Beth Kaplan

Beth Kaplan, a former actress, has taught nonfiction writing at two universities for 30 years and won University of Toronto’s Excellence in Teaching award. Her recent memoir-in-essays Midlife Solo: Writing Through Chaos to Find My Way in the World is a compilation of scores of her published essays. She’s the author of four previous books: Finding the Jewish Shakespeare, a biography of her great-grandfather (blurbed by Tony Kushner as “a witty, shrewd, elegant book that tells a vital story”); All My Loving, a memoir of the ‘60s; True to Life: 50 Steps to Help You Tell Your Story, a succinct guide to personal narrative that’s the textbook for her courses; and Loose Woman, about the year her life changed forever, finalist for the Whistler Independent Book Award.

She has lectured about her work across Canada; in the United States, especially New York; at Oxford University; and in French in Paris. Kaplan produces a curated reading series called “So True,” consults privately as an editor and writing coach, is a fellow of the Banff Centre’s Literary Journalism program, was on the board and the conference committee of the Creative Nonfiction Collective, and produces a podcast and a Substack newsletter about memoir writing.