Celebrate the stories that connect us at Toronto’s friendly, virtual book festival. Tune in to The Word On The Street from September 16th to 26th, 2021 for poetry, memoirs, mystery, & more!
A. Light Zachary is the author of More Sure, a book of poems and interruptions which is now available from Arsenal Pulp Press. Light is a Lambda Literary Fellow and an editor of The Ex-Puritan. Also an autistic and queer human being, they live between Toronto and New Brunswick.
event speaker
A.D.Sui is a Ukrainian-born, queer, disabled science fiction writer, and the author of THE DRAGONFLY GAMBIT. She is a failed academic, retired fencer, and coffee enthusiast. Her short fiction has appeared in Augur, Fusion Fragment, HavenSpec, and other venues. When not wrangling her two dogs you can find her on every social media platform as @thesuiway or on her website at www.thesuiway.ca
event speaker
A. F. Moritz has written more than twenty books of poetry, most recently, The Sparrow (2018), As Far As You Know (2020), and Great Silent Ballad (Forthcoming, Fall 2024). Moritz served as the sixth Poet Laureate of Toronto from March 2019 to May 2023. He also served for more than a decade as the Goldring Professor of the Arts and Society at Victoria University at the University of Toronto, where he continues to supervise projects in Creative Writing. Moritz has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, inclusion in the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, the Award in Literature of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Ingram Merrill Fellowship. He is a three-time nominee for the Governor General’s Award for English-language poetry (Rest on the Flight into Egypt, The Sentinel, and The New Measures). He was the winner of the ReLit Award for poetry in 2005 for Night Street Repairs. And his collection, The Sentinel, a Globe and Mail Top 100 of the Year, won the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize.
event speaker
A.G. Pasquella’s most recent book ‘Welcome To The Weird America’ has been compared to a ‘lit stick of dynamite.’ He is also the author of the Jack Palace crime novels. A.G. was born in Dallas, Texas and now lives in Toronto, Ontario.
event speaker
As a youngster, Aaron Badgley developed a profound love of The Beatles and music in general, also developing a fascination with record labels. At the age of 19, he started working in radio and by 20, he was a production manager for a number of stations in Canada. In 2005, Aaron debuted his syndicated radio show The Beatles Universe, which ran for six years. Currently, he is the host of Here Today and Backwards Traveller radio shows and cohosts From Memphis To Merseyside and The Way-Back Music Machine (with Tony Stuart). He writes for Spill Magazine and Immersive Audio Album, and has also contributed to the All Music Guide. Aaron resides in Toronto, Canada.
event speaker
Adam Bunch is an award-winning storyteller who brings the history of Toronto and Canada to life. He’s the author of The Toronto Book of the Dead and The Toronto Book of Love, the host of the Canadiana documentary series, and the creator of the Toronto History Weekly newsletter, the Festival of Bizarre Toronto History, and the Toronto Dreams Project. His work popularizing Canadian history was recognized with the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media — the Pierre Berton Award. He also teaches history at George Brown College and has created writing workshops for the Toronto Public Library. He’s spoken at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum, and his writing has appeared in The Toronto Star, Spacing Magazine and The Huffington Post. In a previous life, he was a music journalist: editor-in-chief of SoundProof Magazine and The Little Red Umbrella, a contributor to PopMatters and Sun Media’s 24 Hours commuter newspaper, and a member of the jury for the Polaris Music Prize. He also served as Creative Director for Ripple Creatives Strategies, developing marketing and communications for not-for-profit clients like the Gardiner Museum, Habitat For Humanity, Kids Help Phone, and the United Nations refugee agency. He’s lived in Toronto since he was a few weeks old, growing up along the Humber River, raised on stories of snowstorms, jazz clubs and wartime romances.
event speaker
Addison Fox is a lifelong romance reader, addicted to happy-ever-afters. She loves writing about romance as much as reading it. Addison lives in New York with an apartment full of books, a laptop that’s rarely out of sight and a wily beagle who keeps her running. You can find her at www.addisonfox.com, facebook.com/addisonfoxauthor or on Twitter (@addisonfox).
event speaker
Adriana Chartrand is a mixed-race Native woman from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her dad is Red River Metis (Michif) from St. Laurent and her mom is white. She speaks English and French and works in the film industry. She is based in Toronto.
event speaker
AGA Wilmot (BFA, MPub) is a writer and editor based out of Toronto, Ontario. They have won awards for fiction, short fiction, and screenwriting, including the Friends of Merril Short Story Contest and ECW Press’s Best New Speculative Novel Contest. For seven years they served as co-publisher and co-EIC of the Ignyte- and British Fantasy Award-nominated Anathema: Spec from the Margins. Books of AGA’s include The Death Scene Artist (Buckrider Books, 2018) and Withered (ECW Press, 2024). They are represented by Kelvin Kong of K2 Literary (k2literary.com). Find them online at agawilmot.ca.
event speaker
Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer and a Nebula and Locus Award finalist. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, Uncanny, The Puritan, Prairie Fire, The Masters Review. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop’s 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of Linghun and I AM AI.
event speaker
Alessandra Naccarato is the author of Imminent Domains: Reckoning with the Anthropocene (Essays) and Re-Origin of Species (Poems). Born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto), she is the recipient of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award and the CBC Poetry Prize, and her poetry and essays have appeared widely in publications such as The New Quarterly, Room Magazine, and Event. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and a graduate degree in Community Economic Development from Concordia University, supporting two decades of work and research in grassroots social change, community arts, and the prevention of gender-based violence. Her debut poetry collection, Re-Origin of Species, was awarded the AICW Bressani Literary Prize for Poetry, shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, longlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and named a Best Book of 2019 by CBC Books.
event speaker
Alessandra Requena is a Toronto teacher, writer, and content creator. You can find her on your favourite social-media platform talking about books @readwithriver or cooking up a storm with her grandmother @nonna.elda.cooks.
event speaker
event speaker
Alyanna Denise Chua is a Toronto-based writer and journalist whose work has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life and Zoomer, among others. She currently serves as the assistant editor at Maclean’s, where she oversees the magazine’s back-of-book section, curating stories on arts, immigration and housing from across Canada.
event speaker
Amanda Leduc is the author of the novel THE CENTAUR’S WIFE and the non-fiction book DISFIGURED: ON FAIRY TALES, DISABILITY, AND MAKING SPACE, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Nonfiction. She is also the author of an earlier novel, THE MIRACLES OF ORDINARY MEN. Her new novel, WILD LIFE, is forthcoming in spring 2025. She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
event speaker
Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, was a critically acclaimed bestseller in Canada. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review and Filling Station. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for unpublished prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars Program. Peters has a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto, and she is a graduate of the master of fine arts program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amanda Peters lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, with her fur babies, Holly and Pook.
event speaker
Amy Jones is the author of the novels We’re All in This Together and Every Little Piece of Me, and the short fiction collection What Boys Like. Her third novel, Pebble and Dove, will be published on May 30, 2023. Originally from Halifax, she currently lives in Hamilton.
event speaker
Amy Rosen is an award-winning journalist and author of seven cookbooks, including “Canada’s Best New Cookbook” (IndigoPress, 2022). As a tv presenter, Amy demonstrates recipes on Cityline and offers friendly critiques as a Food Network judge. She is also the CEO of Rosen’s Cinnamon Buns, now available across Canada.
event speaker
Amy Stuart’s fourth novel, A Death at the Party is a #1 national bestseller. In 2012, Amy completed her MFA in Creative Writing through the University of British Columbia. She worked for many years as a high school educator. Amy lives in Toronto with her husband and their three sons.
event speaker
Andrea Curtis is an award-winning Toronto writer whose books have been published around the world. Her latest nonfiction for young readers includes the just-published Loop de Loop (Groundwood), illustrated by Netherlands-based Roozeboos, and the ThinkCities series City of Neighbors, City Streets are for People, City of Water and A Forest in the City (Groundwood). Andrea lives with her family in the west end where she loves to hike, bike, doodle and dig in her veggie patch.
event speaker
Andrew F. Sullivan is the author of novels The Marigold; The Handyman Method (co-written with Nick Cutter); Waste, a Globe and Mail Best Book; and the story collection All We Want Is Everything, a Globe and Mail Best Book and finalist for the Relit Award. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
event speaker
Anime is a smart-wit packed host with a dynamic and welcoming demeanor. From her humble beginnings to becoming a Chartered Accountant Canada CPA, Anime’s wealth of knowledge and understanding spans into many different facets of life. Anime has moderated countless panel discussions and has hosted premier festivals, conventions and galas across North America. If you happen to have attended alongside the other 1.6M jet setters in Toronto, then you would have definitely watched Anime command some of Canada’s biggest festivals where she is the official Host of Taste of the Danforth on the celebrity main stage. She is an incredible act and a genuinely beautiful person.
event speaker
Ann Lambert is the author of the critically acclaimed Russell and Leduc Mystery Series, The Birds That Stay, The Dogs of Winter and Whale Fall. She has been writing, directing and producing for the theatre for 40 years, most recently with her Montreal-based company, Theatre Ouest End.
event speaker
Annahid is CEO of Anima Leadership, an award-winning equity and inclusion company. Bones of Belonging is a collection of sharp, funny and poignant stories of what it’s like to be a Brown woman working for change in a white world, building on her best-selling memoir, Breaking the Ocean.
event speaker
Antanas Sileika’s most recent novel, Some Unfinished Business, is set the former Soviet Lithuania. He is the author of six works of fiction and a memoir. An adaptation of his previous novel, Provisionally Yours, is being released in November of 2023 as a feature film in Lithuania. A separate TV serial will be released there in 2024. He has been short-listed for the Toronto Book Award and the Leacock Medal for humour.
event speaker
Anthony Oliveira (@meakoopa) is a multiple National Magazine and GLAAD award-winning author, film programmer, pop culture critic, and PhD living in Toronto. He is the writer of Dayspring, the international bestselling story of the beloved disciple of Christ. His work is in a myriad of genres, often incorporating queer themes, and spans comics, prose, journalism, and academic research.
event speaker
Anthony Salvalaggio is one of the founders and editors of Toronto Journal, established in 2022.
event speaker
Anuja Varghese (she/her) is an award-winning writer and editor based in Hamilton, ON. Her work appears in Hobart, Corvid Queen, Southern Humanities Review, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, and Plenitude Magazine, as well as the Queer Little Nightmares anthology, among others. Her debut short story collection, titled Chrysalis (House of Anansi Press, 2023) explores South Asian diaspora experience through a feminist, speculative lens. In 2023, Chrysalis won the Writers Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Find Anuja on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok (@anuja_v across platforms) or through her website www.anujavarghese.com.
event speaker
Aparita Bhandari is an arts and life reporter in Toronto. Her areas of interest and expertise lie in the intersections of gender, culture, and ethnicity. Her work has appeared in a range of Canadian and international media including the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Hazlitt magazine, and Roads & Kingdoms. She’s gone hyperlocal when she covered the many communities that make up the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. She’s also the producer of Hindi language podcasts KhabardaarPodcast.com and Darmiyaan.com
event speaker
event speaker
Ariel Bissett is a Canadian writer and filmmaker. She is the co-host of Books Unbound Podcast with over 10k weekly listeners and her YouTube channel has 310k subscribers. She has a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Ottawa and lives in Nova Scotia.
event speaker
Ariella Garmaise is a writer and critic from Toronto. She is currently an assistant editor at The Walrus where she contributes to books coverage and the editing of short fiction. Her writing and literary criticism have been published in the Washington Post, Financial Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books.
event speaker
Arpita is an educator and writer living in Toronto. She teaches at the TDSB, where in 16 years, she has served in various roles. In addition, she has taught post-secondary credit courses in English lit, ESL, and children’s literature. Arpita is also an arts journalist who has worked in radio, TV and print media. In 2012, she founded SesayArts Magazine (SesayArts.com), where she profiles diverse authors and artists, and reviews theatre, dance, film and literature. She is an avid reader and advocate for Indigenous and Canadian Lit.
event speaker
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, B.J. Daniels lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and two springer spaniels. When not writing, she quilts, boats and always has a book or two to read. Contact her at www.bjdaniels.com, on Facebook at B.J. Daniels or through her reader group the B.J. Daniels’ Big Sky Darlings, and on twitter at bjdanielsauthor.
