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Holly Bennett - Bio
I was born and grew up in Montreal before moving with my family to Markham, Ontario as part of the
“great Anglo exodus,” that strange era when head offices were moving out of Quebec in a panic to
avoid having to do anything in French. I finished high school in Ontario and went on to study English
and Native Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. I wasn’t done with Quebec though,
going back for two summers in Quebec City to study and work in French.
After graduation I moved with my husband John to Toronto, where I worked as a researcher for a
social research company and as school secretary at the Wandering Spirit Survival School, while
completing my M.Ed in adult education at OISE.
Eventually we moved back to Peterborough in search of cheap housing, and I worked as a youth
employment counsellor and on a number of aboriginal research projects before landing a junior
editor job with Today’s Parent magazine. It was an instant, perfect “fit” and I’ve been there ever since,
now as editor-in-chief of our special editions. I handle the pregnancy and baby beat, plus a variety of
other special editing projects, and for many years also wrote a monthly column on children’s
development. (I recently gave up the column to make a little more time for fiction writing.)
Along the way I’ve raised three boys and have read untold numbers of wonderful books with them. But
I’m not sure what flipped the switch and turned me from a person who loves reading stories to a
person who loves writing them. In any case, once I got started, I became instantly addicted. Now, if I'm
not working on a story, I'm looking for one!
In my “non-writing” spare time I enjoy singing in choirs, gardening, birdwatching, reading in the
bathtub, and hanging out at the cottage. I volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
And I’m a very good Scrabble player.
I was born and grew up in Montreal before moving with my family to Markham, Ontario as part of the
“great Anglo exodus,” that strange era when head offices were moving out of Quebec in a panic to
avoid having to do anything in French. I finished high school in Ontario and went on to study English
and Native Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. I wasn’t done with Quebec though,
going back for two summers in Quebec City to study and work in French.
After graduation I moved with my husband John to Toronto, where I worked as a researcher for a
social research company and as school secretary at the Wandering Spirit Survival School, while
completing my M.Ed in adult education at OISE.
Eventually we moved back to Peterborough in search of cheap housing, and I worked as a youth
employment counsellor and on a number of aboriginal research projects before landing a junior
editor job with Today’s Parent magazine. It was an instant, perfect “fit” and I’ve been there ever since,
now as editor-in-chief of our special editions. I handle the pregnancy and baby beat, plus a variety of
other special editing projects, and for many years also wrote a monthly column on children’s
development. (I recently gave up the column to make a little more time for fiction writing.)
Along the way I’ve raised three boys and have read untold numbers of wonderful books with them. But
I’m not sure what flipped the switch and turned me from a person who loves reading stories to a
person who loves writing them. In any case, once I got started, I became instantly addicted. Now, if I'm
not working on a story, I'm looking for one!
In my “non-writing” spare time I enjoy singing in choirs, gardening, birdwatching, reading in the
bathtub, and hanging out at the cottage. I volunteer with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
And I’m a very good Scrabble player.
Photo by Mark Peter Drolet