BONNIE L. LENDRUM Bonnie Lendrum began writing fiction during a stretch when she lost five people she loved—her best friend, father, father-in-law, and two other friends. It was a tumultuous time that exposed her to a health care system she thought she knew well. As a professional, she had written about it in book chapters and research papers. But until that awful period, she didn’t know the health care system as the friend of, or the family member of, someone who needed care. Six years later, her dissonance was reinforced when her mother-in-law became ill. After an hour-long visit with a community coordinator, Bonnie was left wondering how the average person ever successfully navigated the health care system. The manuscript, which she had started back in the early 2000s, took shape and became the novel Autumn’s Grace. Inanna Publications has called it a gift to people dealing with a dying parent as they attempt to fulfill their final wishes.

Bonnie brings her professional career as a Registered Nurse to bear on her observations about health care and her experiences as a daughter, sibling, wife, mother and volunteer to comment on life. She holds an MScN from the University of Toronto, completed a summer residency at Humber College with Alistair MacLeod, a distance mentorship with Sandra Birdsell, and participated in two five day seminars in San Miguel De Allende with Jennifer Clement (2019) and with Susan Sutliff Brown (2020).

Since the publication of Autumn’s Grace, Bonnie has continued to write from her passion. Her second manuscript addresses issues of ageing. Her third manuscript explores literacy. Two concussions (2014 and 2017) have slowed her output but have not diminished her intensity or quality. Bonnie expects to write until she can no longer type. There are too many issues that she needs to explore.