event speaker
Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, essayist, and poetry curator, with over 300 published pieces and three books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Canada’s most diverse and brave poetry open mic series (inception 2012). The monthly series bridges the gap between communities of poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions (or lack thereof), ages, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, poetic styles, voices, and visions. Bänoo, along with Cy Strom, is the co-editor of the anthology: Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution, scheduled for publication in 2025.
event speaker
Child psychologist Barbara Fradkin is fascinated by why we turn bad. In addition to numerous short stories, she has published twenty novels in both her long-running Inspector Green series, and her Amanda Doucette series. Many of her works have been shortlisted or won Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence.
event speaker
Basil Sylvester is a writer and bookseller. Their first book, The Fabulous Zed Watson!, co-written with Kevin Sylvester, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award, the 2021 Lambda Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Night of the Living Zed is their second novel. They live in Toronto, Canada.
event speaker
Beth Kaplan, a former actress, taught memoir and personal essay writing at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University) from 1994 to 2020, and has taught for fifteen years also at the University of Toronto, where she was given the Excellence in Teaching Award. She’s the author of two memoirs, a biography, and a textbook guide to creative writing. Loose Woman: my odyssey from lost to found, about the dramatic year her life changed completely, came out in 2020 and was a finalist for the Whistler Independent Book Award.
event speaker
BH Panhuyzen has previously published a collection of short stories and two novels, along with stories in literary and speculative fiction magazines. He wrote for the Just for Laughs Festival, and has penned and performed stand-up comedy. A passionate, amateur musician (piano/ guitar/drums/uke), he lives in Toronto. He writes in the morning and dedicates afternoons to his company Neutrino Data Systems, where he is senior FileMaker Pro developer. He has taken the Giving What We Can Pledge, and donates 10% of all pre-tax income to effective altruism charities.
event speaker
Bilal hosts The Bilal Vakani Hour which airs on SiriusXM’s Canada Talks multiple times weekly. He has interviewed everyone from Neil DeGrasse Tyson to Dr. Phil. He is SiriusXM Canada’s first Senior Producer, Talent & Industry Relations. In this role he coordinates bringing the biggest name guests onto the network.
event speaker
Blair Hurley is the author of THE DEVOTED, which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Her second novel, MINOR PROPHETS, was published in 2023. Her work is published in New England Review, Electric Literature, The Georgia Review, Guernica, Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere. Her story “The Telepathist” was listed as a “Distinguished Story” in Best American Short Stories 2022. She is a Pushcart Prize winner and an ASME Fiction award finalist.
event speaker
A fresh face in comedy, Brandon has been named a JFL Montreal New Face; and was the winner of a Canadian Screen Award for his work as Head Writer on Canada’s Drag Race. In 2018, he created The Ethnic Rainbow (Canada’s first & only comedy show for LGBT comedians of colour). Brandon’s album, Capricornication, which debuted at #1 on the iTunes Canada Comedy charts made him the first Gay, Black Canadian to release a comedy album. NPR’s Bullseye named it “one of the best comedy albums of 2020.” Brandon was one of the stars of Amazon original series Last One Laughing: Canada. He most recently served as the Toronto correspondent on the longest-running comedy show in Canadian history, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
event speaker
Brenda Jackson is a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. Email Brenda at authorbrendajackson@gmail.com or visit her on her website at brendajackson.net.
event speaker
Brendan is currently a Senior Content Manager at Wattpad, helping a team of talented editors and data specialists to discover, develop, and deliver new webnovels to readers across the globe. Prior to that, Brendan worked in digital marketing, managing data-driven campaigns for multinational clients. He also spent 8 years at Simon & Schuster Canada, where, as a Senior Editor, he helped to grow the company’s Canadian publishing program by crafting bestselling books from influential authors, including former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Beverley McLachlin, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, and NHL legends Tie Domi and Wendel Clark.
event speaker
Brian McLachlan is the cartoonist of Draw out The Story: 10 Secrets to Creating Your Own Comics and Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library. He writes Owl Magazine’s Spruce Street Squad comic. Brian’s cartoons have appeared in the New Yorker, the Nib and Nickelodeon Magazine.
event speaker
Born and raised in Kingston, Ontario, Britta Badour, better known as Britta B. is an award-winning artist, public speaker, voice talent, and poet living in Toronto. She is the author of the poetry collection and audiobook, Wires that Sputter, published by McClelland & Stewart. Britta is a Trillium Book Award Finalist for Poetry and her work has been shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, as well as longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. Britta holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph and teaches spoken word performance at Seneca College.
event speaker
Brooke Lockyer holds an MA in English in the Field of Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in Toronto Life, carte blanche, the Hart House Review, White Wall Review and Geist. Born in Southwestern Ontario, Lockyer currently resides with her family in Toronto.
event speaker
Bryn Turnbull is an internationally bestselling author of historical fiction. Her debut novel, The Woman Before Wallis, was named one of the top ten bestselling works of Canadian fiction for 2020. Her second, The Last Grand Duchess, came out in 2022 and spent eight weeks on Canadian bestseller lists. Her third novel, The Paris Deception, comes out on May 30th.
event speaker
USA Today bestselling, RITA-nominated, and critically-acclaimed author Caitlin Crews has written more than 130 books and counting. She has a Masters and Ph.D. in English Literature, thinks everyone should read more category romance, and is always available to discuss her beloved alpha heroes. Just ask. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her comic book artist husband, is always planning her next trip, and will never, ever, read all the books in her to-be-read pile. Thank goodness.
event speaker
Camille Hernández-Ramdwar is a multiracial, transnational author, scholar, and independent consultant. Her debut collection of short stories Suite as Sugar was published by Rare Machines/Dundurn Press in April 2023. She is currently working on a book about the failures of anti-racism initiatives in Canadian universities, as well as a novel of historical fiction spanning multiple continents and eras.
event speaker
Canisia Lubrin is a writer, editor and teacher, author of five books, including The Dyzgraphxst and The World After Rain (M&S, 2025). Her work has received a 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and Griffin Poetry Prize, among others. Lubrin has held fellowships at the Banff Centre, Civitella Ranieri, Literature Colloquium, and several universities. She is Asst. Professor and coordinator of the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA in the School of English & Theatre Studies, and poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart. Code Noir (Knopf, 2024) her fiction debut, contains 59 drawings by acclaimed visual artist, Torkwase Dyson.
event speaker
Carey Sookocheff is a picture book illustrator and author with over a dozenbooks to her credit, including The Remembering Stone (GroundwoodBooks) and Lost Things (Kids Can Press). Carey also teaches in the Bachelorof Illustration program at Sheridan College. Although she grew up on theCanadian prairies, she now lives in Toronto with her family and theirexuberant dog Rosie.
event speaker
Carol Dunsmore (she/her)Manager, Author Communications & EventsCarol Dunsmore works in Harlequin’s Toronto office, supporting editorial teams in Toronto, New York and London to find new voices in romantic fiction. Previously, she worked in the pensions and investment industry. She lives in Toronto with her family and enjoys spending time outdoors in winter and summer.
event speaker
Caroline Fernandez loves to write children’s books for curious kids. She’s won awards for her fantastic stories, like the exciting chapter book series “Asha and Baz” which highlights real-life historical women in STEM. She has written numerous picture books including; “Hide And Seek: Wild Animal Groups in North America” and “The Adventures of Grandamasaurus” (series) and “Stop Reading This Book“. For those looking for a big adventure, watch for her upcoming middle-grade historical novel “Plague Thieves.” Caroline writes, drinks tea, and bakes in Toronto, ON. Twitter and Instagram: @ParentClub
event speaker
Cary Fagan is the author of nine novels and five books of short stories. He has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Writers’ Trust Fiction Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and has won the Toronto Book Award and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award.
event speaker
event speaker
Cassidy McFadzean is the author of three books of poetry: Crying Dress (House of Anansi, 2024), Drolleries (McClelland & Stewart 2019), shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, and Hacker Packer (M&S 2015), which won two Saskatchewan Book Awards and was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Joyland, The Walrus, Hazlitt, and in Dead Writers, a collaborative anthology out this fall with Invisible Publishing. Cassidy was born in Regina and currently lives in Toronto, where she is the 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence at Sheridan College.
event speaker
Catch Me in the Kitchen Audio Adventures is a collection of reimagined classic tales for children ages 4-10. Over their long careers, Canadian storytellers Ginette Mohr and Stephen LaFrenie have delighted young audiences across Canada and around the world. For info on their stories and performances, visit catchmeinthekitchen.com
event speaker
Catherine Graham is the author of The Most Cunning Heart and the award-winning novel Quarry. Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards and The Celery Forest was named a CBC Best Book of the Year. She leads the TIFA Book Club and co-hosts The Hummingbird Podcast. www.catherinegraham.com @catgrahampoet
event speaker
Catherine Hernandez is a proud queer woman of colour and an award-winning author. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian heritage and is married into the Navajo Nation. Her debut novel, Scarborough, which was adapted into an award-winning motion picture, won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award as an unpublished manuscript. It was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Edmund White Award, the Trillium Book Award and Canada Reads. Her second novel, Crosshairs, made the CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction list and was named one of NOW magazine’s 10 Best Books, one of NBC’s 20 Best LGBTQ Books and an Audible Best Audiobook. Her third novel, The Story of Us, was shortlisted for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and longlisted for a Toronto Book Award. Catherine Hernandez is also the author of the children’s books M Is for Mustache A Pride ABC Book, I Promise and Where Do Your Feelings Live? Her most recent novel, Behind You, was published this year. Before it hit the shelves, it was optioned by Conquering Lion Pictures to become a feature film, with Catherine writing the screenplay. Catherine Hernandez lives outside Toronto.
event speaker
Catherine Tinley is a multi award-winning writer of witty, heartwarming Regency Romance. Her first novel, Waltzing with the Earl, won the Rita(R) Award for Best Historical Romance 2018, and she has since won the 2021 RoNA award, the 2021 HOLT medallion, and the 2022 RoNA award for Best Historical Romance. She lives in Ireland with her family and can be reached at www.CatherineTinley.com and on social media at https://linktr.ee/CTinley
event speaker
Catriona Wright is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her most recent poetry collection, Continuity Errors, was published by Coach House Books in 2023. She is also the author of the poetry collection Table Manners and the short story collection Difficult People. Her writing has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Walrus, Grain, The New Quarterly, and elsewhere.
event speaker
Chantal Braganza is a Toronto-based writer and deputy editor of food at Chatelaine magazine. She has written for The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Hazlitt, and The New York Times Magazine, and has been nominated for multiple National Magazine Awards. Her first book is forthcoming from Strange Light Press.
event speaker
Chantel Guertin is the bestselling author of eight novels, including the instant Globe and Mail bestseller, TWO FOR THE ROAD (aka GIGI, LISTENING in the USA). Her previous novel, INSTAMOM, was a PopSugar Best Beach Read of 2021. She has worked as a beauty expert on Canada’s number one daytime talk show The Marilyn Denis Show, and as an editor of various fashion and beauty magazines. She lives in Toronto with her family. Find her on IG and TikTok at @chantelguertin.
event speaker
Charlene Chua (she/they) is the illustrator of multiple picture books, including Stonewall award winner Love, Violet, Blue Spruce nominee Going Up! and the Amy Wu book series. She is also the author-illustrator of Hug?When they are not making art, they enjoy cooking, reading, and playing with their cats. Charlene lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
event speaker
Cherie Dimaline is an author from the Georgian Bay Métis Community. Her book The Marrow Thieves won the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature, the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, and the Governor General’s Literary Award, among others. Its sequel, Hunting by Stars, was published in 2021 to great acclaim, and has been selected as Book of the Year from NPR, Indigo, and Kobo, and is a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, as well as a Cityline Book Club Pick for December 2021.
event speaker
Cheryl Isaacs is a Mohawk/white writer and the author of The Unfinished, a story born while running the trails of southern Ontario’s Carolinian forests. Cheryl educates by day, writes by night and is always on the lookout for delightfully creepy things.
