Edna Staebler was born in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario in 1906. She began her career as a teacher and later became a well-respected freelance writer in the 1940s and 50s writing articles for Maclean’s, Chatelaine, and Saturday Night, among others. She became an early innovator in creative nonfiction with Cape Breton Harbour (1972), an account of her stay in the Maritimes. Later in her life, Staebler was widely known for her series of popular cookbooks, Food That Really Schmecks, based on Mennonite home cooking. In 1991, she established the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. She died on September 12, 2006 at the age of 100.