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Kevin Burns is Seven Stories, the company he launched in 1996. He is a writer, editor, and researcher with a focus on broad cultural and social issues. He has seen more than 260 books make their way into print in the commercial and academic publishing worlds, and has also assisted many projects on their way into the digital world. He has an extensive background in publishing, having developed and edited many non-fiction titles in theology, spirituality, religion, faith and culture, history, philosophy, and biography as the former commissioning editor at Novalis. As a writer and editor he draws on his experiences in the Canadian arts and cultural scene and from his work as the former producer of The Arts Report for CBC Radio. He continues to create documentaries for CBC Radio's Ideas. His documentary on Henri Nouwen, Genius Born of Anguish (co-authored with Michael W. Higgins and co-produced with Bernie Lucht) received the Gold Medal Award for Documentary at the 2013 New York Festivals. Besides his trade publishing background, he is also familiar with scholarly and academic publishing most likely because he taught Drama at the University of Alberta for twelve years. He is actively engaged in governance and volunteerism in the Canadian not-for-profit sector. He has recently completed a nine-year term as member of the board of governors of St. Jerome's University, the Catholic university federated to the University of Waterloo. He is also a member of two advisory boards: the Toronto-based Jesuit Communication Project, and the Ottawa-based Canada-Hungary Educational Foundation. In September 2016 he joined the national board of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and is a member of its Governance Committee. Also in September, Franciscan Media released his new biography, Henri Nouwen: His Life and Spirit. In September 2019, Paulist Press in the U.S. and Novalis in Canada release his co-authored book with Michael W. Higgins, Impressively Free. In the current crisis in the Catholic world concerning the formation and the role of the priest, this new book proposes the example of Henri Nouwen as a possible model for future reform.
Kevin Burns is a member of Editors Canada, The Writers Guild of Canada, The Writers' Union of Canada, and Canada's Creative Nonfiction Collective.