event speaker
Chinelo Onwualu is a Nigerian writer, editor and recovering journalist. She is former co-editor of Anathema magazine, the co-founder of Omenana, a magazine of African Speculative Fiction, and former chief spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society. She’s a 2014 graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, which she attended as the recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship. Her short stories have been featured in several magazines and anthologies, including the award-winning Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, The Saga Anthology of Science Fiction 2020, and 2021’s Best of World SF Vol.1. She’s been nominated for the Nommo Award for African Speculative Fiction. Ex Marginalia, her debut anthology of essays by speculative fiction writers of colour, is available now through Hydra House Books.
event speaker
Christina Gonzales is an award-winning writer based in Toronto. She was previously the opinions editor at Maclean’s magazine. She is working on her first fiction novel.
event speaker
Christopher DiRaddo is the author of the novels The Family Way, shortlisted for the F.G Bressani Literary Prize, and The Geography of Pluto. He lives in Montreal where he is the founder and host of the Violet Hour Reading Series & Book Club, which has to date provided a platform for more than 275 LGBTQ+ writers in Canada.
event speaker
Clarissa Trinidad Gonzalez was born in Manila, where she grew up with her family’s stranger-than-fiction stories. She developed a love for philosophy and classics in university. She then worked as a copywriter in advertising and later became associate creative director. She spent her twenties trekking around the Philippines, sampling regional food, and experiencing the hospitality of her fellow Filipinos.She moved to Canada in the mid-nineties, worked as a designer, then studied creative writing at the University of Toronto. She now works in communications. She lives in Toronto, with her spouse and daughter.
event speaker
event speaker
Colleen Coco Collins [she/they] is an interdisciplinary artist of Irish, French, and Odawa descent, working in songwriting, performance, poetry and visual arts. She’s worked as a gallery director, in forestry, fossil preparation, and renovation; as an autism support worker, teacher, and women’s shelter counsellor. Her writing, music, and art practice centers on temporality, presumptions of sentience, subversion, rhythm, gesture, geographies, biophonies, frequencies, the ouroboric, the peripatetic, love and the polyglottic. Hailing from Antler River/Deshkan Ziibiing/London, Ontario, Coco has studied at universities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New Zealand/Aotearoa, and Ireland/Éire. She lives litorally and autistically in rural Port Greville, Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia amidst crows, coyotes, grackles, bees, humpback, lichen and fox.
event speaker
Connie Gault has written for stage and radio and film. Her first novel, Euphoria, won a Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and was short-listed for the High Plains Fiction Award and the Commonwealth Prize for Best Novel of Canada and the Caribbean. A Beauty won the 2016 Saskatchewan Book of the Year as well as the award for fiction, and was long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. A former prose editor of Grain magazine, Connie has also edited books of fiction and has taught many creative writing classes and mentored emerging writers. After spending most of her life in Saskatchewan, she now lives in London, Ontario.
event speaker
Corinna Chong’s first novel, Belinda’s Rings, was published by NeWest Press in 2013, and her short fiction has appeared in magazines across Canada. Her debut collection of short stories, The Whole Animal, was published this spring by Arsenal Pulp Press. She lives in Kelowna, BC and teaches at Okanagan College.
event speaker
Corinne Promislow is a principal in the Toronto District School Board with over 28 years of teaching and administrative experience. Corinne is dedicated to creating a positive culture and challenging all forms of hate and inequity in her work with students and educators. She has developed resources, provided professional development, and chaired committees to foster inclusion and anti-discrimination. Corinne lives and works in Toronto and enjoys spending time with her little dog Bean.
event speaker
D.A. Lockhart is the author of multiple collections of poetry and short fiction. His work has been shortlisted for numerous awards. It has appeared widely throughout Turtle Island including, The Malahat Review, Grain, CV2, TriQuarterly, The Fiddlehead, ARC Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry, Best New Poetry from the Midwest, and Belt. He is a graduate of the Indiana University – Bloomington MFA in Creative Writing program where he held a Neal-Marshall Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing. He is pùkuwànkoamimëns of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation. Lockhart currently resides at Waawiiyaatanong and Pelee Island where he is the publisher at Urban Farmhouse Press.
event speaker
Daniel Allen Cox is the author of four novels and I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, shortlisted for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly. Daniel’s essays have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Electric Literature, and The Malahat Review and have been recognized by the National Magazine Awards, Best Canadian Essays, and The Best American Essays.
event speaker
Daniel Maluka is a self-taught, Toronto-based artist and writer originally from South Africa. He merges Afrocentric influences with surrealist elements to explore the depths of the subconscious in his art. Daniel’s visually captivating pieces have gained international recognition, being featured in galleries across Toronto and collected worldwide.In addition to his visual art, Daniel has made notable contributions to literature. His works have been published in various magazines, and he has led numerous poetry workshops. His debut poetry collection, Unwashed, published by Mawenzi House, was featured in CBC’s “37 Most Anticipated Poetry Books for Spring 2024.” The collection is known for its visceral, image-rich poetry.
event speaker
David Demchuk has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the Aurora Award, and has won the Sunburst Award. His most recent book, RED X, was published in 2021 by Strange Light. After many years in Toronto, he and his husband now live by the sea in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
event speaker
Deborah Kimmett has been making people laugh on the stage and page for over 45 years. She has been a regular on CBC’s Debaters for 18 years as well as on CBC’s Laugh out Loud and the comedy festivals. She was nominated twice for the National Magazine Award for Humour. As well, she has been shortlisted for the Governor-General Award for her play Miracle Mother. Her lead in the movie, Keep Coming Back debuted at the Palm Springs Film Festival, and Whistler Film Festival which garnered a best actress nomination for ACTRA. She has appeared on Canadian gems like Frankie Drake, Tall Boyz, and Gayle Pyle. As well, she is an accomplished author of four books, Reality is Overrated and That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funnier, Out Running Crazy and her new book Window-shopping for God was recently published and has been named one of Canada’s 2024 books with buzz. She has taught memoir writing and comedy writing for 25 years and she is the creator and architect of The Seven Minute Writer Toolkit
event speaker
Deirdre Kelly is a Canadian journalist, author and internationally recognized arts critic and style writer. She holds a Master’s degree in English from the University of Toronto and is the best-selling author of the nonfiction books, Paris Times Eight and Ballerina: Sex, Scandal and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection, the latter taking the number one spot on a Top 10 list of the world’s best ballet books published by the Guardian newspaper in 2021. Her next book, Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks that Shook the World, will be published in the fall of 2023 by Sutherland House Books.
event speaker
Dianah Smith writes to grieve/retrieve the past, make sense of the present, and leave a legacy for the future. She has been published by the University of Alberta Press, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Best of rabble.ca, and Shameless Magazine.
event speaker
Dominik Parisien is a disabled, bisexual French Canadian and the author of the poetry collection Side Effects May Include Strangers, and the forthcoming memoir On a Scale of 1 to 500 Miles: A Memoir of Chronic Pain. He also co-edited several award-winning anthologies, including The Mythic Dream and The Starlit Wood.
event speaker
DR. DAVE WILLIAMS is a renowned and highly respected space expert and speaker in Canada, a former astronaut who completed two space walks during two trips to space. He has published four books with Annick Press. He lives in Oakville, Ontario.
event speaker
Drew Hayden Taylor is an award winning playwright, novelist, journalist and filmmaker. Born and living on the Curve Lake First Nation, Drew has done practically everything from performing stand up comedy at the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. to being Artistic Director of Canada’s Premiere Indigenous theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. Currently his 35th book, a novel titled COLD, published by McClellend & Stewart was recently released, and the third season of his documentary series on APTN, Going Native, will start at the end of August.
event speaker
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is an mixed-Arab a writer living in Tio’tia:ke. Their book, knot body, was published by Metatron Press in 2020, and their second book, The Good Arabs, published by Metonymy Press in 2021, was granted the honorary mention for poetry by the Arab American Book Awards and won the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Their translation of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s La fille d’elle-même was published April 2023. With co-editor Samia Marshy, they edited El Ghourabaa, an anthology of queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers, published June 2024.
event speaker
Elyse Friedman is a critically acclaimed author of six books. Her work has been short-listed for the Trillium Book Award, The Toronto Book Award, the Relit Award and the Tom Hendry Award. Her short story The Soother, won the gold National Magazine Award for fiction, and she has twice won the TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award. Her most recent novel, The Opportunist, is her first thriller. Elyse lives in Toronto.
event speaker
Emily Saso’s new novel, Nine Dash Line, is a thriller set in the South China Sea. Her darkly funny debut, The Weather Inside, is about a former Jehovah’s Witness in Toronto. She holds her master’s degree in political science with a specialization in international relations and security studies.
event speaker
Emily Urquhart is the author of three books of nonfiction. The most recent, Ordinary Wonder Tales, is a collection of essays. She teaches creative writing, works as a nonfiction editor for The New Quarterly, and is a five-time National Magazine Award nominee for her freelance journalism.
event speaker
Emma Healey is the author, most recently, of Best Young Woman Job Book: A Memoir, published by Random House Canada in 2022. She is also the author of two books of poetry, Begin with the End in Mind and Stereoblind. Her writing has been published in places like n+1, Vulture, The LA Review of Books, the Globe and Mail, Canadian Art and many, many more.
event speaker
event speaker
Erin Hawryluk loved drawing so much that she became an illustrator. With a background in animation and a love for storytelling, creating children’s books has always been a dream. Seeing a special story come to life is what it’s all about. Erin is the illustrator of the children’s book Getting Glam at Gram’s. She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her family.
event speaker
Farah is a critically acclaimed writer of romantic comedies for adults and teenagers. Her books have been praised in Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and the Globe and Mail, and have been named as best books of the year by CBC books and NPR. She lives in Toronto with her family.
event speaker
Growing up, Farah Qaiser always had her head buried in a book. She is a scientist by training, a DNA detective if you will, and has worn many hats, from working in policy to writing for newspapers. Farah holds a Master of Science from the University of Toronto. She hopes that Khadija And the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment will help draw children into the world of science, a world they belong in.
event speaker
Farzana Doctor is a Tkaronto-based author, activist and psychotherapist. She’s written four critically acclaimed novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, and Seven, a poetry collection, You Still Look The Same and a self- and community care workbook for helpers and activists, 52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life. The Beauty of Us, her first YA book, has just come out. Farzana is a founding member of the End FGM Canada Network and oof WeSpeakOut. In 2023, Farzana received the prestigious Freedom To Read Award.
event speaker
Gary Barwin is the author of 31 books including Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction 2024-1984 and the national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates which won the Leacock Medal and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the Giller Prize and was long listed for Canada Reads. He lives in Hamilton.
event speaker
Geoffrey D. Morrison’s debut novel, Falling Hour, was published in February 2023 with Coach House Books. He is also author of the poetry chapbook Blood-Brain Barrier and coauthor of the experimental short fiction collection Archaic Torso of Gumby. He lives on the unceded Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh territory.
event speaker
The 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17), George Elliott Clarke hails from Windsor, Nova Scotia, as of 1960 Clarke is also a pioneering scholar of African-Canadian literature, with two major tomes to his credit: Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature (2002) and Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature (2012). A professor of English at the University of Toronto, Clarke has taught at Duke, McGill, the University of British Columbia, and Harvard. He holds eight honorary doctorates, plus appointments to the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada at the rank of Officer. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. His recognitions include the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre Fellowship (US), the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry, the Premiul Poesis (Romania), the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (US), and International Fellow Poet of the Year, Encyclopedic Poetry School [2019] (China). His acclaimed titles include Whylah Falls (1990, translated into Chinese), Beatrice Chancy (1999, translated into Italian), Execution Poems (2001), Blues and Bliss (selected poems, 2009), I & I (2008), Illicit Sonnets (U.K., 2013), Traverse (2015), Canticles II (MMXX) (2020), Canticles III (MMXXII) (2022), and J’Accuse…! (Poem versus Silence) (2021). Clarke penned the libretto for James Rolfe’s triumphant, tragic opera, Beatrice Chancy (1998), plus two lyrics for Four the Moment’s 2022 Polaris Slaight Heritage Prize-winning album, We’re Still Standing (1987).
