past since I think it can get interpreted to mean ‘one who believes and works towards big ideas’ and […]
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My tattoo story
Red Star Tattoo, the title of my memoir comes from the time I spent as a teenage radical. Some of the founding members inside the secret revolutionary organization I’d joined had home-made red star tattoos. And […]
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Radio & Podcasts
CBC On the Coast Radio Interview January 11 2016 RoundHouse Radio Interview January 12 2016 CJOB 680 Radio Interview January 14 2016 Sirius FM The Charles Ader Show January 14 2016 CJAD 800 Radio Interview January […]
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Video Interviews
Global morning Monday February 1st 2016 TVO The Agenda
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BBC Interview
Asked to prove my loyalty with murder BBC News Outlook
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Red Star Tattoo wins 2017 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
“As is the case with lives themselves, all memoirs are unique, but this seems especially true of Sonja Larsen’s Red Star Tattoo: My Life as a Girl Revolutionary,” said Bruce Gillespie, an award juror and professor in Wilfrid […]
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Press & Reviews for Red Star Tattoo
Reviews: Metro News – Sonja Larsen pens memoir about being a teenage revolutionary – January 12 2016“…For Sonja Larsen, rebellion meant joining a radical left-wing political party and becoming the youngest member of its militia, an […]
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Red Star Tattoo nominated for 2017 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Ficton
Finalists for 2017 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction http://www.cbc.ca/books/duncan-mccue-rajiv-surendra-sonja-larsen-nominated-for-edna-staebler-award-1.4292391
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When does the revolution begin?
Thirty-three years ago today the second American revolution was supposed to begin. I sometimes wonder if it was all an elaborate joke the Old Man (aka Gerald Dodein aka Gino Perente) played on us. Setting a […]