About Us - barlowbooks

An award-winning journalist formerly at the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail, Brehl now operates his own consulting, communications, and writing firm called abc2 communications inc. He is the co-author of bestselling books Relentless: The True Story of the Man Behind Rogers Communications; Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada’s Foremost Entrepreneur; and Hurricane Hazel: A Life with Purpose (about Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion, who was the longest-serving mayor of a major city in Canadian history). Brehl has also authored other books, including the bestseller The Best of Milt Dunnell, the legendary Canadian sports columnist from St. Marys, Ontario.

Montreal-based writer Lisa Fitterman has worked for newspapers across Canada as a reporter, editor, and columnist and for national and international magazines. In the last couple of years, Lisa has travelled from Mumbai to Moscow to cover a wide variety of stories, from profiles of women in the Russian opposition to the new waves of immigration and increasing racism in countries such as Sweden and France. She has just written a cover story for The Walrus magazine on the corruption scandal in Quebec. She has also written two books for children and has worked on documentaries about the power of first love and the role that junk science played in the execution of a Texas father who was found guilty of killing his children.

Jennifer Glossop has worked in publishing for more than forty years, starting as an editor for McClelland & Stewart, then continuing as a freelancer for many major publishers and some smaller houses. Among the fiction writers she has worked with are Margaret Atwood, Gail Bowen, Sylvia Fraser, Beth Follett, Hiromi Goto, David Homel, Maureen Jennings, Larissa Lai, Shani Mootoo, Fred Stenson, and Tim Wynne-Jones. Non-fiction writers include Peter Edwards, Peter Gzowski, Anne Kingston, David Suzuki, and Kim Vicente. Books she has edited have won the Governor General’s Award and the Crime Writers of Canada Award, and have been nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award and for the Giller Prize. In addition, she has taught at Ryerson and Simon Fraser Universities and the Banff Centre and has written a number of non-fiction children’s books.

David Hayes is an award-winning journalist and author. In addition to three non-fiction books of his own, he is an in-demand ghostwriter for projects of various kinds. His articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in major publications, among them Toronto Life, The New York Times Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, The Guardian, and Report on Business magazine. He is a member of the faculty of the University of King’s College’s Creative Non-fiction MFA program and teaches Advanced Feature Writing at Toronto’s Ryerson University. He often gives workshops on feature writing and book proposals, as well as researching, reporting, and interviewing techniques.

Douglas Hunter is a writer and artist who lives in Port McNicoll, Ontario. He is the author or co-author of more than 20 books with leading publishers in Canada and the United States. He has been a winner of and finalist for the National Business Book Award, and a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award (non-fiction). He holds a PhD in history from York University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo. You can learn more at douglashunter.ca.

A Toronto-based freelance editor, Geri Savits-Fine has been copy editing and fact-checking for 30 years. She has worked in magazines, book publishing, and with corporations on an eclectic array of topics including business, nutrition, psychology, the environment, education, and film. She enjoys many long-term relationships with those in the publishing and corporate worlds. Editing to Geri is not just about words on a page—it’s the adventure of new projects, working with people, and learning.

Freelance editor and ghostwriter Jonathan Schmidt began his publishing career as an editorial assistant in New York with Alfred A. Knopf in 1989. He was an editor at Pantheon Books, Disney Press, and St. Martin’s Press/Tor Books. He has acquired and edited hundreds of books in a variety of genres and formats—fiction and non-fiction—in the adult, juvenile, young adult, and middle-grade markets. In 2003, he moved to Toronto to become managing editor and then executive editor at Key Porter Books, where he specialized in non-fiction (politics, business, biography, and culture). As a freelance editor, Jonathan worked on Rock then Roll: The Secrets of Culture-Driven Leadership by ING Direct CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann.

Writers Jonathan has worked with include young adult authors Jane Yolen and Orson Scott Card; politicians Jack Layton, Elizabeth May, Terence Young, and Julian Fantino; business writers Gordon Pitts, Steve Maich, and Lianne George; sports columnist Bruce Dowbiggin; and CEOs Seymour Schulich, Dick Haskayne, and Arkadi Kuhlmann.

