She was born in 1958 and studied at the National Theatre School in Montreal. Her first play, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) won both the Governor General's Award and the Chalmers Award. Her other plays include The Arab's Mouth, The Negredo Hotel and the musical Anything That Moves.

She has also written Fall on Your Knees, a best-selling novel that was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel. She currently lives in Toronto and hosts CBC's Life and Times.

She is an amazing writer with the uncommon ability to be both witty and sensitive, and both fiercely intelligent and airily light in her writing. She is currently working on a new novel that I await with anticipation.