Dorothy grew-up in Southern Ontario where she discovered a love of nature, books, and scribbling words. Transplanted to Alberta, she is a previous freelance writer of articles, cartoons, and columns and has recently shifted to writing solely poetry and fiction. Her writings regularly appear in literary journals and her first picture book, Summer North Coming was released in 2019 by Fitzhenry & Whiteside. Her first middlegrade chapbook, Escape from the Wildfire, will be released by Lorimer Kids & Teens on September 2, 2022. She loves being outdoors, travel, pets, and sharing meals with family and friends.
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She and her husband live in Alberta and share adventures with their three children who are all out of the nest. Her stories are often based on her personal experiences and her storytelling style evolved through her interaction with children and books while teaching English and other subjects to small groups of children and adults.
Memberships:
Writers’ Guild of Alberta
Canadian Children’s Book Centre
CANSCAIP – Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators, and Performers
Get in touch
Request a school or festival presentation.
Educational Presentations
- Summer North Coming picture book dramatic reading. Learn about children’s lives in the north, including interesting objects! Suitable for preschool to 3rd grade. 30 min. to 1 hour.
- Writing fiction from real life. Based around middle-grade chapbook. Suitable for 4th grade up. 1 – 2 hours.
- How a picture book is created. Suitable for 4th grade up. 1 – 2 hours.
- Curriculum tie-ins on weather and climate, biodiversity, human adaptability and solutions. Fourth grade and up. Are your students anxious about the climate? This presentation will discuss how biodiversity plays a role in the Earth’s resilience, and how people are changing the ways we interact with the world to solve this problem. This presentation offers solution, not more anxiety.
Writers’ Festival topics vary: from publishing options to writing compelling stories.
Presentations can be pre-recorded to allow for several small groups or classes to view at various times. Questions may be emailed ahead of time. Please contact for rates.
Appearances
Granary Road Market, Calgary – May 21, 2022
M(othering) Anthology launch, Calgary Central Library, Performance Theatre, June 2, 2022
Writers’ Guild of Alberta annual conference. In person at the Calgary Central Library, June 4; Children’s Literature panel discussion, online June 5, 2022.
Dorothy Bentley 