Kelley Armstrong is the author of the Rip Through Time and Haven’s Rock mystery series. Past works include the Otherworld urban fantasy series, the Rockton mystery series, the Stitch in Time time-travel series, the Cainsville gothic mystery series, the Nadia Stafford mystery trilogy, the Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising teen paranormal series, the Age of Legends teen fantasy series and the Royal Guide to Monster Slaying middle-grade fantasy series. (Photo Credit: Kathryn Hollinrake).

Gary Barwin is a writer and multimedia artist and the author of 36 books of poetry, fiction and essays. His novel, Yiddish for Pirates was a national bestseller, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award and won the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award. Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted was chosen for Hamilton Reads. He is the 2026-2027 Shaftesbury Creative Writer-in-Residence at Victoria College (U of T) and has taught and been writer-in-residence in many universities, and colleges. He lives in Hamilton. The Comedian’s Book of the Dead (Book*hug) is his latest novel. 

Award-winning writer and comedian Carolyn Bennett has written for television, film, radio, theatre, web, and inanimate objects in her office. In 2020 she had a Toronto Lit Up book launch for her debut novel, Please Stand By (NON Publishing, Vancouver) before covid ruined everything. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Canadian Notes and Queries, The Quarantine Review, The Prairie Journal of Canadian Fiction, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Canadian Immigrant Magazine and the Montreal Gazette. She produces and hosts the literary reading series Bright Lit Big City in Toronto and is a writer/columnist with the Brockville-based monthly arts newspaper, The Fishwrapper.

Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks, Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth and A Quilting of Scars. The Mural is forthcoming in the spring of 2027. Her short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, the USA and Canada. She co-ordinates Heart of the Story, an author reading series in Port Perry, and writes book reviews for The Miramichi Reader. Lucy lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations. 

Giles Blunt was born in Windsor, Ontario, but spent his teenage years in North Bay. After studying English Literature at the University of Toronto, he worked as a social worker, a copy editor, and a screenwriter before the success of the John Cardinal crime novels allowed him to write novels full time. Those award-winning books were eventually adapted into the equally successful Cardinal TV series. His more recent move into literary fiction is highlighted by Bad Juliet, which the Toronto Star called “Captivating and beautifully written… an intriguing tale with the taut pacing of a thriller.”

Dennis Bock’s newest novel, Strangers at the Red Door, was published in September 2025 and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year. Hailed by the Globe as “Canada's next great novelist,” Dennis has published five other books, including Olympia, The Ash Garden, The Communist's Daughter, Going Home Again and The Good German, which Margaret Atwood praised as "a cunning, twisted, compelling tale of deeply unexpected consequences." His work has been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and won the Best Foreign Novel Award in China, as well as the Canada-Japan Literary Award.

Frances Boyle (she/her) is the author of Seeking Shade, a short story collection, which was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Award and the ReLit Awards, as well as Tower, a Rapunzel-infused novella, and three poetry collections. She served on the executive and editorial boards of Arc Poetry Magazine for ten years and is currently a board member at The League of Canadian Poets and VERSeOttawa, which runs VERSeFest, Ottawa’s poetry festival. Raised on the prairies, Frances lived in Vancouver for twelve years before moving to Ottawa where she has long made her home. Skin Hunger is her first novel. (Photo Credit: Curtis Perry).

Ali Bryan is the author of six novels including, Roost, The Figgs, The Hill, Coq, The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships and Takedown. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and the Forest of Reading White Pine Award, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for both the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing prize. She was recently nominated for two 2026 Alberta literary awards: the R. Ross Annett Award for Children's Literature (Takedown) and the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award. An anthology of short fiction by Gen X writers, WHATEVER, is forthcoming in Spring 2027. Two novels, Pick 6—a contemporary YA—and Husbandry, a tragicomic follow-up to her earlier novels Roost and Coq are forthcoming in 2028 and 2029 respectively. She lives in Calgary on Treaty 7 Territory.

Catherine Bush is the author of the story collection Skin (2025) and five novels, including the widely acclaimed Blaze Island and The Rules of Engagement, a Canadian bestseller and New York Times Notable Book. Her books have been shortlisted for the Trillium Prize, City of Toronto Book Award, and Books in Canada First Novel Award. The recipient of numerous fellowships, she was the 2024 Writer-in-Residence/Landhaus Fellow at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society in Germany. An Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, she lives in Toronto and the countryside of eastern Ontario. (Photo Credit: Arden Wray).

Rod Carley is the award-winning author of RUFF (2024 national bestseller), GRIN REAPING (2022), KINMOUNT (2020), and A Matter of Will (2017). He’s been long listed for the Leacock Medal for Humour 3 times and has twice received the Silver Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in addition to the Bronze Medal for Humour from Foreword Review INDIES. He was a Finalist for 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Humor, the 2021 Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize, the 2023 ReLit Award for Best Short Fiction, and the Northern Lit Award for Fiction. Last spring, Rod was Writer in Residence at the Toronto Reference Library. He is a co-founder and curator for the St. Lawrence Writers Festival. The Great Catsby by Hilton (his eldest cat) is being launched at the festival – an illustrated catification of the literary classic for cat lovers and book lovers alike.

Lily Chu, who also writes women’s fiction under L.C. Chu, is the critically acclaimed author of eight books. Her romances have been released in audio as Audible Originals, performed by Phillipa Soo, and translation rights have been sold in multiple languages. She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family, two cats, and far too many (yet not enough) books. Follow her on Instagram @lilychuauthor, or sign up for her newsletter at her website below for news and updates on latest releases.

Kerry Clare is the author of Definitely Thriving, out now from House of Anansi Press. Her previous novels are Asking for a Friend, Waiting for a Star to Fall, and Mitzi Bytes. A National Magazine Award-nominated essayist and editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, Kerry also edits the Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, is host of the BOOKSPO podcast, and writes about books and reading at her longtime blog, Pickle Me This. She lives in Toronto with her family.