event speaker
The 4th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2012-15) and the 7th Parliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate (2016-17), George Elliott Clarke’s recognitions include the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry, a Bellagio Center (Italy) Fellowship (US), the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellows Prize, the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry, the National Magazine Gold Award for Poetry, the Premiul Poesis (Romania), the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (US), and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award.
event speaker
Georgia Wilder’s publications include her poetry collection, “Atom-Bomb Nostalgia” in Best New Poets in Canada (Quattro). Individual poems and stories have appeared in Temenos, Prism Review, Dovetails, Bad Dog Magazine, and The Journey Prize Anthology. Her new manuscript of interconnected poems entitled The Change is currently under submission. She teaches writing and English literature at the University of Toronto, and for many years produced the poetry salon, Wild Writers. She now holds poetry and art events at the historic Foy House mansion on Isabella Street.
event speaker
Gillian Rodgerson is a freelance editor, specialising in fiction by emerging writers. Formerly the Managing Editor of Second Story Press and Senior Editor at Insomniac Press, Gillian now teaches editing trade fiction in the Publishing Certificate Program at the Chang School at Toronto Metropolitan University.
event speaker
Gregory Betts is a poet and professor whose work consistently explores concrete, constrained, or collaborative poetics. He is the author of 11 books of poetry, including BardCode (2024) a visual rendering of the sound patterns in Shakespeare’s sonnets. His poems have been stenciled into the sidewalks of St. Catharines and selected by the SETI Institute to be implanted into the surface of the moon. He performed at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, as part of the Cultural Olympiad. He is the curator of the bpNichol.ca Digital Archive, and author of the award-winning books Finding Nothing: the VanGardes 1959-1975 and Avant-Garde Canadian Literature.
event speaker
Hajer Nakua is a PhD graduate from the University of Toronto. Her research investigated the relationship between brain development and mental health symptoms in children. Hajer passionate about making science accessible. She uses social media to share mental health and neuroscience research with her North American and Middle Eastern followers on Instagram (in English and Arabic). Hajer also enjoys giving talks about neuroscience to children and youth. Hajer is the co-author of a recently published book, Khadija and the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment, which aims to encourage young girls to pursue their curiosities and see themselves in the world of science.
event speaker
Hana Shafi, who illustrates under the name Frizz Kid, Desi and Iranian artist and writer. Both her visual art and writing frequently explore themes such as feminism, body politics, mental health, and more. Her first book, It Begins With The Body, was selected by CBC books as one of the best poetry books of 2018. Her third book People You Know, Places You’ve Been, a compilation of her poetry and illustrations, is out now.
event speaker
Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute. Connect with her on Facebook, on Twitter @HannahMMcKinnon, and on Instagram @HannahMaryMcKinnon.
event speaker
Harriet Alida Lye is the author of three books for grown-ups but this is her first for kids, and she’s excited to be able to read her work to her children. Her favourite food is apples–she has only eaten a snail one time, and never, ever a slug. She lives in Toronto.
event speaker
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham has written more than a hundred novels. She’s a winner of the RWA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Thriller Writers’ Silver Bullet. She is an active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America. For more information, check out her websites: TheOriginalHeatherGraham.com, eHeatherGraham.com, and HeatherGraham.tv. You can also find Heather on Facebook.
event speaker
event speaker
Egyptian-born and Canadian raised, Heba Helmy holds an MA in English Literature and a Ph.D. in Education (both from the University of Toronto). A former high school teacher and current part-time professor, her academic practice focuses on culturally sustaining narratives –and her creative one is all about storytelling that centres love!
event speaker
NYT and USA Today bestselling author, Helena Hunting, lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her amazing husband and daughter and their emotional, chatty cat. She writes contemporary romance and romantic comedies full of heat and heart. When she wants to dive into her angsty side, she writes new adult romance under H. Hunting.
event speaker
Hoda Adra is a poet and translator who was born in Lebanon and grew up in Saudi Arabia until age 17, before moving to Montreal in 2002. Her writing explores gender apartheid, aborted oral histories, and the politics of marginalization of female bodies and movements. Hoda’s participations include The Banff Spoken Word Programme and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. In 2021, her translations of Palestinian oral history archives in Voices of the Nakba (Pluto Press) received the PEN Translates Award. Her storytelling solo “L’histoire de comment je me suis séparée en deux” premieres in november at Théâtre Prospero.
event speaker
Hollay Ghadery is a multi-genre writer living in rural Ontario on Anishinaabe land. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental illness, was published by Guernica Editions’ MiroLand imprint in 2021. Her debut collection of poetry, Rebellion Box, is out with Radiant Press in April 2023.
event speaker
Hudson Lin grew up straddling two cultures with often times conflicting perspectives on life. Instead of conforming to either, she has sought to find a third way that brings together the positive elements of both. Lin writes diverse romances featuring queer and disabled people of color.
event speaker
Irene Marques is a bilingual writer (English and Portuguese) and Lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University in the department of English. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, Masters in French Literature and Comparative Literature (University of Toronto) and a Bachelor of Social Work (Ryerson University, now TMU). Her published creative works include, among others, three collections of poetry and the novels Daria (Inanna Publications, 2021) and Uma Casa no Mundo (Imprensa Nacional/Portugal, 2021), which won Prémio Imprensa Nacional/Ferreira de Castro. Her fourth collection of poetry, The Bare Bones of Our Alphabet will be out in September, 2024 (Mawenzi House). Irene Marques was born and raised in Portugal and moved to Canada at the age of 20.
event speaker
Itah Sadu is an award-winning storyteller and children’s author. She is the co-owner of the iconic Toronto bookstore A Different Booklist, specializing in African and Caribbean Canadian literature. Itah is the Managing Director of the Blackhurst Cultural Centre – The People’s Residence. She is a founding member of the annual Toronto Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride. Itah lives with her family in Toronto.
event speaker
JANIKA OZA is the author of the novel A History of Burning, out in May 2023 from McClelland & Stewart. She is the winner of a 2022 O. Henry Award and the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award. She lives in Toronto.
event speaker
Jeff Szpirglas is the author of several works for young people, including the Countdown to Danger series for Scholastic Canada and the Book of Screams series from Orca. He is also the co-author, with Danielle Saint-Onge, of a number of Orca Echoes titles, including Shark Bait!, X Marks the Spot! and Super Switch. Jeff has worked at CTV and was an editor at Chirp, Chickadee and Owl magazines. In his spare time, he teaches grade school. Jeff lives with his family in Kitchener, Ontario.
event speaker
Jennifer Hillier is the USA Today, Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark, described as “an intoxicating thrill ride” by the New York Times and “propulsive and chilling” by People magazine. She currently lives in Oakville, Ontario with her family.
event speaker
Jennifer Maruno, former elementary school principal, is the author of eight novels for middle grade and young adult readers as well as four picture books. Her novels of historical fiction, which focus on Canadian history, have received many award nominations and commendations. Her latest picture book, While You Sleep, was selected by The Bank Street College of Education’s The Best Children Books of the Year (for books published in 2022). She received her Master of Education from Brock University. Jennifer enjoys full time writing, travelling and mentoring other writers. She lives in Burlington, Ontario.
event speaker
Jennifer Mook-Sang has written award nominated books Speechless and Captain Monty Takes the Plunge. Her latest picture book The Care and Keeping of Grandmas has won praise from Kirkus Reviews: “Warmth and love shine through this tale of intergenerational bonding.” Jennifer lives and writes in Burlington, Ontario.
event speaker
Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio is a Filipina-Canadian community worker, speaker, and founder of Filipino Talks– a program that builds bridges between educators and Filipino families. After years of working with newcomers in Toronto’s schools and libraries and leading tours of Toronto’s Little Manila, she began to write as a form of self-care. Her debut novel, Reuniting with Strangers, was longlisted for Canada Reads, was a finalist for the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award, and won the silver medal for multicultural fiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Jennilee is a founding member of Salaysay, a collective of Filipino authors based in Toronto.
event speaker
Jerrod Edson is the author of six books. His most recent novel, The Boulevard —hailed by author Ian Colford as an “irreverent triumph”— features Ernest Hemingway, Vincent van Gogh, and Satan on a train ride through Hell. Edson was the recipient of the 2013 David Adams Richards Prize for his novella, The Moon is Real, while his novel, The Goon, was shortlisted for the 2011 Relit Award. He lives in Mississauga, ON, with his wife Leigh and daughters Hadley and Harper.
event speaker
Joel A. Sutherland is the award-winning author of House of Ash and Bone (Tundra Books), Screamers (Scholastic Canada), numerous volumes of Haunted Canada (a series that now has more than 500,000 copies in print, has recently been adapted into a graphic novel, and is being developed for television), and Summer’s End (a Red Maple Award Honour Book). His series, Haunted, including The House Next Door, was praised by Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. He has a Masters of Information and Library Studies from Aberystwyth University in Wales and lives in southeastern Ontario with his family. Visit him at joelasutherland.com.
event speaker
John Brady McDonald is a Nêhiyawak-Métis writer, artist, historian, musician, playwright, actor and activist born and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He is from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Mistawasis Nêhiyawak. He is the author of several books, his latest is Carrying It Forward: Essays from Kistahpinânihk. John lives in Northern Saskatchewan.
event speaker
John Brower became a seminal figure in the Toronto music scene in 1963 when his high school rock band The Diplomats were amongst a small number of bands that reigned supreme on the Toronto circuit. His early concerts paved the way for rock promotion to become one of the country’s biggest exports as Live Nation and its progenitors benefited from Brower’s early milestone events. He was first to bring major rock artists to Canada on a weekly basis in Toronto. His club The Rockpile, a late 60’s venue following in the tradition of Bill Graham’s Fillmore held sway to everyone from The Who to Led Zeppelin and brought international stars to Toronto every week during the formative rock years. His first pop festival in June 1969 preceded Woodstock by several months. For his rock and roll revival in September of 69 he invited John Lennon who appeared unannounced with the Plastic Ono Band featuring Eric Clapton. Lennon’s appearance there is considered to be the impetus for his leaving The Beatles and striking out on his own. Wikipedia’s listing of the top 30 legendary music festivals lists five produced by Brower including; The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival 1969, where John Lennon made his break from The Beatles, The Strawberry Fields Festival, considered Canada’s Woodstock, and The Heatwave Festival, the landmark turning point in New Wave music that ushered in the 80’s. His life’s work has included poetry, creative writing, social activism and generosity of the human spirit. He is currently producing film and television properties based on his personal experiences in the music business. He lives in Venice California with an extended family that includes two dogs and three cats.
event speaker
Joni has 6 years experience in digital indie publishing and is Wattpad’s Creator Community Manager, focusing on writer education. She has a background in teaching and editing, and works primarily with the writers in Wattpad’s Creator Program to help them succeed on the platform.
event speaker
Judy Eaton is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford Campus where she researches the causes, consequences and resolution of interpersonal conflict. Using a social cognitive framework, her research has examined the role of apology and other gestures of remorse in facilitating forgiveness
event speaker
Judy I. Lin is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Book of Tea duology. She writes stories inspired by the legends and myths she grew up with in Taiwan and currently lives on the Canadian prairies.
event speaker
event speaker
Daphne du Maurier Award finalist, K.D. Richards writes pulse pounding romantic suspense and thrillers. K.D. was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C. A writer since a young age, after college she earned a law degree and worked as an attorney and legal instructor for fifteen years but never stopped writing fiction. She currently lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons.
event speaker
K.J. Aiello is a mentally ill, award-winning writer based in Toronto, ON. Their work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, Chatelaine, The Walrus, and This Magazine. They are still waiting for their very own dragon. Sadly, this has not happened, so their cats will have to suffice.
event speaker
K.R. Byggdin is the author of Wonder World, a ReLit Award finalist and winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Their writing has appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. Born and raised on the Prairies, they currently divide their time between Halifax and Toronto as an MFA candidate at the University of Guelph.
event speaker
Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performance artist, and community healer in Toronto. She is the author of the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir (Metonymy Press), the essay collection I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes at the End of the World (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in 2018), and the children’s picture books From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li, and For Laika, the Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching. Kai Cheng won the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers in 2017.
