I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and worked as a professional actress for a decade before leaving the stage to earn an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. My new memoir "Loose Woman: my odyssey from lost to found" is the story of that transformative time. My three previous books are: "Finding the Jewish Shakespeare," a biography of my great-grandfather; "All My Loving," a memoir of the sixties, Beatlemania, and the year my family lived in Paris; and "True to Life," a succinct guide to personal narrative that's the textbook for my courses. I've taught memoir and personal essay writing since 1994; in 2012, the University of Toronto gave me its Excellence in Teaching award. My essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines and on CBC radio, and I'm a proud member, once Board member, of the Creative Nonfiction Collective. I started writing stories and letters at the age of six and have never stopped.