About Miriam
Miriam Verheyden writes vulnerable, thought-provoking books exploring the intricate and sometimes paradoxical nature of being a woman in the world.
She doesn't believe in regrets, and has learnt that owning your story will set you free.
In the thick of perimenopause, Miriam has discovered that the aching joints, muscle loss, and brain fog come with a great gift: self-assurance, wisdom, and the confidence to show up as the person you really are. In her opinion, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
Miriam grew up in Germany and dropped out of college at age 23 to move to Canada to be with a much-older father-of-4 with whom she'd spent less than a month. It's a wild story with a happy ending, and it's the focus of her memoir Let's Pretend This Is Normal.
Her personal development book Quit the Hustle explores our society's unhealthy obsession with the hustle, and the danger of a culture that continually wants us to feel that we are not good enough.
In her most vulnerable book Everything Is Broken and Completely Fine she openly shares what it's like to live with mental illness, her history of self-medicating with alcohol, and her experience of being a healthcare worker during the pandemic.
After publishing three nonfiction books, Miriam has discovered a passion for fiction writing. Her first novel The Homeowner's Association is a psychological thriller about female friendships and secrets in the tightly controlled neighbourhood of a fictional small town in BC, Canada. It explores the complexities and nuances of three women's lives, the often impossible choices women face, and how it's never too late to start over and free ourselves from the past.
In 2025 she contributed the essay Angry women: The legacy of multigenerational undiagnosed mental illness to the anthology Research Yourself, collected and edited by Dr. Samantha Harden. This anthology illuminates themes such as the struggle to belong and the need to feel good enough.
Her second novel The Opposite of Belonging delves into the complicated dynamics of a family where maintaining appearances is much more important than telling the truth. Secrets, cruelty, and a terrible incident nobody talks about haunt the family. Will Agnes and her estranged aunt Olivia be able to break the family's toxic cycle?
Miriam lives on a ranch in the interior of BC with her husband and pack of dogs. When she's not writing or taking x-rays she can be found doing yoga, reading, taking her dogs for long walks, kayaking, and talking at length about the benefits of therapy.