Donna Costa

DONNA COSTA is a former holistic health practitioner who integrates the world of natural health into her stories, including her 2025 memoir, If I Could Remember: Bears & Brains & Caring For My Mother, as well as her debut novel, Breathing With Trees, a YA, coming-of-age story.

Costa spent 20 years as a corporate secretary, ghostwriting countless business letters in which “Dear Sir” and “Yours truly” featured prominently. After leaving the steno chair, maintained a private holistic health practice before shifting to a career as a writer. Costa’s CNF short stories have been published in Prairie Fire, Queen’s Quarterly, and Nurture Literary, shortlisted in writing contests with Event magazine and gritLit. Her poetry and fictional short story were selected by Emma Donoghue for publication in the LWS 2025 anthology Out of the Woods: Voices from the Forest City. 

Costa is president of the London Writers’ Society and a member of the Writers Union of Canada.

Costa grew up on a farm in Perth County, southern Ontario, where she enjoyed the solitude of country living. She filled her hours reading books under the back yard maple tree while trying to ignore her pesky brothers. Attending her rural elementary school, she received solid instruction in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, some of which she still remembers. She resides in London, Ontario.