She is the author of three books of non-fiction that blend personal essays, memoir and journalism to explore themes of love and loss, the lure of the sea and her lifelong passion for horses.

A fourth book on memoir writing includes interviews with prominent authors who practise the craft and is intended to serve as a guide for those who wish to tell their own stories.

Barbara Simmins began working as a night-time taxi driver to sustain the household and look after their four children before earning an education degree and becoming a high school teacher.

[12] In 2011, she completed a Research Master's Degree in Literacy Education at Mount Saint Vincent University after submitting a thesis on memoir writing as a renegade genre.

[16] Her 2019 article for Saltscapes on the loving partnership between the musician Matt Minglewood and his wife, Babs, won a Gold medal at the 2020 Atlantic Journalism Awards (AJAs) for arts and entertainment reporting.

[17][18] Her 2011 piece for Progress Magazine on the comedian Shaun Majumder's plan to build a eco-hotel with a five-star restaurant in his tiny hometown of Burlington, Newfoundland, also won a Gold medal at the AJAs.

That year she enrolled in a master's degree program at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax where she intended to study memoir and use her thesis as the basis for a published book.

Memoir made sense, she writes, because of all the letters, journals and essays she had published over the years, all using variations of "my direct-to-the reader voice -- which enabled me to be candid and personal as though talking to a good friend, and yet, conversely, somehow gave me enough artistic distance to craft a story.

One reviewer compared her book to a "slow-burning candle" and added that, "the warmth of Simmins's stories carry us through those dark desolate times when optimism and hope seem so faint.

"What this book describes best is that love is complicated, and for most of us, happily, we have no choice but to stay engaged, wistful or enraged, fearful or unwilling, until we get it --- the fleeting, hard-won sensation of being in sync with the edges of the unknown, beautiful in motion, constantly in change.

"[25] Simmins's 2021 book tells the improbable story of a Standardbred race horse named Somebeachsomewhere that Brent MacGrath, a car salesman from small town Truro, Nova Scotia, bought in 2006 for only $40,000 at a yearling auction in Lexington, Kentucky.

"[28] The book delves into the history and lore of harness racing and includes interviews with a wide range of professionals, but Simmins says she tried to write for both harness-racing aficionados and those with little knowledge of the sport.

Simmins writes that successful memoirs are entertaining, truthful and detailed as they explore universal themes using humour, dialogue and a narrative arc --- a beginning, middle and end that move through stages of increasing tension to "a satisfying resolution."

"[16] The writers whose interviews appear in the book are: Lawrence Hill, Plum Johnson, Linden MacIntyre, Edmund Metatawabin, Donna Morrissey, Claire Mowat and Diane Schoemperlen.

It also enlarges on her master's thesis in which she wrote: "In my teaching of memoir, to seniors and people of all ages, I have seen a uniform intensity of desire to begin writing – and muted interest in posterity.