Brief biographies of our authors follow.
Andrea Black lives in South Western Ontario with her patient husband, John, and her five long-suffering, homeschooled children. She identifies herself primarily as a Catholic wife and mother, but was once a registered nurse and also holds a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto.
Ben Galeski was born in Calgary and has lived in Southern Alberta his entire life. He has been fascinated by the mystery of the Franklin Expedition ever since his university years when he was introduced to the subject by reading Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger. His imagination, combined with a powerful feeling of empathy for those who perished were triggered the moment he first saw the images of the sailors exhumed from the permafrost on Beechey Island. A husband and father of five currently living in Brooks, Alberta, Ben has been an educator and administrator in Catholic schools for 23 years. Starvation Cove is his first novel.
Dr. Christine Schintgen was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Carleton University, and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Oxford. She teaches literature at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College. Her research interests include crime and prisons in Victorian literature, Dickens, Dante, and the relationship between faith and literature. Her children’s book, ‘Pamela Walks the Dog’, illustrated by Hilda van Stockum, is available through Boissevain Books. She and her husband Michael live in Barry’s Bay with their three children.
Clemens Cavallin is Associate Professor in History of Religions at the University of Gothenberg, Sweden. He studied at the Valand Art Academy in Gothenburg and is an active painter of portraits and of works commissioned by churches.
Clemens Cavallin is the author of On the Edge of Infinity (Justin Press, 2017), a biography of Michael O’Brien. He has been married since 1993 to Natalija.They have six children.
Fr Denis Lemieux was born in Alexandria, Ontario. He has been a member of Madonna House since 1991 and was ordained in 2004. He holds a licentiate in Sacred Theology and is the author of The Air We Breathe: The Mariology of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and of She is our Response: The Virgin Mary and the Church’s Encounter with Modernity in the Writings of Joseph Ratzinger. He currently resides in Combermere, Ontario, where he divides his time between teaching, writing, parish mission and retreat work and spiritual direction.
Douglas McManaman was born in Toronto and grew up in Montreal. He studied philosophy at the University of Waterloo and theology at the University of Montreal. He is a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Toronto and ministers to those with mental illness.
He is a teacher of religion and philosophy at Fr Michael McGivney Academy in Markham, Ontario and is chaplain of the Toronto Catholic Teachers Guild.
He is a regular contributor to Catholic Insight and his recent books include Why Be Afraid (Justin Press, 2014) and The Logic of Anger (Justin Press, 2015). Deacon McManaman lives with his wife and daughter in Aurora, Ontario.
Enrique Monasterio was born in Bilbao, Spain, in 1941. He was awarded a doctorate in Theology from the Lateran University, Rome, in 1968 and ordained to the priesthood in Madrid in 1969.
He has served as chaplain at universities in Valencia and Madrid, but “El Belen que puso Dios” was conceived while teaching at Aldeafuente, a school for girls.
Father Monasterio has published two other books, and will shortly publish another.
He contributes regularly to “Mundo Cristiano” and writes a daily blog.
Fr. Daniel Callam, C.S.B., was born in Amherstburg, Ontario. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of St. Michael’s College. After receiving his doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford, he was Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Thomas More College in Saskatoon. He founded the Canadian Catholic Review, which he edited for fifteen years until 1997, when he was appointed to the faculty of theology at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas. He returned to Canada in 2008, first to Holy Rosary Church, Toronto, and then to Cardinal Flahiff Centre, where he presently resides.
Fr. Robert Wild lives at Combermere, Ontario. He has been a member of the Madonna House community, founded by Catherine Doherty, since 1971. He is the author of several books of meditations and of a trilogy on Catherine Doherty’s spirituality. Fr. Wild is the editor of “Compassionate Fire: the Letters of Thomas Merton & Catherine de Hueck Doherty” and of “Comrades Stumbling Along: The Friendship of Catherine de Hueck Doherty and Dorothy Day as Revealed Through Their Letters.” His essay “Was G.K. Chesterton a Mystic?” appears in “The Holiness of G.K. Chesterton.”
Ian Hunter has taught and practised law and journalism in Canada for 40 years. He taught law at the University of Western Ontario and is the author of biographies of Malcolm Muggeridge, Hesketh Pearson, and Robert Burns. This is the first collection of his columns that have appeared in numerous publications, including The Globe and Mail and The National Post. Ian Hunter lives in St. Thomas, Ontario.
