Wild Fires is Sophie Jai’s debut novel. It is the winner of the 2023 Fred Kerner Book Award and 2019 Borough Press x The Good Literary Agency Prize. It is currently longlisted for the 2023 Toronto Book Awards, was shortlisted for 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Bridport Prize Peggy […]
Read more »
William Ping is a Chinese-Canadian writer from Newfoundland. After completing his Master of Arts at Memorial University in 2020, he was named a Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies. He received the 2022 Cox & Palmer Creative Writing Award as well as the 2021 Landfall Trust. His debut novel, Hollow Bamboo, which he wrote […]
Canadian singer/songwriter Tara MacLean has been an internationally renowned and award-winning recording and touring artist for over twenty-five years. She has written and recorded six solo albums and two with her band, Shaye. A playwright, author, poet and mother, Tara lives in her home province of PEI and on Salt Spring Island, BC. Song of […]
Ian Ferguson won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for Village of the Small Houses and is the co-author, with his brother, Will, of How to Be a Canadian, which was shortlisted for the Leacock Medal and won the CBA Libris Award for non-fiction. A writer and creative director in the film and television industry, […]
Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her work has appeared in the Antigonish Review, Grain Magazine, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Dalhousie Review and Filling Station Magazine. She is the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for Unpublished Prose and a participant in the 2021 Writers’ Trust Rising Stars program. […]
Elyse Friedman is a critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, poet and playwright. Her work has been shortlisted 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 her poetry book Know Your Monkey won a […]
Catherine Fogarty is the founder and president of Big Coat Media, as well as the writer, producer and voice of the narrative true-crime podcast Story Hunter. In 2021, Fogarty published her first non-fiction book, Murder on the Inside: The True Story of the Deadly Riot at Kingston Penitentiary, which won the Marina Nemat Award for […]
Deepti Kapoor grew up in Northern India and worked for several years as a journalist in New Delhi. The author of the novel Bad Character, she lives in Portugal with her husband.
Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. Her suspense novels include The Neighbors, bestsellers Her Secret Son and Sister Dear, and You Will Remember Me. Hannah Mary lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons. Connect on Facebook and Instagram @HannahMaryMckinnon, and […]
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 & […]
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 […]
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.
Thomas King is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, scriptwriter and photographer. His critically acclaimed, bestselling fiction includes Medicine River; Green Grass, Running Water; One Good Story, That One; Truth and Bright Water; A Short History of Indians in Canada; The Back of the Turtle (winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction); The Inconvenient […]
Kenneth Oppel is the 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 […]
Jael Richardson is the executive director of the FOLD literary festival, the books columnist on CBC Radio’s q and an outspoken advocate on issues of diversity. She is the author of The Stone Thrower: A Daughter’s Lesson, a Father’s Life, a memoir based on her relationship with her father, CFL quarterback Chuck Ealey. The memoir received a […]
Jordan Tannahill is an internationally acclaimed playwright who was born in Ottawa and is currently based in London. Two of his plays have won a Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. He has written one previous novel, Liminal, which was published to much acclaim and named one of the best Canadian novels of 2018 by CBC Books. […]
Polly Samson’s first novel, Out of the Picture, was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Award and many of her stories have been read on the BBC’s Radio 4. Samson has written an introduction for a collection of Daphne du Maurier’s earliest stories and has been a judge for the Costa Book Awards. Her novel The Kindness was named […]
Louisa Onomé is a Nigerian-Canadian writer of books for teens and adults. She holds a BA in professional writing and a MA in counselling psychology. Her debut young adult novel Like Home was critically acclaimed, receiving several starred reviews, including from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal. Her latest novel, Twice As Perfect, was released […]
Ben Philippe is a New York-based writer and screenwriter. Born in Haiti and raised in Montreal, Canada, he has a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. He has written two young adult novels: Field Guide to the North American Teenager, winner of the […]
Zahra Al-harazi is the co-founder of Skillit, an experiential marketplace for skills, and was the CEO of Foundry Communications, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning marketing and communications firm based in Calgary. A sought-after speaker and consultant for leading institutions and events around the world, Al-harazi served for several years as the Canadian ambassador for UNICEF. A […]
Angie Thomas is an author, producer, activist and former teen rapper. Her award-winning debut The Hate U Give was a New York Times bestseller and movie. Photo credit: Valerie Schmidt.
Elayne Fluker is author of the new book, Get Over “I Got It” (HarperCollins Leadership), where she encourages unapologetically ambitious women to learn how to embrace support not only for their success, but also their peace of mind. Elayne is also host of the Support is Sexy podcast featuring interviews with more than 500 diverse […]
Marci Ien is a devoted Toronto community leader and journalist. Born St. Jamestown and raised in Toronto, where she lives with her children Blaize and Dash, Marci has seen firsthand the opportunities and challenges our city faces. After an award-winning career in journalism and television that has spanned three decades, she became a member of […]
Lawrence Hill is the author of 10 books, including The Book of Negroes, The Illegal, and Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. His 2013 Massey Lectures were based on his book of essays Blood: The Stuff of Life. His books have been read around the world. His essay about his […]