event speaker
Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning Canadian children’s author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. Since 2007, she has authored over 30 books. Kari-Lynn holds a Full Professor position in Brock University ‘s Faculty of Education, where she teaches literacy and the arts to teacher candidates. Her research interests include equitable arts education, literacy, authorship, children’s literature, and embodied literacies. See her website: www.kariwinters.com.
event speaker
Karon Liu is a staff food reporter for the Toronto Star. He recently helped launch a new food section focusing on the hidden gems and culinary vastness of the Greater Toronto Area. His writing can be found every Thursday in the paper.
event speaker
Kate Cayley has published two short story collections and three collections of poetry, and her plays have been performed in Canada, the US and the UK. She has won the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Mitchell Prize for Poetry.
event speaker
Kate Story is a genderqueer writer and performer who works across genres: literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, YA, and devised performance. She was awarded the K.M. Hunter Award for theatre, and her latest novel Urchin was a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist and NL Reads finalist. Ferry Back the Gifts is Kate’s debut short fiction collection.
event speaker
Kathleen McDonnell is the author of nine books of non-fiction and fiction, and has written more than a dozen plays, many of which have had award-winning productions in Canada and the United States. She lives on Toronto Island; a vibrant, mostly car-free community a ten-minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto. A graduate of the University of Toronto, Kathleen is also a musician, deeply involved in the traditional music of her ancestral homeland, Ireland.
event speaker
KATHY FRIEDMAN is the author of the short story collection All the Shining People (House of Anansi, 2022), a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She teaches in Humber College’s Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing program and is the co-founder and artistic director of InkWell Workshops. Originally from Durban, South Africa, she now lives in Tkaronto
event speaker
Katie Underwood is an award-winning journalist and the current managing editor at Maclean’s magazine. Previously, she held editorial positions at Chatelaine and The Grid, and her byline has appeared in such fine publications as The Walrus, Toronto Life, the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. She just got into audiobooks.
event speaker
Katie Wicks was born and raised in Montreal, Canada, where she now lives and writes full time. An amateur guitar and tennis player, Katie has been obsessed with reality TV singing competitions since American Idol debuted twenty-years ago, but has never worked up the courage to audition herself. Hazel Fine Sings Along is Katie’s debut novel.
event speaker
Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of numerous books for young readers. His award-winning Silverwing trilogy has sold over a million copies worldwide and was adapted into an animated TV series and stage play. Airborn won a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award; its sequel, Skybreaker, was a New York Times bestseller and was named Children’s Novel of the Year by the Times (UK). Kenneth Oppel is also the author of Half Brother, This Dark Endeavor, The Boundless, The Nest, Every Hidden Thing, Inkling and the Bloom trilogy. His latest novel is Ghostlight. Ken Oppel lives with his family in Toronto.
event speaker
KERN CARTER is the author of Boys and Girls Screaming, along with two self-published novels, Thoughts of a Fractured Soul (novella) and Beauty Scars. In addition to his writing, Kern is a filmmaker and also teaches professional writing at a local college, committed to supporting emerging writers and helping them find their voice. He lives in Toronto.
event speaker
Kerry Clare is the author three novels Asking for a Friend (out now from Doubleday Canada), Waiting for a Star to Fall and Mitzi Bytes, and editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood. A National Magazine Award-nominated essayist, and editor of Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, she writes about books and reading at her longtime blog, Pickle Me This. She lives in Toronto with her family.
event speaker
Kevin heronJones is storyteller. Through prose or through poetry; novel or short story. He writes and he narrates in the tradition of the ancient African griots who used stories and poetry to educate as well as entertain. A student of journalism and creative writing, he uses his arena to inspire and encourage creativity and a love of literature amongst our young people. Kevin grew up in Jane/Finch and Brampton. He has published three novels and three books of poetry. He has also been featured on six spoken word poetry albums and narrates novels and short stories through his Listen Fiction platform.
event speaker
Kevin Sylvester has written and illustrated more than thirty books for kids.His latest novel is Night of the Living Zed, written with his kid, Basil. It’s the sequel to The Fabulous Zed Watson! which was a finalist for numerous awards, including the TD and the Governor General’s. Kevin’s also the author and illustrator of Apartment 713. It was the 2024 winner of the Silver Birch, Red Cedar and SunDogs awards… all voted on by kids!He has a new graphic novel, Puffin and Penguin, with his pal Helaine Becker.His series, The Hockey Super-Six is highly illustrated and goofy fun.His other novels range from science fiction (The MINRs trilogy) to mystery novels (The Neil Flambé Capers), and other super-heroes (Mucus Mayhem).His picture books include Gargantua (Jr.): Defender of Earth, Super-Duper Monster, GREAT and Splinters.He also writes and illustrates non-fiction books. There are sports books (Gold Medal for Weird, Basketballogy, Baseballogy) and books on financial literacy (Follow Your Stuff and Follow Your Money.)
event speaker
Kristen den Hartog is a decorated novelist and non-fiction writer. Her books have won an Alberta Book Publishing Award and been nominated for both a Trillium Award and the City of Toronto Book Award.
event speaker
Laura Calder is the author of Kitchen Bliss: Musings on Food and Happiness with Recipes. She also wrote The Inviting Life: hosting, homemaking, and opening the door to happiness, along with four cookbooks. She also hosted the James Beard Award-winning series, French Food at Home on Food Network.
event speaker
Laura Calder is the author of Kitchen Bliss: Musings on Food and Happiness with Recipes. She also wrote The Inviting Life: hosting, homemaking, and opening the door to happiness, along with four cookbooks. She also hosted the James Beard Award-winning series, French Food at Home on Food Network.
event speaker
Laurie D. Graham grew up in Treaty 6 territory, and she currently lives in Nogojiwanong, in the treaty and traditional territory of the Mississauga Anishinaabeg, where she is a writer, an editor, and the publisher of Brick magazine. Her previous books are Rove and Settler Education.
event speaker
Toronto’s seventh poet laureate, Lillian Allen is an acclaimed foremother of Canadian Poetry. She received an Honourary Doctor of Letters from Wilfrid Laurier University for her significant contribution and impact on Canadian literature.A poet, writer/performer, and a long-time arts activist, she is a leading international exponent of dub poetry with its politically charged reggae-infused aesthetic of resistance and poetic calls for justice, peace, joy, pleasure and revolution. Lillian has also been a successful Cultural Strategist, advising three levels of government and played a key role in transforming the Toronto and Canadian cultural landscapes. A mentor to the mentors for individuals and groups across many cultures, she brings her critical and effective equity and community building strategies to institution such as OCAD University. A creative writing professor at OCAD University, she initiated and led the development of a BFA in Creative Writing Program that acknowledges community connected writing, traditional, non-traditional and new writing forms.Over the decades, she created opportunities for new generations of artists and initiated and led community-building youth-supporting arts programs such as Fresh Elements and Fresh Arts. She has received numerous accolades, citations and awards, and is the recipient of The Toronto Cultural Champions Award, The Margo Bindhardt Award for significantly impacting the arts in Toronto through both creative work and activism, the William P. Hubbard Award for Race. She is the recipient of the Writer’s Trust Margaret Laurence Lecture Award, 2020/ and a recipient of the Gustafson Distinguished Poet award 2021.Lillian’s newest collection is Make the World New- selected works, old & new, edited by Ronald Cummings, WLU Press 2021, other books include Women Do this Every Day, Psychic Unrest, plus books and recordings for children and young people. Also, a globally recognized recording artist, Ms. Allen is a two-time Canadian Juno award winner for her recordings Conditions Critical, and for Revolutionary Tea Party which was recently nominated for the prestigious Polaris Heritage Prize in Canada.
event speaker
Lily Chu loves ordering the second-cheapest wine, wearing perfume all the time, and staying up far too late with a good book. She writes romantic comedies set in Toronto with strong Asian characters. Her books, The Stand-In and The Comeback, have been named Best of 2021 and 2022 by Audible.
event speaker
Linda Besner is a journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Globe & Mail, The Walrus, Hazlitt, enRoute, and Real Life among other publications. She has won two Silver National Magazine Awards and currently lives in Toronto.
event speaker
Linda Morra is an award-winning author and podcaster. Using her expertise as a seasoned literature professor, she develops provocative, timely insights for her podcast, Getting Lit With Linda, about books from Canada and elsewhere to show why stories are relevant for all of us. Getting Lit With Linda won the 2022 Outstanding Education Series Award by the Canadian Podcast Awards and was a Finalist for the 2023 People’s Choice Podcasting Awards. Her podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, and other high-quality platforms.
event speaker
Lindsay Zier-Vogel is a Toronto-based author, grant writer, educator and the founder of the internationally-acclaimed Love Lettering Project. She is the author of the acclaimed debut novel, Letters to Amelia and her work has been published widely in Canada and the UK. Dear Street is Lindsay’s first picture book.
event speaker
Lisa de Nikolits has been hailed as “the Queen of Canadian speculative fiction” (All Lit Up) and is the international award-winning author of eleven novels. Lisa has appeared on recommended reading lists including Open Book Toronto, the 49th Shelf, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, the Quill & Quire and CBC Books.
event speaker
Lishai Peel is an award winning writer and educator based in Hamilton. She has over a decade of experience working in the arts and culture sector, most recently, serving as the Executive Director for Hamilton’s Festival of Readers and Writers.Her essays and poems have been published by Book*hug Press, Room Magazine, Lilith Magazine, Hey Alma, Middleground Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Malahat Review, Illanot Review and others.Lishai holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Guelph University. By night, she writes poetry, and by day, she works in organizational leadership in the startup industry. She is proud to be Hamilton’s inaugural Poet in Place.
event speaker
Loridee De Villa is the author of How to Be the Best Third Wheel, her debut novel. When she’s not writing, Loridee spends her days procrastinating on everything possible, while balancing courses at the University of Toronto. Loridee currently resides in Ontario, Canada and is pursuing a career in health sciences.
event speaker
Louise Zimanyi, of French-Canadian and Hungarian descent, is a mother, professor, and researcher and lives, works, and plays in Tkaronto, part of Treaty 13. She explores how Earth-centered pedagogy and practice in the early years can plant the seeds of sustainability for current and future generations through respectful relationships and reciprocity.
event speaker
Lue Palmer is a writer of prose and poetry on Black relationships to nature, the fantastic in the everyday, and the retelling of history. They have roots in Portland, Jamaica and are currently at work on their first novel, The Hungry River. Lue is beginning a new facet of their career in climate work, writing about environmental racism in New Orleans. They were a recipient of the 2021 Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship, an alumni of the Clarion West Program and a recent graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
event speaker
Lynne Sargent is a writer, aerialist, and holds a Ph.D in Applied Philosophy. Their work has been nominated for Rhysling, Elgin, and Aurora Awards, and has appeared in venues such as Augur Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Daily Science Fiction. They are also the poetry editor at Utopia Science Fiction.
event speaker
M G Vassanji is the author of ten novels, three collections of short stories, a travel memoir about India, a memoir of East Africa, and a biography of Mordecai Richler. He is twice winner of the Giller Prize (1994, 2003); the Governor General’s Prize (2009) for nonfiction; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa, 1990); and the Molson Prize. “Nostalgia”, his dystopian novel, was a finalist for CBC’s Canada Reads. M G Vassanji was born in Nairobi, Kenya and raised in Tanzania. He lives in Toronto, and visits East Africa and India often.
event speaker
M. John Kennedy is Head of the Acting Program at the Randolph College for the Performing Arts in Toronto. In the past year M. John has been fortunate to have worked on a number plays including Tunnel at the End of the Light (Soldiers in the Arts), The Tilco Strike (4th Line Theatre), Give ‘Em Hell (Prairie Fire, Please / Theatre Direct) and It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play & Yellow Face (New Stages) all while touring his one-person Robert Munsch show(s) Fireside Munsch*. (*Eight Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations).
event speaker
M.T. Khan is a speculative fiction author with a penchant for all things myth, science, and philosophy. She focuses on stories that combine all three, dreaming of evocative worlds and dark possibilities. When she’s not writing, M.T. Khan can be found travelling the world or cracking physics equations as she graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, she currently resides in Toronto, Canada, with a hyperactive cat and an ever-increasing selection of tea.
