CANADIAN WRITER · MEMOIRIST · COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR
Holly Chester
Writing about identity, ambition, illness, family, reinvention—and what happens when the body can no longer support the life a person had planned.
THE MEMOIR
The Gift I Never Asked For
A memoir in progress
The Gift I Never Asked For is a memoir about ambition, identity, illness and reinvention. It traces a life built around stories, creative work and public achievement—and the reckoning that began when multiple sclerosis made that life impossible to sustain in the same way.
Written from the uncertain middle ground of MS, the book explores what can be lost, what can be rebuilt, and what success means when the future no longer follows the plan.
ABOUT HOLLY
A career built around stories—and the people who create them.
Holly Chester is a Canadian writer and communications advisor with more than 26 years of experience writing and shaping stories for artists, cultural figures, organizations and leaders.
Her career began in film and television publicity. She later created and produced the ELAN Awards, an artist-driven platform that celebrated the creators and emerging talent behind animation, visual effects and video games. Throughout her work, Holly has focused on the human story beneath public achievement: the revealing detail, emotional turning point or contradiction that makes an audience pay attention.
Today, she is writing The Gift I Never Asked For and accepting selected communications assignments for charities, cultural organizations and purpose-led leaders.
COMMUNICATIONS
Selected communications work
Holly is available for a limited number of part-time, contract and project-based assignments.
• Strategic messaging and narrative development
• Executive and organizational communications
• Editorial materials and story development
• Media positioning and communications counsel
She is particularly interested in working with charities, cultural organizations, public-interest initiatives and purpose-led leaders.