About

Nancy Merritt Bell is an award-winning playwright (The Mean Time, The Sinking of the Titanic), who also developed new plays for theaters in Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Paris, Berlin, Cordoba, London and Bern. For TV Nancy has developed over 20 TV series as Story Editor for the CBC, BBC, and Disney, including the Emmy-winning series The Odyssey and Anne of Everything.

She also worked extensively in film adaptation, bringing classics like Anne’s House of Dreams, Harriet the Spy and The Robber Bride to the screen. Nancy also produced and developed the documentary Let’s Do A Miracle, which premiered at the 2024 Big Apple Film Festival.

Nancy began work as a book editor in 2006 with author William Loizeaux’s YA book Wings, which went on to win the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book and the Golden Kite Award Honor Book. Since then, Nancy has edited more than 20 books for Penguin, Saint Martin’s Press, Ferrar, Straus & Giroux and others, from children’s books to murder mysteries.

She is also an author of children’s books and textbooks, and co-author of the new thrillers The Glamour of Evil and Squawk 7700. As a person with a hearing disability, Nancy loves to share stories about the lives of people with disabilities. Nancy lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter.

Praise

“As an editor, what Nancy gives to a writer is pure gold. Her insights lead to the sort of ambitious revision that can dramatically improve any text.”

~ William Loizeaux, award-winning author of Wings

“Honestly, I will be forever grateful to Nancy and wish to pass on to anyone who is considering working with her, that she is a true gift, and will in every way exceed your expectations and goals as a writer, while being a true professional and dear friend. She truly did that for me.”

~ William Kelleher, author of 20,393 Days

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“When you hire this highly talented, hardworking, thoughtful writer and editor, you also get ‘Nancy’. She is, when it comes to her many personal gifts, like Christmas. She is endlessly wise, patient, inventive, generous and just plain fun.”

~ David Pears, author of Pear-shaped, Head CBC TV Western Drama Division

​​Works