About edwinoak
I was born and raised in Hawaii until I was ten and later grew up in Sweden. I dropped out of school in Ninth Grade and wandered around Europe with hippies, hare krishnas, radical environmentalists, and anarchists across music festivals and alternative-living spaces. At seventeen, I travelled to India to live in a temple as a neophyte monk.
I have lived a strange and varied life.
I was homeless for a year in 2006, when I met a travelling tarot-card reader named Ed Rowe. He was a science teacher who taught kids placed by the courts in Schenectady, New York. He was a kind man who would listen to anyone who needed help or advice. Even though he travelled a lot, Ed would keep coming back to the same place for several years. You could say he lived in Charlottesville, Virginia. I got to know Ed as a close friend and somewhat as a mentor, especially during my time living in a tent next to his for almost six months. Unfortunately, Ed passed away in 2009, leaving behind a travelling biography that can be read online: http://www.scribd.com/doc/3964249/Ed-Rowe-Travel-Biography
Meeting him became a seminal turning point in my life.
Since then, I have found my own path to writing. I completed my A.S. at a local community college in Virginia and attended the University of Oxford's Creative Writing Summer Programme in 2010.
Lately, it has been a challenging and rewarding few years.
I am now working 9-5 as an archivist - basically, a glorified librarian position. I also get to feel like a spy; scouring documents for valuable information. Still, I am searching for a better engagement that involves more of my passion for writing.
Like my friend Ed used to say, "Everything works out. Just not always in the way you expected it to."
I have to admit, life is good.