Titles Jonathan edited have won numerous awards, including shortlist nominees for both the Governor General’s Award and Giller Prize, winner of the National Business Book Award, the Maclean’s Best 20 Books of the Year Award, the Edna Staebler Award, and many others.

He lives in Toronto.

Emil Sher has been writing professionally since graduating with an M.A. in Creative Writing (Concordia). He writes in a variety of genres for the young and once-were-young, including fiction, essays, stage plays, screenplays, and animation. Emil worked as a story editor at CBC Radio, where he also edited several novels for broadcast, including winning titles for Canada Reads. His essays have been widely anthologized and his plays have been broadcast and staged around the world and translated into Hebrew, Italian, and Slovak. Amongst Emil’s upcoming crop of fiction for children are two board books, a picture book, and a middle-grade novel. He has been honoured with the 2014 K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Literature, a Canadian Screenwriting Award, and a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals. Emil has adapted two acclaimed works for the stage: Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, and Ian Brown’s The Boy in the Moon, which premieres this fall.

After a 35-year journalism career with several of the world’s leading media organizations, Bernard is now a self-employed writer, editor, coach, and media consultant. As a journalist, he worked for the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Economist, and U.S. News & World Report, among others. He was joint managing editor of Canada’s Financial Post from 1988 to 1990, and deputy editor of South Africa’s Business Day from 1998 to 2001.

He is now on the faculty of the Fellowship in Global Journalism at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. Several hundred public and investor-relations professionals, lawyers, civil servants, business executives, and others have attended Bernard’s popular Write It Right plain-language workshops.

Award-winning journalist and author Judith Timson is one of Canada’s most experienced and popular journalists. Her deft, witty writing on social issues, politics, business, and lifestyle has appeared in most of Canada’s leading magazines and newspapers, including Chatelaine,Toronto Life, Maclean’s, and The Globe and Mail, where she wrote a column for almost a decade. She is now a weekly columnist in the Toronto Star. Her many awards include a Southam Fellowship, the Fiona Mee Award for Literary Journalism, and multiple National Magazine Awards. Her book, Family Matters, a collection of essays about modern family life, was published by HarperCollins in 1996.

You can follow her on Twitter.

Jonathan Webb has been a journalist, novelist, editor, and publisher. After completing his studies (B.A., Queen’s University, M.A. University of Toronto), he joined the staff of Canadian Review magazine (Ottawa), and then moved to London, England, where he worked a sub-editor at Woman’s Own magazine. Back in Canada, Webb accepted a position as editor at Key Porter Books in Toronto. He subsequently moved to McClelland & Stewart, where he was managing editor and eventually associate publisher. Since leaving M&S, he has filled a one-year contract position as a senior editor at Penguin Group Canada, and otherwise continued to freelance as a writer, ghost writer, and editor specializing in non-fiction. Webb’s novel, Pluck, was co-winner of the Seal First Novel Award. He edited the anthology, Mordecai Richler Was Here: Selected Writings. He is the author of three children’s books, What’s a Zoo Do?, Journey to Mars, and Canada’s Wars, as well as an adult true-crime book, Stolen: To Catch an Art Thief.

An award-winning writer, editor, and broadcaster, Stephen Kimber is the author of 13 books—2 novels and 11 works of nonfiction. His most recent nonfiction books include Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions, a memoir co-written with Jennifer Robertson and published by HarperCollins, and Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadian Politics, a biography of former Nova Scotia and Canadian New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough, by Goose Lane.

His writing has appeared in almost all major Canadian magazines and newspapers. As a broadcaster, he was an Ottawa-based current affairs producer for the CTV Television Network and a producer, writer, story editor, and host for numerous CBC television and radio programs.

His commissioned work includes serving as the editor of the report of the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr. Prosecution and as author of IWK, a history of the Izaak Walton Killam Hospital for Children, and 150 Years in the Life of a Law Firm, the story of McInnes Cooper.

He taught in the University of King’s College School of Journalism from 1983-2021 and was its director three times. The co-founder of King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program, he is now one of its cohort directors.

