D’Andrew Ricketts-Dunn is a happily married 28-year-old who identifies as a Transmale. He currently works as a Child and Youth Worker for the York Region School Board during the day and at night he enjoys reflecting on his coming out journey and how far he has come. He often uses poetry as healing tool to […]
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Shoshana Magnet is a mother of two as well as full professor of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is a published author and her work includes When Biometrics Fail: Race, Gender and the Technology of Identity (Duke UP, 2011). Her work with picture books focuses on big feelings and topics, […]
Nicola Correia-Damude is a Guyanese-Canadian film, television and stage actor. Film and television credits include Shadowhunters, Burden of Truth, October Faction, The Boys, Coroner, The Bold Type, Endlings, The Strain, Ghostwriter, Nurses, Remedy, Haven, Private Eyes, Saving Hope, Dino Dana, Endlings, Degrassi: TNG, Republic of Sarah, Pillow Talk and the feature films Margarita, Hellmington, Christmas Calendar, My Spy […]
David Storch* is a director, an actor and a teacher. Earlier this year he directed Tom Stoppard: From Page to Stage with Hermione Lee for Toronto International Festival of Authors. Just before the pandemic closed theatres, he directed Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at Canadian Stage (a co-production with Studio 180). He has acted at theatres across the country, and has directed shows at […]
Daren A. Herbert is a stage and screen artist, whose love for acting continues to grow. Recent television appearances include recurring roles on CBC series Kim’s Convenience and Pretty Hard Cases. His theatre work includes Dora and Toronto Theatre Critics Award winning roles in The Brothers Size and Jesus Hopped the A Train at Soulpepper, as well as, The Wild Party with Musical Stage Co. Daren […]
Simon McBurney is an actor, writer, playwright and director of theatre, opera, film and dance. He is co-founder and artistic director of Complicité, is married, has three children and lives at the end of a valley in the West Country. Complicité creates work that strengthens human interconnection, using the complicity between performer and audience that […]
Shadi Bartsch is the founding Director of the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge at the University of Chicago and the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics. She has authored and edited some 12 books on antiquity. Her new translation of Vergil’s Aeneid was issued by Random House in 2021 and a study of the reception of […]
Sarah Broadley lives in Scotland and writes for children of all ages. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) and the Society of Authors (SOA). She regularly reviews children’s books for on-line resource, My Book Corner, and is a trustee on the board of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of […]
Ryan Gattis (ryangattis.com) is the author of Safe, Kung Fu High School, The System, and All Involved—which won the American Library Association’s Alex Award, the Lire Award for Noir of the Year (France), and has been named one of the all-time “13 Most Essential L.A. Crime Books” (L.A. Times, 2023). He lives and writes in […]
Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades reporting in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. After fifteen years at the New York Times, he now writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig. His bestselling books include America, the Farewell Tour, Empire of Illusion, Death of the Liberal Class and his classic […]
Oscar Baker III is a Black and Mi’kmaw reporter from Elsipogtog First Nation. He is freelancing and homemaking from his home in Indian Island. Baker won the David Adams Richards prize for non-fiction writing and was shortlisted for the JHR Outstanding Work by an Indigenous Youth Award. For more of his work visit oscarbakeriii.com.
Lee Randall is an American living in Scotland. She’s worked in trade publishing and journalism, and now works as a freelance writer, editor, book festival programmer and interviewer.
Joan Thomas is the author of five novels, most recently Five Wives, which won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Her first novel, Reading by Lightning, won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book and the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, and was nominated for four other awards. The bestseller Curiosity was named a Quill & […]
Ian Gill is an Australian-born author, journalist, critic, conservationist and, since 2020, co-founder of Upstart & Crow, a bookstore and literary arts studio on Vancouver’s Granville Island. He is a contributing editor at The Tyee and co-founder of a west coast bioregional initiative called Salmon Nation. He worked for almost 20 years as CEO of Ecotrust in Canada, […]
Rose Vespa, Hon. B.A., MLIS, MPA, is currently the Executive Director of the Canadian Children’s Book Center. Previously, she held the positions of Director of Library Services for the Mississauga Library System and CEO of the Brantford Public Library. Rose began her career as a children’s librarian; however, her 30-year professional career has encompassed work […]
Denise B. Mcleod is a proud Urban Anishinaabe Kwe, who’s home territory is Sagamok Anishnawbek F.N, located on the north shore of Lake Huron. Denise, along with her comedy sisters, founded Manifest Destiny’s Child Comedy Collective (MDC) in 2017. While with MDC she has taken the stage for events like The Toronto International Film Festival, Royal […]
Nadine Roden* is a Canadian actress and singer. She got her start in musical theatre in the North American and Canadian premiere of Mamma Mia understudying Tanya and Rosie. Some of her theatre credits include Drowsy Chaperone at Theatre Calgary and MTC; All Shook Up at Drayton Entertainment and Stage West; and Blow Wind High […]
Craig Geraghty* was born and raised in Woodside, Queens. He and his wife Maureen are raising their 11 month-old baby Francis Kathleen there. Starting his entertainment career in stand-up comedy, Craig eventually found his way into acting. He has made his own films, has been seen in national commercials and led campaigns for brands including […]
Shivanee Ramlochan is a Trinidadian poet and essayist. Her book of poems, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (Peepal Tree Press, 2017) was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Forward Prize for Best First Collection. The Red Thread Cycle, a suite of poems from her debut collection, won a Small Axe Literary Competition Prize for Poetry (second-place) […]
Alix Hawley studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Oxford University, the University of East Anglia and the University of British Columbia. She published a story collection, The Old Familiar, which was longlisted for the ReLit award, with Thistledown Press in 2008. Several of her stories have won accolades from the CBC, and in 2017 Witching won […]
Afua Cooper is a poet, performer, scholar, historian and social and cultural commentator. Dr. Afua Cooper’s expertise in and contributions to the arts, history and education were recognized when she was presented in 2015 with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. She is the author of five books […]
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar in 1990. He studied literature and philosophy at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Brotherhood, his first novel, won the Grand Prix du Roman Métis, the Prix Ahmadou Kourouma and the French Voices Grand Prize, in Alexia Trigo’s translation. He was named Chevalier of […]
Willy Vlautin, born and raised in Reno, Nevada, has published six novels, The Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, The Free, Don’t Skip Out On Me and The Night Always Comes. Both The Motel Life and Lean on Pete have been turned into major motion pictures. Vlautin also founded the band, Richmond Fontaine and the […]
Ophira Eisenberg is a standup comedian, writer, and the host of the new comedy podcast Parenting Is A Joke with iHeart Radio and Pretty Good Friends. She also hosted NPR’s Ask Me Another where she interviewed hundreds of celebrities including Sir Patrick Harris, Rosie Perez, Yo-Yo Ma, Awkwafina, Roxanne Gay, Nick Kroll, Chelsea Handler and […]
