Meet your coaches
Liisa Kovala
Author and Book Coach
Liisa Kovala is an author, teacher, and certified book coach. After a twenty-five-year career as a high school English teacher, Liisa retired early to pursue her writing and book coaching dreams and has never looked back. Her debut historical novel, Sisu’s Winter War (Latitude 46) was published in 2022. Her first book, Surviving Stutthof: My Father’s Memories Behind the Death Gate (Latitude 46, 2017) was shortlisted for a Northern Lit award and published in Finland by Docendo. Liisa is a lifelong learner who, in addition to her professional degrees, has earned a Certificate of Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, a Graduate Certificate of Creative Writing from Humber School for Writers, as well as a Fiction Book Coaching Certification from the premiere book coach training program Author Accelerator. Liisa is passionate about helping women tell their stories through fiction and memoir and loves to guide writers who are beginning their writing journeys with compassion and empathy. Liisa is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, Canadian Authors Association, and past president of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild. A nearly empty nester, Liisa lives with her husband Michael, obstinate cat Oscar, and energetic puppy Emmy in Sudbury, Ontario.
Dinah Laprairie coaches writers from the early stages of their book’s development through to their proposal and query. Dinah has filled many behind-the-scenes support roles over her career, at times a copy editor, proofreader, magazine editor and publisher, and at others a college English instructor and workshop facilitator. Her editorial and coaching work focuses on meeting the writer's goals while upholding the reader's needs and expectations. Over the years, she has supported many writers dedicated to the craft and many others who were exploring it for the first time. For 13 years, Dinah was the Editor-Publisher of the literary magazine Open Minds Quarterly, and she continues to have a soft spot for projects that challenge the status quo and aim to improve the lives of people experiencing unfairness. Today, Dinah is an Author Accelerator-certified book coach, licensed to use the Blueprint for a Book method. She works with writers who want to make a change by sharing their stories on the page, whether it’s practical advice for specific audiences, big ideas that need to be brought to the reading public, or novels. In her off-hours, you’ll often find her reading novels and news bytes, listening to podcasts, or sampling other creative pursuits. She lives in the land of blueberries and big nickels with her children, her husband, and her sweet but smelly dog Bella.
Dinah Laprairie
Editor and Book Coach