News and Events

Fiona McTaggart (2008 alum): on healthy moms, donuts & handmade clothing

Hi everyone! A lot has happened since I left IPS! After graduating from high school, I moved to Montreal to study English and Creative Writing at Concordia University. While living there, I worked and managed a gourmet doughnut shop, Leché Desserts, where I learned a lot about doughnut production and frying stuff! Since graduating from Concordia, I moved up to Whitehorse, Yukon with my partner Patrick, where we live in a very Yukon-y cabin in the woods.

For the last three years I’ve been working at the local women’s centre running a registered program for pregnant mums, and mums with babies up to one year old, called Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies (the Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program) first as the Support Worker, and now the Program Coordinator! Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre (the organisation where I work) is an all women-run collective – meaning we have no hierarchical structure – and has been a wonderful experience learning about working and making decisions collectively in a professional environment. (Hint: it works, and it’s amazing!)

More recently, my sister-in-law, Sarah, and I opened a pop-up doughnut shop called Sourdoughnuts (yes, they do have sourdough in them), which has been a huge success, with people lining up down the street to grab our doughnuts! (And seriously, Whitehorse is not very big.)

Also in the last year, I completed my first novel, a Young Adult fantasy book about an 11-year-old girl titled Storm Birds, and have started on the second out of what should hopefully turn into a trilogy. I’m in the process of shopping it around, and hopefully I can one day get it published!

Finally, in very very recent news, I am in the production stage of opening a handmade clothing company, named Mountain Range Vintage Reproduction, which will be selling one-of-a-kind handmade items in a wide range of sizes, all reproducing pieces and styles of the 1950s and 1960s. Check me out on Etsy in the next few months!

Fiona McTaggart
2008 Alum