Born and raised in sun-soaked South Africa, Colleen Thompson is an award-winning writer and photographer whose career spans continents, cultures, and more than 1,000 bylines. She is based between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Wilmington, North Carolina—two coastal places that continue to shape her work and worldview.

Colleen currently writes, edits, photographs, plans, sources, and develops content for a wide range of U.S. and Canadian print magazines, newspapers, digital publications, and private clients. She is also the Editor in Chief of Cape Fear Living Magazine, where she leads editorial vision and long-form storytelling rooted in place, people, and culture.

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In 2019, she received a Folio Award for Editorial Excellence for her feature “Strength & Perseverance: The Shackleford Banks Wild Horses,” and from 2020 through 2024 served as a judge for the Eddie & Ozzie Publishing Awards. Her first book, Monkey Weddings & Summer Sapphires, was published in August 2020.

Her contributions to food writing and culinary culture have been recognized internationally. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International and, in 2024, was inducted into La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, the International Association of Gastronomy. A qualified wine sommelier, she holds the distinction of Cape Wine Master.

Colleen’s path to storytelling began with a degree in Theatre Arts, followed by an early career in publishing at the politically charged Tribute Magazine during the turbulent years of apartheid in Johannesburg. Learning alongside journalists and photographers who risked everything to tell the truth instilled in her a deep respect for narrative, integrity, and the power of the written word.

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She went on to become a features writer for multiple consumer lifestyle publications before rising to editor—and eventually publisher—of South Africa’s largest-selling pop culture magazine, Top Forty. For more than a decade, she interviewed over 150 international musicians and bands, from The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson to Depeche Mode and Coldplay. In 2004, Colleen returned to university to earn a degree in Environmental Science, allowing her to unite her love of storytelling with her passion for oceans, coastal ecosystems, and environmental stewardship. In 2006, she relocated to Canada and joined the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia. As part of the Coastal Division, she researched and authored The Gulf of Maine in Context and The Scotian Shelf in Context for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Gulf of Maine Council.

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Food, cooking, and wine have always threaded through her life, but it was in Nova Scotia—amid wild coastlines, foraged ingredients, and a deep connection to the sea—that they found their truest expression. Following warmth and water south, she later discovered Wilmington, North Carolina, where ancient live oaks draped in Spanish moss, layered Southern foodways, and the history of the Cape Fear River echo the scents and sensations of her childhood—jasmine, honeysuckle, and gardenias.

Colleen now splits her time between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Wilmington, North Carolina, continually drawn to places where land meets sea, stories are rooted in culture, and light is always worth chasing.​