Jan DeGrass writes in Sechelt, British Columbia, where she is former editor of Sunshine Coast Life magazine. She assists other authors with constructive critique (jandegrass.com.) and by her involvement with the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society. She has received a national award for a business article that contributed to Canadian co-operative literature and was a winner for Best Coverage of the Arts by a national newspaper association. She is the author of a corporate history book and a cookbook, Take Potluck! Her award-winning article, Loving in Leningrad, based on a true experience in the Soviet Union, became the genesis of her novel, Jazz with Ella. Her non-fiction book, The Co-op Revolution, is an account of her time in Vancouver's active co-operative movement in the 1970s (Caitlin Press, 2019.) Winter of Siege, a historical novel, was launched in 2023 by MW Books (Garden Bay) and follows the journey of a young woman in a desperate search for her mother in the besieged city of Leningrad during the harsh winter of 1941/'42.