Life, elevated to literature.
The Memoir House by K.H. Bickell Literary Inc. is a boutique storytelling collective devoted to the artful preservation of legacy. Working in close tandem with our clients, we craft books to outlive trends and technologies. Each memoir becomes a living testament: a gift to generations today, and those not yet born.
Our award-winning literary writers guide every step of the journey to authorship from intimate weekly interviews to custom cover design and author publication services, serving those whose exceptional lives merit lasting literature. Our clients retain complete creative and copyright control, driving the narrative until their vision is fully realized. We hold space for memory, meaning, and the unspoken truths that shape a life.
Due to the depth of our work, we partner with a select number of clients each year, most by personal referral. Our thoughtful writers, masterful designers, and seasoned strategists shape each memoir through precise collaboration, creating heirloom books of enduring beauty, truth, and significance.
A Life Worth Writing
Some lives are lived with such depth, grace, or consequence they deserve to be held not as mere memory, but as meaning. Not as history, but as homage.
For those who have lived a story worth telling
We serve a discerning clientele. Our clients lead lives marked by impact, complexity, and accomplishment. Every memoir receives extensive creative attention, beginning with in-person connection and hands-on authorship. As such, we accept a limited number of commissions each year. New clients are welcomed by referral or, on rare occasion, by application.
Each memoir begins with hundreds of hours of thoughtful research and personal interviews. Stories are then crafted in close collaboration with our award-winning founder and refined by a team of writers, designers, and strategists. Every word is chosen with care, every anecdote is shaped with intention, and every element is guided entirely by client preference. These books are not written about our clients, but with them, crafted in sacred partnership to capture the truth of who they are and what they’ve lived.
We partner with exceptional individuals to capture nuance, complexity, and the quiet force of a life well lived. This results in the creation of a meaningful cultural artifact: the tale of a fleeting, human life, preserved for the generations to come.
If your story belongs among the legacies we preserve, we invite you to apply or join the waitlist.
The Memoir House
Storytellers Devoted to the Artful Preservation of Legacy.
K.H. Bickell Literary Inc. is a collective of writers, designers, and strategists devoted to the preservation of legacy through literary merit, visual craft, and elegant author services.
Our clients entrust us with their most meaningful stories: lives shaped by influence, vision, resilience, and grace. In response, we curate a team of award-winning authors, seasoned marketing partners, and elite designers to create books of lasting beauty, depth, and discretion.
Each memoir is handcrafted through a process of deep listening, narrative precision, and visual artistry, resulting in heirloom books that elevate life to enduring literature.
The Memoir House by K.H. Bickell Literary approaches every project with individualized care, clarity, and an unwavering standard of excellence.
Kate Bickell is an author, memoirist, and literary consultant with a longstanding career in shaping life stories into enduring works of art.
A published novelist and memoirist, Kate’s work has garnered critical acclaim and multiple literary honours, including the George Bugnet Award, the Howard O’Hagan Award, and the Voice of Motherhood Prize, as well as support from numerous government bodies, attesting to the cultural value and literary excellence of her work.
In her role as Literary Director and Principal Memoirist at K.H. Bickell Literary Inc., Kate oversees the artistic integrity of every manuscript. She meets directly with each client, ensuring their voice, vision, and values are preserved throughout the collaborative process. From initial interviews to final edits, no memoir leaves the studio without first passing through her exacting editorial hand.
A private manuscript consultant, former Writer in Residence for the Edmonton Federation of Libraries, and a professional mentor through esteemed author apprenticeship programs, Kate’s editorial insight has shaped hundreds of manuscripts across North America—from Vancouver to Toronto, and as far as Rochester, New York. She is an active member of The Writer’s Union of Canada and the Writer’s Guild of Alberta.
Devoted to preserving her client’s experiences with truth, clarity, and grace, Kate has written client memoirs on a wide range of topics and themes, including war & military service, natural disasters, multinational business mergers, addiction & recovery, parenthood & marriage, faith & spirituality, industrial start-ups and expansions, immigration, aviation, and more. At the intersection of legacy and literature, Kate Bickell preserves the moments that define a life—stories marked by resilience, triumph, and transformation.
Hilary Fair is an award-winning writer and psychotherapist from Ontario whose work is known for evocative lyrical prose and profound emotional insight. Her ability to craft narratives rich in depth and resonance stems naturally from her nuanced understanding of the human experience, enabling her to create a space of warmth and ease where clients feel genuinely heard, and their stories are deeply understood. The result: texts that reflect the full emotional truth of a life, with elegance, insight, and literary distinction.
Hilary’s work has been recognized by some of Canada’s most respected literary institutions, having earned Event Magazine’s Creative Non-Fiction Prize and the Amy Award for Memoir. Her essays have also been shortlisted for the prestigious Edna Staebler Award and the Humber Literary Review Prize. Additionally, Hilary’s work has appeared in such touchstone publications of Canadian literature as Event Magazine, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, The Good Life Review, Third Street Review, and the Stratford Festival’s Fanfares magazine.
Hilary lives near the shores of Lake Huron with her husband, where she is currently at work on a novel. She looks forward to working with clients who value emotional intelligence, quiet discretion, and the artful preservation of their life story.
Elisabeth Shenher is a writer whose work explores the quiet forces that shape relationships, memory, and identity across time and place. Based in Edmonton, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alberta, along with a Certificate in International Learning and a dual undergraduate degree in English and Anthropology from the University of British Columbia—credentials that reflect both her literary depth and global perspective.
