I am a 28-year-old writer and editor with a passion for online news and magazine feature writing. I grew up in southern Ontario and formally studied writing at Toronto’s Ryerson University. I graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism (specialty in magazine) in April 2004, and moved to Hanoi, Vietnam, in September of that year.
In Vietnam I worked as the primary editor of a monthly tourist magazine titled Outlook, and also as a news editor at the national English-language daily, Viet Nam News.
After two years of living and working in Hanoi, I decided to move to Bangkok, Thailand in early September 2006. There I accepted a position as assistant editor at Asia News Network and its weekly news magazine, AsiaNews. Two weeks after I started work, tanks rolled into Bangkok and the government of Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a coup d’etat. The next few months were educational and I had the chance to experience life as a journalist under martial law.
In April 2008 I signed a contract with APA Publications to write two travel guides to northern Vietnam. The first, Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City Smart Guide, was released in April 2009 and the second, Insight Guide Vietnam, was released this summer.
In July 2008 I returned to Toronto, Canada, and found work as an online editor at AOL Canada. My projects for AOL included the 2008 Holidays Guide, the launch of Love and Blueberries, the Canadian Road Trip Guide and Green News.
In July 2009 I was hired by my current employer, Reuters, as an online news editor for their U.S. and UK editions, and I work from their Toronto newsroom.
Contact me at aviva at avivawest dot com.