event speaker
Madeline Ashby is a consulting futurist and novelist based in Toronto. She is the author of the Machine Dynasty series, Company Town, and contributor to How to Future: Leading and Sense-making in an Age of Hyperchange. She has developed science fiction prototypes for Changeist, the Institute for the Future, the Smithsonian Institution, SciFutures, Nesta, The World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Atlantic Council, and others. She is a member of the AI Policy Futures Group at the ASU Center for Science and the Imagination, and the XPRIZE Sci-Fi Advisory Council. Her work has appeared in BoingBoing, Slate, MIT Technology Review, WIRED, The Atlantic, and elsewhere.
event speaker
Madhur Anand is the author of the experimental memoir This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart, and the poetry collections A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes and Parasitic Oscillations. She received the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2021. She is a professor of ecology and sustainability at the University of Guelph.
event speaker
Maggie K. Black is a self-defense instructor, award-winning journalist, and best-selling author of over thirty heart-pounding romance novels from Love Inspired Suspense.
event speaker
Maggie North writes deeply emotional, strangely hilarious novels at the intersection of romance and women’s fiction. Her favorite subjects include introverts at the end of their [expletive] ropes, STEM, Canada, and other overlooked, underrated things you’d love to discover. She enjoys being autistic a lot more since her diagnosis as an adult. She lives in Ottawa with her spouse, The Kid, and a rotating cast of hypoallergenic aquarium friends.
event speaker
Maika Harper is a mixed Inuk actor, model, author and artist born and raised in Iqaluit, Nunavutand now residing in Toronto, Ontario. She’s been in hit shows like Mohawk Girls (2014-2017),Kim’s Convenience (2016), Burden of Truth (2018) with her film debut in Flashback (2020).Along with film and television, her theatrical debut was in the Stratford Festival’s TreasureIsland (2017). Adding to her list of professional accomplishments, she wrote a children’s book,The Walrus and the Caribou (2019), in both Inuktitut and English. She recently took some timeaway from work to focus on her family and advocate for mental health awareness. Returning toher roots she will also be featured in a short film soon to be announced.
event speaker
Manahil Bandukwala is the author of Heliotropia (Brick Books 2024) and MONUMENT (Brick Books 2022). She is the co-creater of Reth our Reghistan, a multidisciplinary project exploring folklore from Pakistan through poetry, sculpture, and community arts. See her work at manahilbandukwala.com.
event speaker
Margaret Nowaczyk is a pediatrician and a clinical geneticist. Her writing has appeared in Prairie Fire, Geist, Examined Life Journal, Intima, Broken Pencil, The New Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, Grain, Litro US, The Dalhousie Review, and others. Her non-fiction won thte 2020 CNFC/Humber Literary Review contest and was a finalist for the 2022 National Magazine Awards. Her memoir “Chasing Zebras” won the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Memoir. “Marrow Memory”, a collection of essays, was published by Wolsak&Wynn in June 2024. She lives in Hamilton, ON with her husband, two sons, two cats, and a rescue greyhound.
event speaker
Marjorie Beaucage is a Two-Spirit Métis Auntie, filmmaker, art-ivist and educator, a land protector and a water walker. Born in Vassar, Manitoba, to a large Métis family, Marjorie’s life’s work has been about creating social change, possibilities and right relations. She is giving back to future art-ivists as they stand up for themselves and community through creating art, music, writing, ceremony. Her poetic memoir, leave some for the birds was just released in May 2023. Six short harm reduction videos “ Reducing the harms of colonization” have been recently completed to create change and healing for the people with story medicine. SCREENINGS, RESIDENCIES, ARTIST TALKS, AWARDSMy work has been screened in bingo halls and at City Hall, from Northern Labrador to New York. Some videos are passed around the community; some are in public libraries and collections at University Film Schools and Art Departments. They have a life of their own. Some work has been screened on specialty channels—WTN, APTN, Knowledge Network, Pride Vision and Global. It has been programmed in film festivals and gallery shows from Berlin to Edmonton, in a variety of contexts. Viewings on my Vimeo site reached over 2000 hits in 39 countries over the past year.https://vimeo.com/marjoriebeaucage Selected awards, screenings, residencies, and artist talks include:2021 CFMDC Superwomen series2018 Saskatchewan Arts Board Artistic Excellence Award2018 Retrospective of my work at imaginative film festival . Toronto 2018 Uber Gurlz Exhibition and Performance, Regina Public Library. 2018 Listen Witness Transmit Keynote Speaker IMFA Conference Saskatoon.2017- 2018 Carrying It Forward, Dunlop Art Gallery. Rodham Art Gallery,Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (touring exhibition)1995 Re Viewing the Mosaic: Canadian Video Artists speaking through RACE, Mendel Art Gallery 1994 Self-Government Talk About It, Museum of Modern Art, NY
event speaker
Marjorie Ingall is former columnist for Tablet magazine and the Forward, she is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and has also written for New York magazine, Town & Country, Ms., Glamour, Self, Elle, and Sassy (yes, that one). She lives in New York City.
event speaker
Mark Jones is author of The Starving Artist Myth: Bust the Stereotype and Find Success in Creative Careers. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Animation, Art, and Design at Sheridan College, Canada’s largest art school with internationally recognized programs in animation, filmmaking, design, performance, and material arts, and others.
event speaker
Mexican-Canadian author of the award-winning novella Boca de lobo/ Damiana’s Reprieve (Exile, 2018), and the short-story collections Plaza Requiem: Stories at the Edge of Ordinary Lives (Exile, 2017) and No Stars in the Sky (House of Anansi, 2022). She has been named one of the 10 Most Successful Mexicans in Canada and the Top 10 Most Influential Hispanic-Canadians.
event speaker
Matteo L. Cerilli (he/him) is a transmasc author and activist specializing in speculative fiction for all ages. His work features the YA horror novel LOCKJAW (Tundra, 2024), a featured short story in BURY YOUR GAYS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TRAGIC QUEER HORROR (Ghoulish Books, 2024), and poetry in Augur magazine. His activism has included setting up gender care for trans students at York University, helping to found the Students for Queer Liberation—Tkaronto, and organizing with the No Pride in Policing Coalition.
event speaker
Maurice Vellekoop was born in 1964 in a suburb of Toronto. A prolific artist and illustrator, he has worked non-stop for the last three decades. In addition to publications, his corporate clients include Swissair, Abercrombie & Fitch, Air Canada, Smart Car, and LVMH. He lives on Toronto Island with his partner Gordon Bowness.
event speaker
Maya Ameyaw is a Toronto based community arts writing instructor and a former bookselller. When It All Syncs Up, her contemporary YA debut about mental health and dance, will be published June 6th, with a follow up companion novel, Under All the Lights, coming spring 2024 from Annick Press.
event speaker
Melanie has been writing full-time since 2010 and has written a bunch of books, but she’s probably best known for her picture books, Missing Nimama and Stolen Words, which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award respectively. In her spare time, Melanie plays guitar, reads manga, collects vinyl, listens to really loud rock music and slightly quieter K-pop, gets tattoos and drinks too much coffee. She lives in Toronto with her family.
event speaker
Melissa Yi loves to do all the things, from emergency medicine to jointly raising two kids and two rescue dogs to writing the Hope Sze thrillers. She recently won the Derringer Award for the best short mystery story in the English language, placed third in the Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction, and won a scholarship from the International Thriller Writers. She is currently a finalist for the Prix Aurora Award for the best speculative poem in Canada, and writes F&SF and memoir under the name Melissa Yuan-Innes. Her secret weapons include a supportive family, saying no, and learning how to sleep. For more tips, find her at www.myi.ninja.
event speaker
Called the “Queen of Comedy” by the Toronto Sun, Melodie Campbell has won ten awards for crime fiction, including the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence. Her publications include over 100 comedy credits, 17 novels, and 60 short stories. The Merry Widow Murders has just been released from Cormorant Books.
event speaker
Menaka Raman-Wilms is a writer and journalist. She’s the host of The Decibel, the daily news podcast from The Globe and Mail. Her story “Black Coffee” was shortlisted for the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize, and she’s also a classically trained singer. The Rooftop Garden is her first novel.
event speaker
Michael Adams is the president of the Environics group of research and communications consulting companies which he co-founded in 1970. In 2006 he founded the Environics Institute for Survey Research, where he also serves as President. He is the author of six books, including Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values, which won the Donner Prize for best book on Canadian public policy in 2004 and was named by the Literary Review of Canada as one of the 100 most important books ever published in Canada.
event speaker
Michael Barclay is the author of Hearts on Fire: Six Years that Changed Canadian Music 2000–2005, as well as the 2018 national bestseller The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip. He is also a co-author of Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985–95. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
event speaker
Michelle Syba was born in Toronto and grew up Pentecostal. Her story collection, End Times (Freehand Books, 2023) was a finalist for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize. End Times explores the lives of people variously entangled with evangelical culture, from a hipster megachurch pastor to a management consultant on the verge of a nervous breakdown at Davos. At a time when the end feels nigh for many, End Times assembles an expansive cast that includes immigrants, the elderly, the burned-out, and the lonely, examining our hidden anxieties and longings.
event speaker
Michelle Wang lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and their four children. She is an elementary school teacher, but as her youngest daughter always says, when asked: “My mom’s an author and an aloe farmer.” When not playing random songs every time she walks by a piano, Michelle can be found reading a book to avoid cleaning her very messy house.
event speaker
Mikaela Lucido is a Filipina-Canadian storyteller, fangirl, and amateur birdwatcher. She was born in Manila, Philippines, and raised in Mississauga, on the Treaty and Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and The Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Nations. She studied Creative Writing & Publishing at Sheridan College and was the 2021 recipient of the Ampersand Award. Her words have been featured in Ricepaper Magazine, Cambio & Co., Living Hyphen, and Augur Magazine. She writes for the awkward and anxious.
event speaker
Millie Ho is a writer and artist. Her short stories and poems appear in Lightspeed Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Augur Magazine, and elsewhere. Her work was a finalist for the Ignyte and Rhysling Awards. Her poem “She Who Makes the Rain” is forthcoming in The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan.
event speaker
Best-selling author Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, two sassy pups and countless cattle. She’s passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she’s not writing, you’ll likely find her in the kitchen, spending time with her grandchildren or roaming the ranch in search of inspiration. She’d love to connect with you via her website, mindyobenhaus.com, or on Facebook.
event speaker
Molly Fader is the author of The McAvoy Sister’s Book Of Secrets. As Molly O’Keefe she is the USA Today Bestselling author of over 50 contemporary romances. She lives in Toronto Ontario with her husband, two kids and rescue dog.
event speaker
Nadia L. Hohn, B.A. (Hon.), B.Ed., M.Ed., M.F.A. is an educator, artivist, and award-winning author of several books for children including A Likkle Miss Lou and the Malaika series. Malaika’s Costume (2016) was the 2021 TD Grade One Book Giveaway. Her books Malaika, Carnival Queen (Groundwood Books) and The Antiracist Kitchen: 21 Stories (and Recipes) (Orca) were released in 2023. Nadia’s upcoming books are Getting Us to Grandma’s (Groundwood Books, 2024) and Patty Dreams (Owlkids, 2025). She teaches elementary school and writing for children courses at post-secondary institutions.
event speaker
Natasha Ramoutar is a writer of Indo-Guyanese descent from Scarborough. Her debut poetry collection Bittersweet was published in 2020 by Mawenzi House and she co-edited FEEL WAYS, an anthology of Scarborough writing. Her second poetry collection It Keeps Us Here will be out fall 2024 from Wolsak & Wynn.
event speaker
Nathan Caro Fréchette is a disabled, queer, transgender designer, sequential artist, publisher, and author. He has published over a dozen short stories, both graphic and prose, as well as five novels, three graphic novels, one co-authored collection, and two works of nonfiction. He has taught creative writing over a decade, has a degree in Film Studies and another in Sequential Art; he was the founder and director of the French Canadian literary magazine Histoires à Boire Debout, an editor for the French Canadian graphic novel publisher Premières Lignes, and is a co-founder of the Ottawa-based publisher Renaissance. He was finalist for a Prix Aurora Award in 2020 for his design work, was the Publisher Guest of Honour at Can-Con’s 2022 edition, and sits on the LitDistCo board of directors.
