Lorna Poplak is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and researcher.

Books have always been a constant in Lorna’s life — like Mount Everest or the moon or breakfast. As a child Lorna was an avid reader, one of those kids who use a flashlight to read under the covers until the wee small hours of the morning.

Success as a writer took a while longer. There was some early promise — that’s if poems and stories in high school yearbooks count as promise.

Born in South Africa, Lorna majored in law at university, but her love of the written word led her to study English literature and take an Honours degree in French. After a diploma in library science, Lorna moved to Canada and into the field of information technology. Then, as now, Lorna enjoyed exploring her new country by car, bike, and on foot.

But writing computer code is no substitute for playing with and playing on words, so Lorna escaped into that other kind of writing. She also became an editor, proofreader, and fact checker. To hone her skills and delve into electronic media she enrolled in a technical communication program.

By this time more successes were rolling in — published work included travel pieces, reviews, user-friendly web content, annual reports, and medical and science articles. She became active in the Society for Technical Communication (STC), but her interest at that time lay in children’s literature. She joined the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (CANSCAIP), where she served in various volunteer roles; most recently on the board of directors.

So it’s not entirely surprising that when Lorna started writing and workshopping Drop Dead: A Horrible History of Hanging in Canada, she envisioned it for an audience of young readers. The surprise came in the form of a contract to publish the work as adult non-fiction. This set Lorna free to expand her horizons and explore the topic in much greater depth. And the result is a darkly humorous book about crime and punishment in Canada’s first century, which also examines the relevance of capital punishment today.

Lorna’s second non-fiction book, THE DON: The Story of Toronto’s Infamous Jail, was published by Dundurn Press in January 2021.

In addition to bringing to light the facts behind its location and construction, THE DON is the saga of the people who have interacted with the historic jail during its one-hundred-and-fifty-plus years of existence – inmates, guards, governors, gangs, officials, and even a pair of star-crossed lovers. The Don’s early promise was never fulfilled. The book documents its tumultuous descent from palace to hellhole to its eventual shuttering and rebirth.

THE DON was shortlisted for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s 2021 Speaker’s Book Award, which recognizes non-fiction works by Ontario authors, and for Crime Writers of Canada’s Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book and Heritage Toronto’s Book Award in 2022.

Lorna is currently working on a book about great (and not so great!) prison escapes, to be published by Dundurn in 2025.