Working at the margins, Beverley Brewer’s post-secondary teaching experience set the stage for her storytelling. Bev completed her PhD at the University of Toronto. Following an award-winning teaching career, she moved to the family cottage in Muskoka. There, she retired into writing. As a member of the Muskoka Authors Association, she supports writing colleagues by organizing Tall Tale Pines. For balance, Bev plays at singing, kayaking, snowshoeing and pickleball. Her memoir, Dance into the Light was published by Blue Denim Press in 2023. What No One Knew, a psychological suspense, was released by Blue Denim Press, on Oct. 1^st, 2026.

This week we welcome back Patricia Arato as part of our encore series. Patricia Arato’s book The Language Thief is her “personal story, one that has taken a life-time to unfold.” Her memoir tells of her many years caring for and rehabilitating her aphasic ex-husband and how, because of that work, she became the driving force behind an independent speech recovery centre, which has become a model for similar centres around the world. The Aphasia Institute – Pat Arato Aphasia Centre operates today in Toronto, supporting people affected by aphasia as a result of a stroke/brain injury.

As we continue our encore series, we welcome again, Beth Bruder, who, at the time of this interview, was Vice President at Dundurn Press. Beth is experienced in all aspects of publishing books, both nationally and internationally. She worked in the reference world of Wiley Canada before transitioning to Canadian trade publishing at Dundurn Press. Beth served on the council of the Association of Canadian Publishers and was a founding member and chair of the ACP committee that launched The 49th Shelf, a unique Canadian book-discovery website which helps readers find Canadian books in all genres. Beth talks about why she loves publishing and what publishers look for in a manuscript

Our encore presentation this week is from December 2014 when we interviewed memoir writer Diane Taylor. Diane has had several careers as a medical lab tech, a teacher, a sailor and a writer. She is the author of The Gift of Memoir and is well known as a workshop presenter and teacher of memoir writing. She started writing while sailing in the Caribbean because life on the ocean and in the islands was so fresh and immediate, she felt an urgent need to record it, to re-experience it in words. A book resulted: The Perfect Galley Book.