event speaker
Neil Pasricha thinks, writes, and speaks about intentional living. He is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation, which together have spent over 200 weeks on bestseller lists and have sold over a million copies. He hosts the award-winning podcast 3 Books, where he’s on a fifteen-year quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world by interviewing people such as Malcolm Gladwell, Judy Blume, and the world’s top-ranked Uber driver. He gives more than fifty speeches a year, appearing for audiences at places such as Harvard, SXSW, and Shopify. He has degrees from Queen’s University and Harvard Business School, and lives in Toronto with his family.
event speaker
Nekesa (Nuh-kes-ah) Afia (Ah-fee-ah) is a Canadian millennial who is doing her best. She has written three books in the Harlem Renaissance series featuring a tiny, tired lesbian forced into solve crime. When Nekesa isn’t writing, she is sewing, dancing, or actively trying to pet every dog she sees.
event speaker
Nick Cutter is the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller The Troop (which is currently being developed for film with producer James Wan), The Deep, Little Heaven, and The Handyman Method, cowritten with Andrew F. Sullivan. Nick Cutter is the pseudonym for Craig Davidson, whose much-lauded literary fiction includes Rust and Bone, The Saturday Night Ghost Club, and, most recently, the short story collection Cascade. His story “Medium Tough” was selected by author Jennifer Egan for The Best American Short Stories 2014. He lives in Toronto, Canada. He returns with THE QUEEN (October 2024), a heart-pounding novel of terror about a young woman searching for her missing friend and uncovering a shocking truth.
event speaker
Nicola Hamilton RGD (she/her) is an award-winning editorial designer based in Toronto, Canada. For over a decade now she’s been art directing and designing magazines. She’s worked on publications like The Grid, Chatelaine, The University of Toronto Magazine, Best Health, Precedent, and Serviette to name a few. Nicola is the President of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), where she advocates for the value of design. In July 2022, Nicola took her love of magazines to a whole new level by opening Issues Magazine Shop, a bricks-and-mortar magazine retailer with a mandate to celebrate the people and projects keeping print alive.
event speaker
NICOLE MORTILLARO is an author, a science reporter with CBC News, the editor of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and an amateur astronomer. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
event speaker
Nicole Nwosu is a Nigerian-Canadian young adult author from Toronto, Canada. She has been writing online since she was 14 years old before her first novel, The Bad Boy and the Tomboy, was published when she was 20. Hitting the Crossbar, the sequel is her most recent release.
event speaker
Nina Crespo lives in Florida where she indulges in her favorite passions — the beach, a good glass of wine, date night with her own real-life hero and dancing. Her lifelong addiction to romance began in her teens while on a “borrowing spree” in her older sister’s bedroom where she discovered her first romance novel. Let Nina’s sensual, award-winning stories satisfy your craving for love, romance, and happily ever after.
event speaker
Nina Dunic’s debut novel The Clarion won the 2024 Trillium Book Award, was longlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and received “Best of 2023” nods from The Globe and Mail, Apple Books and the CBC. She is a two-time winner of the Toronto Star Short Story Contest, has been longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize four times, won third place in the Humber Literary Review Emerging Writers Fiction Contest, and was nominated for The Journey Prize. She has a collection of stories coming out in 2025. Nina lives in Scarborough.
event speaker
Paige Layle is an Autistic advocate and influencer who speaks from personal experience about their struggles being an undiagnosed Autistic child in her new book, But Everyone Feels This Way: How An Autism Diagnosis Saved My Life. Now in their twenties, Layle advocates for Autistic children all over the world, with millions of social media followers joining on their journey to better Autism education. She also sings, acts and dances whenever possible. She probably is right now.
event speaker
Paola Ferrante is a writer living with depression. Her debut fiction collection, Her Body Among Animals (Book*hug Press, 2023), was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Award, a Silver Medal Winner in Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, and is forthcoming in August 2024 in the UK from Influx Press. Her debut poetry collection, What To Wear When Surviving a Lion Attack (Mansfield Press, 2019), was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. She was born, and still resides in, Toronto with her partner Mat and their son.
event speaker
Paul Gilligan writes and draws the syndicated comic strip Pooch Café, and the early chapter book series King of the Mole People. His latest work is Pluto Rocket: New in Town, published by Tundra/Penguin Random House, the first in a hilarious series of early-reader graphic novels about a friendly alien and a wise-cracking pigeon.
event speaker
Paul McLaughlin is a highly experienced and award-winning freelance writer, broadcaster and teacher. The author of 2022’s Asking the Best Questions, he has written numerous books, articles and playscripts. He lives in Toronto, where he teaches professional writing at York University.
event speaker
Perry King is an author, freelance journalist, and communications strategist currently based in Toronto. With a literary focus on sports, education, history and urbanism, King has bylines with Sportsnet, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Spacing Magazine, and BBC among other works. His debut book, Rebound: Sports, Community and the Inclusive City, was published in 2021 by Coach House Press.
event speaker
Peter Counter writes about television, video games, film, music, mental illness, horror, technology, and the occult. He is the author of two essay collections that blend criticism and memoir: How to Restore a Timeline: On Violence and Memory (2023, House of Anansi) and Be Scared of Everything: Horror Essays (2020, Invisible Publishing). His nonfiction has also appeared in The Walrus, All Lit Up, Motherboard, Art of the Title, Electric Literature, Open Book, and the anthology Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church (2019, Epiphany Publishing). He lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with his spouse and two cats.
event speaker
New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors, including six RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and Career Achievement and Romance Pioneer awards from RT Book Reviews. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website.
event speaker
Randell Adjei is an entrepreneur, speaker, and spoken word practitioner who uses his gifts to empower the message of alchemy. He was recently appointed Ontario’s first Poet Laureate.Randell is the founder of one of Toronto’s largest youth led initiatives: Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere (R.I.S.E Edutainment). In 2018, R.I.S.E received the Toronto Arts Foundation’s, Mayor’s Youth Arts Award.Randell is the author of “I am Not my struggles,” a powerful Anthology released in 2018. Randell was also named CBC’s Metro Morning’s Torontonian of the Year in 2015 and NOW Magazines Local Hero in May 2017. In 2020 Randell opened up for President Barack Obama at the Economic Club of Canada.
event speaker
Award-winning author Renee Daniel Flagler has written novels and poetry, and she has taught creative writing throughout the New York City Department of Education and served as a Writer in Residence at the Langston Hughes Library. Renee received an MFA in Creative Writing from The College of New Rochelle, where she obtained the graduate program’s inaugural Creative Writing Division Award for Excellence in Writing and Commitment to the Profession. Renee also created a scholarship for students pursuing studies in writing disciplines in higher education. Renee hails from the suburbs of New York City, where she lives with her husband and children. Connect with her at ReneeDanielFlagler.com.
event speaker
Romi Moondi is a Canadian author of romantic comedies. Her 2022 diverse romantic comedy, 24 Hours in Paris, received a Publishers Weekly starred review and was the Publishers Weekly 2022 #1 Summer Romance Read. 24 Hours in Italy, the follow up to 24 Hours in Paris, will be released on July 18th, 2023.
event speaker
Rona Maynard found happiness at 65—a story she tells in Starter Dog: My Path to Joy, Belonging and Loving This World. She capped a previous career in magazines with a decade at the helm of Chatelaine, where she disclosed her history of depression in a landmark editorial.
event speaker
With a background in traditional publishing and higher education, Ronan creates a one-of-a-kind educational curriculum to help Wattpad creators hone their writing skills to create the next Wattpad hit.
event speaker
event speaker
Ruby Lang writes warm, witty contemporary romance. As Opal Wei, she is the author of the upcoming screwball rom-com Wild Life. Her non-fiction (written under her real name) has also appeared in The New York Times, The Walrus, and Bitch. She and her family are recent transplants to Toronto.
event speaker
Ryan Fitzpatrick is the publisher of the online-based and poetry-focused Model Press. He was on the editorial collective of filling Station magazine and helped found the Flywheel Reading Series. He is the author of four books of poetry, including Sunny Ways (Invisible Publishing) and Coast Mountain Foot (Talonbooks). A former resident of Calgary and Vancouver, ryan now lives in Toronto.
event speaker
S. Bear Bergman is a writer, storyteller, activist, and the founder and publisher of the book press Flamingo Rampant, which makes feminist, culturally diverse children’s picture books about LGBT2Q+ kids and families. He writes creative non-fiction for grown-ups, fiction for children, resolutely factual features for various publications, and the advice column “Asking Bear.” His books include The Nearest Exit May Be Behind Us and Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter, and he was the co-editor along with Kate Bornstein of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.
event speaker
S. K. Ali is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including Saints and Misfits and Love from A to Z, both named top ten YA of the year by Entertainment Weekly and Kirkus. Her novel, Misfit in Love, was a People magazine best book of summer 2021. She lives in Toronto with her family.
event speaker
Sahar Golshan is the author of So Loud! a picture book published in 2024 with Annick Press. So Loud! is illustrated by Shiva Delsooz. Sahar is a writer, a language learner, and the director of the short documentary KAR (2019). She is a winner of the Marina Nemat Award for Creative Writing in Non-Fiction and the Air Canada Short Film Award. Her writing has appeared in Room, Taclanese, Shameless, The Ex-Puritan, and Tongues: On Longing and Belonging through Language. She enjoys teaching and facilitating workshops in academic and community spaces.
event speaker
Sameea Jimenez is an elementary educator in the Toronto District School Board. Her teaching is rooted in anti-oppression and anti-racism and is committed to challenging social norms and paradigms. Sameea specializes in social justice education and is an advocate for systemic change within educational institutions. She has created and facilitated professional development around anti-racism and anti-discrimination for educators.
event speaker
Samia Marshy is a full-time reader and part-time writer located in Tio’tià:ke (Montreal, QC). She has been a practising massage therapist since 2015 and cares deeply about bodies, access to care, and consent in bodywork. She co-wrote “The Hands That Planted Them” with Lee Lai, published in Metal Hurlant, and was an editor for The Philistine by Leila Marshy.
event speaker
Sanna Wani is a poet, editor and translator based in Toronto. She is the author of My Grief, the Sun (House of Anansi Press, 2022), the winner of the 2023 Trillium Book Award for Poetry. She is the host of the podcast Poet Talk and a member of the Daybreak Poets Collective.
event speaker
Sara Weed loved school so much that she became a teacher. Now as a dynamic secondary-level science teacher with the Lambton Kent District School Board, she brings her zest for life and love of learning into her classroom. When she is not teaching, she enjoys creating art, getting outdoors, and all things active. She lives with her wife and their two kids in rural Ontario and together they share a passion for reading. Her kids inspired her to create Getting Glam at Gram’s – a children’s book radiating queer joy.
event speaker
Sarah Raughley grew up writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to sci-fi fantasy TV and other geeky things, all of which have inspired her writing. Sarah has been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best YA Novel and works in the community doing writing workshops for youths and adults. She has a PhD in English, which makes her a doctor, so it turns out she didn’t have to go to medical school after all. She continues to use her voice for good.
event speaker
Meet Shahaddah Jack, a 20-year-old bilingual spoken word poet, performer, human rights activist, and student of life from Tkaronto. Recently releasing her debut single “My Mother’s Daughter,” she has graced 100+ stages, including the renowned History stage. Shahaddah, a proud graduate of the remix project, weaves her diverse cultural background into her powerful poetry, addressing human rights, the black experience, and the challenges of adolescence. Named BGC Canada’s 2022 National Youth of the Year and recognized as one of Streets of Toronto’s most inspirational women of 2022, Shahaddah invites you to explore her world through her debut book, “Underrated Royalty,” available on Amazon.
event speaker
Shannon Lee Simmons is a certified financial planner, chartered investment manager, certified life coach, speaker, and the founder of the award-winning New School of Finance. She is the bestselling author of Worry-Free Money and Living Debt-Free. Shannon lives in Toronto with her husband and two kiddos.
