Dorothy Ellen Palmer

Like the main character of her first novel, When Fenelon Falls, Dorothy Ellen Palmer was conceived during Hurricane Hazel and adopted at age three. She grew up in Alderwood, Toronto and spent childhood summers on Balsam Lake, just north of Fenelon, where there really was a bear in a cage. In 23 years as a Drama/English teacher, Dorothy taught in a Mennonite Colony, a four-room school house in rural Alberta, and an Adult Learning Centre attached to a prison.

She has coached for The Canadian Improv Games, attended The Banff Writer?s Colony and The Humber School for Writers, and is a proud executive member of her Sherlock Holmes Scion Society, The Bootmakers of Toronto. She is currently at work on two second novels, Kerfuffle, the story of a Toronto improv troupe whose theatre is damaged in the G20 protests, and another work blending personal history and fiction: Wiggins: Spawn of Sherlock. From her condo window, she continues to enjoy the Lake Ontario view she loved as a child.  

On the web

  • Coach House Books