She can often be found in her perennial gardens, a pastime she likens to writing: you start with a rough plan, then nature takes over and you're left to weed and transplant and weed some more, always with an eye out for interesting suprises.Jill MacLean started as a writer of so-called formula fiction, but many years ago turned to poetry, its polar opposite her collection was shortlisted for two awards, while her five literary novels for young readers have won four awards and received numerous nominations, four of them international.

She was a palliative care volunteer for several years, and has been a dog walker for the Winnipeg Humane Society and the Nova Scotia SPCA. Why else, after writing five contemporary novels for young readers, would she embark on a novel for adults set in 14th century England?

Vincent, driven through a very long, one-way, unlit, water-dripping tunnel in the Faroe Islands, kayaked Johnstone Strait and been too close to a grizzly in the Mackenzie Mountains: a strong sense of adventure, in other words. She's hiked the High Arctic tundra and the rainforests of St. She's conducted workshops, school presentations and readings, many for the Canada Council, across the country. She has participated in Writers in the Schools, Word on the Street, the Literacy for Life Conference, the TD Book Tour, Read by the Sea and a conference for the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in London, England. Her YA novel, Home Truths, is on the Nova Scotia school curriculum. Her grandson's request that she write him a book led to three middle-grade novels and two young adult, four awards and numerous nominations, four of them international.

Her biography of Jean Pierre Roma, published by the PEI Heritage Foundation, was reissued in 2005. While living in Prince Edward Island, she spent three years researching an 18th century French settlement. Poetry, she's been told, requires the least number of best words, a good discipline for any writing. Her collection, The Brevity of Red (2003), was shortlisted for two awards. Her masters degree in theological studies, an agnostic's search for answers, made her questions more sophisticated and encouraged her to write poetry. She has an honours degree in biology and is a keen naturalist. She writes because she loves being inhabited by characters and intertwining their stories in a balance of the intuitive and the rational, not always knowing where she's going but steered by what feels true. Jill MacLean writes to stretch her limits and engage her curiosity.

Nix Minus One by Jill MacLean