event speaker
Shawn Micallef is the author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto and Full Frontal TO (nominated for the 2013 Toronto Book Award), a weekly columnist at the Toronto Star, and a senior editor and co-owner of the independent, Jane Jacobs Prize–winning magazine Spacing. Shawn teaches at the University of Toronto and OCAD University and was a 2011-2012 Canadian Journalism Fellow at University of Toronto’s Massey College. In 2002, while a resident at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, he co-founded [murmur], the location-based mobile phone documentary project that has spread to over 20 cities globally. Shawn is the Toronto Public Library’s urban-focused Writer in Residence until December 2013.Explore the city with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef.
event speaker
Shiva Delsooz is an Iranian-Canadian illustrator born and raised in Ontario, Canada. She graduated from College with a diploma in animation and has always had a passion for drawing, as her mother can confirm by all the little doodles underneath her dining room table.
event speaker
Sid is an artist and author from Toronto whose interests include folklore, scary stories, mysterious and unknowable things, and finding good sticks for their stick collection. Sid attended OCAD University, works in a bookstore, and published The Wolf Suit, their first graphic novel for kids, with Annick Press in 2022.
event speaker
Sienna Tristen (they/them) is an author, poet, and literary organizer living in Treaty 3 territory who explores queer platonic partnership, the nonhuman world, and mythmaking in their work. The first installment of their award-winning fantasy duology The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming came out from indie arts collective The Shale Project in 2018; the sequel released in October 2022. You can find their poetry in Augur Magazine and Plenitude, and their chapbook hortus animarum: a new herbal for the queer heart is out with Frog Hollow Press.
event speaker
Sonia Urlando (she/her) is an editor, writer, and podcaster based in Toronto. She has a love of incisive questions, an affection for trickster figures, and a wealth of facts about greyhounds. You can find her at Augur Magazine, where she serves as a Senior Editor (Copy & Proofs) and hosts the newly-launched podcast Murmustations all about worldbuilding through speculative genres.
event speaker
Stacey May Fowles is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and the best-selling author of five books. Her bylines include the Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, Toronto Life, The Walrus, and many others.The Invitation is her first book for children.
event speaker
Stuart Ross has published over 20 books of fiction, poetry, and personal essays, most recently the memoir The Book of Grief and Hamburgers, winner of the 2023 Trillium Book Award, the poetry collection The Sky Is a Sky in the Sky, and the short story collection I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub. His poetry has been translated into Nynorsk, French, Spanish, Russian, Slovene, and Estonian. Active in the Canadian micropress world since the mid-1970s, Stuart lives in Cobourg, Ontario, and blogs infrequently at bloggamooga.blogspot.ca.
event speaker
Susan McCarthy has written for Parade, The Guardian, WIRED, Smithsonian magazine, Outside, and Salon. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Science Writing and in Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor. She lives in San Francisco.
event speaker
Suzan Palumbo (she/her, they/them) is a Trinidadian – Canadian, dark speculative fiction writer and editor whose short stories have been nominated for the Nebula, Aurora, World Fantasy and Locus awards. Countess, her queer, Caribbean, space opera novella, will be published by ECW Press in September 2024. Skin Thief: Stories, her debut collection, is available now from Neon Hemlock Press. She is represented by Michael Curry of the Donald Maass Literary agency and can be contacted via her website at suzanpalumbo.carrd.co
event speaker
Before joining Wattpad in 2021, Suzanne Sutherland spent a decade working as a children’s book editor. In her current role as Content Lead, she oversees the health and strategy of Wattpad’s on-platform publishing program. She is also the author of several books for young readers.
event speaker
T. Liem is the author of Slows: Twice (Coach House 2023), and Obits. (Coach House, 2018), which was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award, and won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award as well as the A.M. Klein Prize. Their writing has been published in Apogee, Plenitude, The Boston Review, Grain, Maisonneuve, Catapult, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, and elsewhere. They are from Alberta and live in Montreal, Tio’Tia:ke, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territories.
event speaker
Tali Voron-Leiderman is the managing editor of The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing and teaches in the Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing at Sheridan College. Tali was the founder and publisher at The Soap Box Press and is the founder and managing editor at Plume Press. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and completed her Master of Arts in Literatures of Modernity at Toronto Metropolitan University. Tali is driven by her love for good writing, community building, and the desire to make the publishing industry a more accessible space.
event speaker
Tanya Turton is a storyteller, educator, and mental health advocate. She fell in love with storytelling when she began to feel displaced in her own world and found creative writing. Jade Is a Twisted Green is her debut novel. Hailing from Jamaica, Tanya was raised and lives in Toronto.
event speaker
Taryn Diamond (she/her) is one of Toronto’s most beloved yoga and meditation instructors. She’s known for equipping her students with the ingredients required to thrive in a yoga practice: strength, intelligence and humour. Her class will be accessible to all levels of students (including brand new). You can learn more about Taryn at her website.
event speaker
Born in Congo-Kinshasa, Téa Mutonji’s work focuses on friendship, womanhood and sexuality. Her short stories, Property of Neil and The Photographer’s Wife were winners of McClelland & Steward’s Journey Prize’s Black Excellence issue (2023). She holds a degree in Media Studies with minors in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Toronto Scarborough. Her collection of short stories, Shut Up You’re Pretty is the first title from Vivek Shraya’s imprint, VS. Books via Arsenal Pulp Press. It was shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (2019) and won the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award (2020) and the Trillium Book Award (2020). Téa is the recipient of the Jill Davis fellowship in Fiction at NYU where she is completing her MFA in fiction.
event speaker
Terese Mason Pierre is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Walrus, ROOM, Quill & Quire, and Fantasy Magazine, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Ignyte Award, the Rhysling Award, and Best of the Net. She is the co-Editor-in-Chief of Augur Magazine, and the author of chapbooks, Surface Area (Anstruther Press, 2019) and Manifest (Gap Riot Press, 2020). Terese lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
event speaker
TERRY, ERIC and DEVIN FAN are brothers, writers and artists who have been dreaming up stories and characters together since they were young. Barnaby Unboxed! is the follow-up to The Barnabus Project, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, among many other honors, and published in almost twenty languages around the world. Terry and Eric are the author-illustrators of the internationally renowned The Night Gardener, Ocean Meets Sky, It Fell from the Sky and Lizzy and the Cloud as well as the illustrators of several other bestselling picture books, including Chris Hadfield’s The Darkest Dark. Eric is also the author of the critically acclaimed picture book Night Lunch, illustrated by Dena Seiferling. Devin is a youth worker who has a passion for nature, poetry and kung fu. All three brothers live in Ontario, and daydream during long walks in the park.
event speaker
Thom Ernst is a Toronto based film critic, writer, and broadcaster. He was a familiar voice to CBC Radio listeners with his lively contributions to CBC Radio Fresh Air, CBC Metro Morning, and CBC Radio Syndication. He was also the on-air reviewer film for CTV New Channel, CBC’s PLAY, TVOs More to Life, Studio 2, and The Agenda with Steve Paikin. His print work has appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, Playback Magazine, and various other publications. Thom’s first book, The Wild Boy of Waubanik, a memoir, will be released through Dundurn Press, February 2023.Thom is perhaps best remembered as the congenial host, interviewer and producer of televisions’ longest running movie program Saturday Night at the Movies.
event speaker
event speaker
Tonya Liburd has the honour of her work being used in Nisi Shawl’s Writing The Other workshops and in Tananarive Due’s UCLA Horror course (which featured Get Out’s director Jordan Peele as a guest lecturer) as examples of code switching. Her poetry has been nominated for the 2017 & 2018 Rhysling Awards and longlisted in the 2015 Carter V. Cooper (Vanderbilt)/Exile Short Fiction Competition. Her fiction has been praised by Publisher’s Weekly and over at Barnes & Noble’s SFF blog. She is also editor of The Expanse Magazine.
event speaker
Born in Halifax / Kjipuktuk in Mi’kma’ki, Trish Salah is a writer of mixed Arab-Irish heritage. She is the author of the Lambda Award-winning poetry collection, Wanting in Arabic and of Lyric Sexology Vol. 1, and co-editor of a special issues of TSQ, on trans cultural production, and Arc Poetry Magazine, spotlighting trans, non-binary and Two Spirit writers. An associate professor of Gender Studies at Queen’s University, she edits the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry. She lives in T’karonto.
event speaker
Tyler Pennock, author of Bones (2020), is a Two-Spirit Queerdo from Faust, Alberta, and is a member of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. They were adopted from a Cree and Métis family, and reunited with them in 2006. Tyler is a graduate of Guelph University’s Creative Writing MFA program (2013), as well as the University of Toronto (2009). They have lived in Toronto for the past 25 years.
event speaker
Ursula Pflug is author of the novels Green Music, The Alphabet Stones, Motion Sickness (a flash novel illustrated by SK Dyment); the novellas Mountain and Down From, and the story collections After the Fires, Harvesting the Moon and Seeds and Other Stories. Her books and short fiction have appeared internationally, and she has been a finalist for the Aurora, ReLit, 3 Day Novel and other awards.
event speaker
Uzma Jalaluddin is the bestselling author of Ayesha at Last and Hana Khan Carries On, both of which have been optioned for film, the latter by Mindy Kaling. A high school English teacher, Jalaluddin is also a contributor to the Toronto Star and The Atlantic. She lives near Toronto with her family.
event speaker
Victoria Mbabazi’s work can be found in several literary magazines. “Chapbook” is available with Anstruther Press and “FLIP” is available with Knife Fork Book. Their full length collection “The Siren In the Twelfth House” is coming out in Fall 2024 with Palimpsest Press. They’re currently Canadian in Brooklyn, New York.
event speaker
Wanda Taylor is an award-winning author, screenwriter, filmmaker, and college professor. She writes both fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. Wanda’s book The Grover School Pledge is a favourite among kids across Canada, with its focus on friendship, diversity, kindness, and community. The Grover School Pledge was named a top book for kids by Kobo Books and short listed for the Hackmatack Award. It was also the 2023 recipient of the Northern Lights Book Award in the US, an award honoring books around the globe that excel in literary quality, with an emphasis on permanency.
event speaker
Wendy Million is a high school teacher whose novels about strong women and troubled men have captivated her readers. She is the author of the contemporary second-chance romances When Stars Fall and Miss Matched. Wendy lives in Ontario with two beautiful daughters, two cute pooches, and one handsome husband.
event speaker
event speaker
Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian author. Her debut novel River Mumma was shortlisted for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and has received starred reviews from publications such as Publishers Weekly and Booklist Magazine. River Mumma is an Amazon Books Editors’ Pick for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy and was the October 2023 pick for the CityLine book club.Reid-Benta’s debut short story collection Frying Plantain won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction in 2020. Frying Plantain was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Award, the White Pine Award and the Evergreen Award. Her picture book, Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas, will be published in 2025.
event speaker
Ziysah von Bieberstein is a poet, editor, and unsettled settler who finds home in queer, Jewish, and activist communities. As co-founder of Take-Out Poetry, ze curates teams of poets to serve up fresh, customized, typewritten poetry from a bicycle-drawn cart. Ziysah’s most recent collection, Consents +/=/- Severances, has been described as “ a necessary upheaval” and “an ecstatic kind of justice.” Ziysah is grateful to be living on Michi Saagiig Aanishinaabe territory where they are currently serving as Peterborough’s Poet Laureate.
event speaker
Zoe Whittall’s latest book is the short story collection Wild Failure (Harpercollins, 24). Her fifth bestselling novel The Fake was longlisted for the 2023 Toronto Book Award. The New York Times called her fourth novel The Spectacular “a highly readable testament to the strength of the maternal bond” and The Toronto Star called it “a singularly impressive piece of fiction.” Her third novel The Best Kind of People was published in 2017 by Penguin Random House U.S., was shortlisted for The Scotiabank Giller Prize, named Indigo’s #1 Book of 2016. She won a Lamda literary award for her second novel Holding Still for as Long as Possible, and the Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie prize for her debut, Bottle Rocket Hearts. She is also a Canadian Screen Award winning TV writer. Her fourth book of poetry, No Credit River, will be out in October 2024. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
event speaker
Fourteen-time USA Today bestselling author Zoe York lives in London, Ontario, where she writes steadfast heroes, relatable heroines who could be your best friend, and recognizable Canadian settings as the backdrop for spicy-sweet romance. She also writes as Ainsley Booth (notable titles include Prime Minister and The Playing Game).
event speaker
Back to List
event speaker
