Alison Bate (Ali) is an experienced writer and former journalist based in Vancouver, Canada.
She worked at The Vancouver Sun for nine years and beforehand on newspapers in England. Her previous lives include delivering milk, writing reports on roundabout safety, teaching sailing and English, and editing two shipping magazines.
While traveling across the Pacific on a containership, she recorded a radio documentary “Sailing to Shanghai” for CBC Radio’s Outfront. Meanwhile in Hanoi, she worked as language editor for VTV4, Vietnam’s state TV station. Her freelance writing has also appeared in Reader’s Digest Canada, Canadian Geographic, BC Business magazine, and numerous international business publications. She’s a member of Pen Canada and the Federation of British Columbia Writers.
Ali’s originally from Somerset, England but immigrated to Canada to enjoy the outdoor life, especially biking, kayaking and sailing. A traveller at heart, Ali left her comfortable life in Canada to teach in Urumqi, northwest China, then in Sudan and finally Vietnam, where she completed three contracts.
She earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia in May 2026 and is currently writing a memoir about her time in Urumqi, Xinjiang.
Here are a few links to her most popular work on this website:
Kyle Washington: The Prince of Tides
Escape from the 91st Floor (9/11)
Teaching in Sudan’s Muslim World
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