In addition to book writing, Stephen currently also writes a weekly column for the Halifax Examiner and is a contributing editor to Atlantic Business Magazine.

He’s currently working on a Barlow book about the Phelan family business.

Anne O’Hagan is the co-author of The Only Woman in the Room: The Making of a Stockbroker (2017) and Eyes Wide Open (working title), a memoir on grief as a societal taboo, as well as Unbreakable: A CEO’s Handbook on Customer Experience (2021).  She started her career in network television news for Global, later freelancing abroad for CBC Radio and CNN. Over the past 30 years,  Anne’s journalistic stories have appeared in the The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Reader’s Digest, Toronto Life, Condé Nast Traveler, and Zoomer, among others. She has also been an award-winning agency copywriter, a communications advisor, and speechwriter for CEOs and politicians.

A masterful storyteller with visuals and text, Paul’s design imprint has shaped the image of global brands as diverse as Four Seasons Hotels and the international aid NGO, Right to Play. As creative lead at Spencer Francey Peters (later, CundariSFP), he earned design maven stature through his work for places like Raleigh, NC, and cultural icons like the Royal Ontario Museum.

As a founder and creative director of Trajectory, Hodgson’s creative range has stretched even further to include groundbreaking design assignments for Scotiabank; University of Victoria; AGO; Canada’s National Youth Orchestra; Toronto Hydro; and the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.

His passion for print is evident in the over 100 book designs he’s generated. Among these are cover designs for Life of Pi, The English Patient, and Barney’s Version, as well as series designs for Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, and Timothy Findley.

Trained at Lancaster and Hornsey Colleges of Art in England, Paul completed his education at OCAD University, where he now teaches.

PSD+G Strategy Group is a boutique advisory firm specializing in business and brand strategy. We have deep experience and proven results across a wide range of industries for both consumers, B2B, and not-for-profits.

PSD+G partners with Barlow Books to steward authors in clearly defining and articulating their personal brand. Through a strategy workshop process, we help define an author’s purpose, resulting in a clear point of difference and value proposition. This not only helps with their upcoming book, but also, more importantly, lays the foundation for future initiatives and brand-building efforts.

Sarah Miniaci has over a decade of experience in book marketing and publicity. Specializing in both fiction and non-fiction promotion, she has designed and executed book launch campaigns for publishers and authors across North America and the UK, including a range of New York Times and Globe & Mail bestsellers. Based in Toronto, she attended the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, and George Brown College, and currently sits on the board of Diaspora Dialogues, Canada’s premier literary mentorship program. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Jennifer Murray has over 25 years of experience in strategic marketing and communications in the cultural industries. In 2006, Jennifer founded Porch Light Consulting, a consulting company that provides marketing services to the cultural sector. Recent clients include the Canada Council for the Arts, WorkInCulture, National Reading Campaign, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Jennifer teaches marketing at Humber College’s Book Publishing Program. Previously, she was director of marketing at Penguin Canada and vice president of marketing at Kids Can Press.

Cathy brings a fresh, energetic take to her work as a speaker coach. Her background includes twenty years of radio and television broadcasting, theatre and post-secondary teaching experience. She has graduate degrees in broadcast journalism and voice & speech coaching. She’s trained in the theatre department of York University, the Stratford Festival, Second City, and in New York CIty. She coaches a wide range of keynote speakers, TED speakers, business professionals, authors, and others who simply wish to improve their public speaking skills. Cathy was the voice and performance coach of the TEDxToronto conference for six years, a role she developed for the conference. She teaches public speaking courses at Humber College and the University of Toronto.

David Ratner has over 25 years’ experience focused on book publicity, brand and thought leadership development, relationship-building, and consulting related to the publishing industry. He is the former president of one of the country’s largest book PR agencies, where he built strong relationships throughout the publishing industry and worked with hundreds of bestselling authors from all genres. David is a strong believer in “partnership” vs. “vendorship,” and works with his clients to customize the most appropriate and efficient campaigns based on their goals, needs, and budgets. David has been a featured speaker at a number of publishing conferences and is well respected for his knowledge of the industry.

David is a graduate of Emory University and lives 20 minutes north of Boston with his wife, three children, and 2 dogs.