Irene Gammel holds a Canada Research Chair in Modern Literature and Culture at Ryerson University in Toronto, where she is also the Director of the Modern Literature and Culture Research Center dedicated the study of modern women writers. With a PhD from McMaster University, Irene Gammel is the author and editor of 13 books including Baroness Elsa--A Cultural Biography, which was voted one of the Top 25 Books of 2002 by New York's the Village Voice), Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic (2008), and several books of scholarly essays, including The Intimate Life of L. M. Montgomery (2005); Making Avonlea (2002), winner of the PEI Heritage Award; L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, with E. Epperly (1999); and Anne's World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables, with Benjamin Lefebvre (2010). Gammel is the curator of the exhibit Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100. Together with Suzanne Zelazo she has co-edited Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (2010) and Crystal Flowers: Poems and a Libretto by Florine Stettheimer (BookThug, 2010). Gammel divides her time between Toronto and Sackville, New Brunswick.