A recipient of national and international honours, Elisabeth’s fiction has appeared in The Fiddlehead, earned the Australian Writers’ Centre’s Furious Fiction Prize, and been listed for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She has been awarded funding from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and was invited to the Banff Centre’s Emerging Writers’ Intensive. She routinely teaches literary craft and pedagogy across genres and platforms for various writing institutions.
At K.H. Bickell Literary, clients benefit not only from her expertise in literary craft and pedagogy, but also from her refined cultural literacy. An avid global traveller, Elisabeth’s cultural experiences enhance her ability to meets client with curiosity, elegance, and a sense of adventure in storytelling. This artistic discernment shines in her work on The Travel Journal, a series of anonymous short memoirs drawn from client interviews and commissioned by a luxury concierge service—many of which appear in the K.H. Bickell Literary Library.
Warm, perceptive, and quietly rigorous, Elisabeth is particularly skilled at shaping complex or unconventional life stories. Inspired by the late Anthony Bourdain’s ethos of openhearted exploration, she approaches each memoir with a rare blend of elegance and edge—unafraid to ask bold questions, always attuned to the emotional truth beneath the surface.
L. Fox is a multidisciplinary designer and communications strategist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. With a background in sports journalism, Fox brings to her design practice a deep understanding of narrative arc, rhythm, and emotional pacing—skills that enrich her ability to visually interpret and elevate life stories.
At K.H. Bickell Literary Inc., Fox leads the studio’s bespoke visual identity. From archival-quality covers to interior typography, layout, and heirloom packaging, her work ensures each memoir is not only masterfully written, but embodied in a form that is elegant, enduring, and artfully rendered.
Her practiced eye for legacy branding and visual storytelling is matched by focused experience in book launch campaigns and aesthetic systems. Formerly the lead designer at Always Brave Creative, Fox developed high-level branding for mission-driven organizations and public-facing leaders—a foundation that informs her discerning, author-centered approach today.
Outside the studio, Fox draws inspiration from painting, water sports (including dragon boating), and the spirited conversations of her long-standing book club.
Private. Seamless. Literary.
A Summary of Our Process
Expected Timeline: 12-18 months
Our mindfully-developed client introduction process begins with a discreet in-person meeting with our founder and the assigned memoirist (if applicable). This is followed by routine interviews over the course of the project.
1. Client Interviews
The story is penned by a literary writer and refined, chapter by chapter, in concert with our award-winning founder. Each chapter is delivered to the client as they are prepared, allowing for greater client authority in the process.
3. Memoir Drafting
The K.H. Bickell Literary team works together to copy edit and proofread the work, ensuring the book’s themes and meaning are supported by every detail.
5. Editing to Perfection
For clients seeking traditional publication, we identify appropriate houses and prepare submission packages complete with client resumes, query letters, letters of reference, and book synopsis.
7. Traditional Publication Assistance
Premium book binders are sourced to print heirloom editions, crafting the manuscript into finely-bound copies for select readers. Through bespoke presentation details, we ensure each book is as beautiful as the story it contains.
9. Printing
Our marketing partner designs and initiates a campaign to develop client assets such as a website, social media presence, and print materials, and increases book visibility through launch events and author readings. They also work to promote library acquisition, increasing royalty potential.
11. Marketing & Publicity
K.H. Bickell Literary securely stores your manuscript and is available for assistance on all future editions. The manuscript’s full copyright and electronic files are fully retained and owned by the client.
We also assist in registration with professional bodies such as The Writer’s Union of Canada— creating not just a story, but an experience to stand the test of time.
13. Ongoing Trust
2. Archival Curation
We gather the photographs, letters, and stories that shape a life, and often add to heirloom collections through our own research of genealogy sites and church or government records. Archival materials are handled with care and woven into the memoir’s fabric.
4. Client Critique
Client editing interviews are conducted to improve text, incorporate greater detail, or include additional anecdotes. Following this, refined chapter drafts are crafted in collaboration between the memoirist and literary director and delivered to the client. We develop the text until it perfectly reflects the client’s vision, with no cap on editing or revision requests.
6. Book Design
Our head of design develops mock-ups and presents cover options to the team and client. The manuscript becomes an object of art through custom design, thoughtful interior typography, and formatting worthy of its contents.
8. Legacy Placement
We secure full copyright in our client’s name. Once registered with Library and Archives Canada or the U.S. ISBN Agency, the story becomes part of the historical record for as long as our nations endure, ensuring the book exists for generations to come.
10. Online Publication
For those who wish to make their books available to the general public, we ensure manuscripts in eBook, Paperback, and Hardcover formats are properly uploaded to Amazon storefronts. We also link book revenue channels directly to client bank accounts, or provide real-time coaching on system set ups those with greater security preferences.
12. Royalty Coordination
We register the client’s book with public royalty programs such as Access Copyright and PLP. These programs are directly linked to client’s bank accounts so annual funds are automatically. Our team sets up direct deposit, or offers assist clients in the process to preserve financial security and privacy.
From The Library
We do not use client books as part of our advertising materials. This is a matter of principle—an expression of our respect for privacy and our dedication to discretion.
However, select anonymous excerpts from these privately commissioned memoirs can be viewed on our Library page.
We are also pleased to provide physical full copies of K.H. Bickell Literary titles upon purchase of a Welcome Sample.
At K.H. Bickell Literary Inc., the collaborative act of creating each book is considered a sacred trust: our texts are crafted with care, never used for promotion, and shared only with intention.