Isabella Bruno, author of From Jane with Love and The Journey
Jacek Bacz, author of By Reason Alone
Dr. Jason West resides in Edmonton Alberta with his wife Christine and their six children. He is the President of Newman Theological College where he has also taught philosophy for nine years. An expert on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and Jacques Maritain, he has published articles on these topics in journals such as The Journal for the History of Philosophy, Philosophical Forum, Nova et Vetera, The Modern Schoolman, Gregorianum, The Thomist, and others. He completed his PhD in philosophy at the University of Waterloo in Ontario in 2003 and is past-President of the Canadian Society for Christian Philosophers.
Jean MacKenzie is a Registered Psychologist in private practice in Edmonton, Alberta. Jean received her MA in Counselling from The Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1999 and has experience working with clients from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, presenting a wide range of issues. She is most passionate about marriage and couples counselling and believes that strengthening relationships bolsters the foundation of our society. Jean enjoys working with Catholic couples to help them have marriages that are both fulfilling and pleasing to God. Jean and her husband, Colin, have been married since 2001. She is a proud military wife and mother of seven beautiful children.
Joseph Ferrant was born in Smith Falls, Ontario. He received a Bachelors of Arts in Theater and English from Redeemer University in Ancaster and studied classical drawing and painting at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto. He is a freelance illustrator and painter working in the Ottawa Valley. He currently resides on his family farm in the Burdenell area.
Katarina Pejakovic, author of Angel
Born in Boston, Lisa Gottlieb is a graduate of Wellesley College, the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto. After spending most of her adult life on academic pursuits, she realized that she would rather write novels that have a purpose. “Beating the Bounds” is the first book of a trilogy focusing on Tabitha Yarwood. Like Tabitha, Lisa was baptized into an Anglo-Catholic parish, enjoys baseball and dessert and is preoccupied with the question of why a person would not want to lead a a church-centred life. Lisa and her husband live in Toronto.
Melissa Guzik is a Registered Psychologist who works in private practice in Edmonton, Alberta with adults and adolescents providing individual, couples and group counselling. Melissa received her Masters of Arts degree in Counselling Psychology from McGill University in 2004. She is passionate about working with couples at all stages of their relationship, especially couples impacted by addictions. Melissa enjoys teaching seminars on a variety of mental health topics that integrate Catholicism and psychology. Melissa understands the importance of continuing to work on strengthening one’s marriage from living the blessings and struggles that come from being married and having children with special needs. Melissa and her husband, Vincent, have been married since 2002 and have been blessed with four children.
Michael O’Brien is the foremost Canadian Catholic author and artist. His paintings have been shown at more than forty exhibits across North America.
He is the author of Remembrance of the Future, Father at Night, William Kurulek and Winter Tales, all published by Justin Press, as well as Father Elijah, Island of the World and other novels.
Michael O’Brien lives in Barry’s Bay, Ontario, with his wife Sheila. They have six children. He is Artist in Residence at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Barry’s Bay.
Patrick Meagher is an award-winning Canadian journalist and author of Perhaps, I Love You More, a collection of anecdotes about Pope John Paul the Great.
Meagher has worked across Canada for newspapers, magazines and in radio, including CBC, and is the publisher of Farmers Forum, an Ontario agricultural newspaper.
He has worked as an associate editor of Mercatornet.com, an Australian-based social commentary website, business editor of The Bermuda Sun, and as managing editor of Toronto-based Catholic Register.
He and his wife and their seven children live in Ottawa, Canada.
Paul Flaman is Associate Professor of Theology at St Joseph’s College in the University of Alberta, Edmonton. He lives with his wife in Edmonton. They have three children.
Paulette Kelly, author of The Healing Rosary
Peter Karl Koritansky is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island and holds a Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Toronto. His books include The Philosophy of Punishment and the History of Political Thought (University of Missouri Press, 2011), Thomas Aquinas and the Philosophy of Punishment (Catholic University of America Press, 2012) and Human Nature, Contemplation, and the Political Order: Essays Inspired by Jacques Maritain’s Scholasticism and Politics (American Maritain Association Press, 2014). He is married to Pam Koritansky and they live in Charlottetown, PEI, with their four children.
Robert Leblanc, author of Who Do You Say That I Am
Mary Riley is an award-winning journalist who spent fifteen years covering police, fire, criminal courts and municipal politics. She has always had a great love for law and Tudor history, which is why Thomas More is one of her favourite saints. Now retired, she enjoys painting, photography and adding to her Sherlock Holmes collection. She lives in Trent Lakes, Ontario, with her cat, Cromwell.