Franke James
“Nobody really knows what life will throw at them. And how they’ll change as a result,” says Franke James, who is an activist, artist and author with a rare disability called Ataxia (since 2019). Franke has fought City Hall to build a green driveway (and won). Been blacklisted by the Canadian Government for her climate change art—and turned the government’s silencing into international news. Her latest book, Freeing Teresa: A True Story about My Sister and Me, is about choosing her sister’s freedom over her family. Franke helped her younger sister with Down syndrome get out of a nursing home. Then all hell broke loose. The two sisters had to stand together—against their siblings, the medical system, and the police—to defend the right to be free.
Franke and her husband, Billiam James, helped Teresa regain her decision-making rights and get a public apology from the Ontario Minister of Health. Midwest Book Review said, "The result is more than a memoir: it’s a testimony to how ‘tickets to freedom’ are gained through fighting and love."
The memoir has won eighteen book awards, including the Outstanding True Story Award in the IAN Book of the Year Awards 2024, the Nonfiction Audiobook Award and the Social/Political Award in the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards, and multiple awards in the Human Relations Indie Book Awards. The International Firebird Book Awards gave it the Judge's Pick prize and four awards for Social/Political Change, Special Needs, Leadership, and Inspiration.
In 2015, Franke won PEN Canada’s Ken Filkow Prize for her “tenacity in uncovering an abuse of power” and BCCLA’s Liberty Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2014.
For Franke, the diverse issues in her books, "Freeing Teresa," "Banned on the Hill," "Bothered by My Green Conscience," and "Dear Office-Politics" are all connected by the need to speak up and take action.
Franke lives in Vancouver, BC, with her husband and her sister, Teresa.
Franke and her husband, Billiam James, helped Teresa regain her decision-making rights and get a public apology from the Ontario Minister of Health. Midwest Book Review said, "The result is more than a memoir: it’s a testimony to how ‘tickets to freedom’ are gained through fighting and love."
The memoir has won eighteen book awards, including the Outstanding True Story Award in the IAN Book of the Year Awards 2024, the Nonfiction Audiobook Award and the Social/Political Award in the 2024 NYC Big Book Awards, and multiple awards in the Human Relations Indie Book Awards. The International Firebird Book Awards gave it the Judge's Pick prize and four awards for Social/Political Change, Special Needs, Leadership, and Inspiration.
In 2015, Franke won PEN Canada’s Ken Filkow Prize for her “tenacity in uncovering an abuse of power” and BCCLA’s Liberty Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2014.
For Franke, the diverse issues in her books, "Freeing Teresa," "Banned on the Hill," "Bothered by My Green Conscience," and "Dear Office-Politics" are all connected by the need to speak up and take action.
Franke lives in Vancouver, BC, with her husband and her sister, Teresa.
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Freeing Teresa: A True Story about My Sister and Me
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Memoir
When an idealistic activist objects to her siblings’ plan to ship their disabled sister off to a nursing home, she’s forced to choose between family and her sister’s freedom. An award-winning true story about disability, sisters, and standing up for the right to be yourself. “The result is more than a memoir: it’s a testimony to how ‘tickets to freedom’ are gained through fighting and love.” D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review Franke James is an environmental and disability activist who got into trouble in her own backyard—family trouble. She objected when she heard her siblings’ plan to put their disabled sister, Teresa Heartchild, into a nursing home. Teresa, who has Down syndrome, refused to go. But the other siblings insisted and secretly put Teresa into an institution for end-of-life care. Teresa was in shock. Franke was horrified and organized a rescue. That’s when all hell broke loose. The two sisters had to stand together—against their siblings, the medical system, and the police—to defend Teresa’s right to be free. This is a true story about a key civil rights issue for all people with disabilities—the right to decide where you live. CONTENT WARNING: This story deals with dysfunctional family relationships and ableist attitudes, which some readers may find upsetting. 
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Banned on the Hill: A True Story about Dirty Oil and Government Censorship
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Graphic Non-fiction Memoir
What would you do if you discovered your own government blacklisted you for speaking up on climate change and the tar sands? In Banned on the Hill, artist and author Franke James tells how she first discovered she was being censored by the Canadian ‘Harper’ government — and how she fought back. It’s an inspiring story that shows how creativity, crowd-funding and investigative digging can work together to shine a bright light on a government that is more interested in message control than a citizen’s democratic right to free expression. Through eight visual essays, James traces her personal journey as an active citizen discovering the power of speaking out. Interviewed in the Guardian UK newspaper, James said she hoped the book would serve as a how-to guide to other activists hoping to take on the Harper administration, especially with humour. “It’s like a judo flip, meaning you can flip someone much bigger than you.” Through entertaining, powerful and humorous real-life storytelling, James shows us how to speak the hard truths — and get heard. She shows us why actions speak louder than words and how each of us can make a difference in our front yards, our city, our country and our world.
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Bothered By My Green Conscience
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Graphic Non-fiction Memoir
"I just picked up Bothered by my Green Conscience by Franke James and read it cover to cover in one 20-minute sitting. It is a funny, moving, and inspiring read, even though it deals with a topic that usually depresses the hell out of me: climate change. This might be just the ticket for those of us who have read so much about the science, the dire predictions, and the politics of climate change that we just can't stomach anymore. Time for a little hope and humour on this issue. - Michelle Lalonde, Montreal Gazette "With her delightfully quirky style, Franke James has been chronicling her personal journey in going green through a series of illustrated online essays for some time now, and her latest book, Bothered By My Green Conscience, finally brings five essays together in one edition. In nurturing her green conscience, James artfully demonstrates that the process can be far from perfect, but her colourfully illustrated enthusiasm and verve is an infectious page-turner." - Kimberley D. Mok, Treehugger "Franke's visual essays have been spreading virally over the past few years on major blog sites like Kottke and Treehugger. Now they are gathered together in a book, Bothered by My Green Conscience, and I think it gives us a very good reason to still value having a bound and printed object we can share without peering into a screen. Franke's essays are illustrated guides to her process of changing internally and externally. The essays must be seen to be appreciated. Combining text, illustration and collage, they express the messiness of creativity and the beauty of action. This really is a book to give to your friends and family." - Martin Edic, Renaissance Magazine. You've changed all your light bulbs and switched to cloth bags at the grocery store. |
Dear Office-Politics: the game everyone plays
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Nonfiction Business Ethics Advice
Dear Office-Politics is the award-winning role-playing game that teaches you how to play (and laugh at) office politics. The game was invented by author and site founder, Franke James. "James's splashy sense of humor and style catapults this book from the field of humdrum HR exercises to an entertaining discussion of the pantheon of office types." ForeWord Reviews Dear Office-Politics lets YOU be an Office Politics Adviser and offer your best, sage advice. And then it turns the tables, and puts you into the role of Advice-seeker! How does the advice measure up? Well, the Advice-seeker each round is the ultimate judge, but you can also peek at the back of the book to see how the real Office-Politics Advisers answered. Each ethical dilemma is based on an actual letter that was submitted to OfficePolitics.com since it was founded in 2002. 
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