Born and raised on the shores of Lake Superior, H. Leighton Dickson studied Zoology at the University of Guelph and worked in the Edinburgh Zoological Gardens in Scotland. An avid reader since childhood, she has been writing since she was thirteen and pencilled her way through university working for DC Comics.

Now repped by Looking Glass Literary’s D. Ellis Wilson, Heather got her start as an indie author with the Sci/Fi fantasy series, RISE OF THE UPPER KINGDOM. Next came the Gothic thriller series, COLD STONE & IVY and then award-winning DRAGON OF ASH & STARS: The Autobiography of a Night Dragon. Her novel, SHIP OF SPELLS, came out November 2025 from Red Tower Books.

Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury. Her most recent books include a collection of poetry, The Pollination Field (Turnstone Press, 2025), and a debut novel, The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46, 2024). Kim is an editor for Consilience, a UK-based poetry journal that explores the spaces where the sciences and the arts meet. In 2024, Kim was awarded first place in The Ampersand Review’s Essay Contest, and in 2023, she was awarded second place in the McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Creative Nonfiction Contest, and was a finalist for the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize. She is the Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada. ‍

A two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, Terry Fallis is the award-winning author of nine national bestsellers—six of them #1 bestsellers—including his latest, The Marionette. His debut novel, The Best Laid Plans, won the 2008 Leacock Medal, the 2011 edition of CBC Canada Reads, and was adapted as a six-part television miniseries, as well as a stage musical. He won the Leacock Medal a second time in 2015 for No Relation. His eleventh novel, An End in Itself, a meditation on the writing life, hits bookstores November 3, 2026.

Terry also teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.

Sophie Gartland-Davey is a 24-year-old woman with an enthusiasm for reading, writing, and the art of telling a good story. While pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, she dedicates her free time to her friends, family, and her role as a proud member of the St. Lawrence Writers Festival committee. After pursuing many hobbies and interests, she has found that she always returns to her passion for creating and consuming literature. Sophie believes that reading and writing make the world go ‘round, and she is incredibly grateful to be part of a community of wonderful people who share that belief!

Hollay Ghadery lives and writes in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. Her memoir, Fuse (Guernica Editions) won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. She is the author of the poetry collection, Rebellion Box (Radiant Press, 2023), the short fiction collection, Widow Fantasies, (Gordon Hill Press, 2024—long-listed for the Toronto Book Award), the chapbook, the blades of grass are dreaming (Anstruther Press, 2025), and the novel, The Unravelling of Ou, (Palimpsest Press, 2026). Hollay is a host on The New Books Network and HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township.

Celia has enjoyed a number of complementary and overlapping careers that combine her love of art and nature. She’s worked as a biologist, a natural science illustrator, and a teacher of studio arts courses, but is best known as the author and illustrator of award-winning children’s nature books. She’s published hundreds of illustrations in books and journals, on zoo signs, museum exhibits and coins issued by the Royal Canadian Mint.

Daniel Goodwin is a poet and novelist. His second novel, The Art of Being Lewis, was longlisted for the 2020 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, and his latest novel, The Great Goldbergs, was a finalist for the 2024 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature. His collection Catullus's Soldiers received the 2016 Vine Award for poetry. In his fiction, he explores family relationships, friendship, and the long journeys we take to become ourselves.  Daniel’s poems and essays have appeared in several literary journals and newspapers, including The Literary Review of Canada, Toronto Star, and The Antigonish Review. He lives in Ottawa with his family.

Farah Heron is a critically acclaimed author for adults and teens. Her books have been named as best books of the year by CBC books, USA Today, and NPR. She writes rom-coms and romances full of South Asian families, delectable food, and most importantly, brown people falling stupidly in love. She was recently the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library and has taught writing for several years. Farah’s adult books include A LITTLE HOLIDAY FLING and ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED, and her young adult books include REMEMBER ME TOMORROW, and MEET ME ON LOVE STREET. Farah lives in Toronto with her family.

Hilton was abandoned as a kitten. All-Heart Pet Rescue in Powassan, ON, found him in a ditch and nursed him back to health. At the age of six months, he was adopted into a loving home filled with books, pillows, and endless kibble. In addition to writing, Hilton enjoys chicken paté, bird watching, and long afternoon naps. The Great Catsby is his first catification.

The Novice of Holloway Hall is the latest novel by award-winning, best-selling author, Wayne Johnston. His many novels include The Custodian of Paradise, The Navigator of New York, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, which was a finalist for 16 Canadian and international awards, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and won the New York Public Libraries Prize for Best Novel and was chosen by the Los Angeles Times as one of the Ten Best Books of the year. His first memoir, Baltimore’s Mansion won the Charles Taylor Prize for creative non-fiction. The Son of a Certain Woman was nominated for the Giller. His memoir, Jennie’s Boy, won the 2023 Leacock Medal and was a finalist on CBC Radio’s Canada Reads.

Amy Jones is the author of the story collection What Boys Like and the novels We're All in This Together (adapted into a feature film in 2021), Every Little Piece of Me, and Pebble & Dove. Her work has won the Northern Lit Award, the Metcalf-Rooke Award, and the CBC Literary Prize for Short Fiction, has been shortlisted for the ReLit Award, the Bronwen Wallace Award, and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and has been anthologized in Best Canadian Stories and Journey Prize Stories. Originally from Halifax, Amy currently lives in Hamilton.

Margo LaPierre is a freelance book editor and poet. Her second poetry collection, Ajar, was published by Guernica Editions. She serves on Arc Poetry Magazine’s editorial board and is a member of the Ottawa-based poetry collective VII. She holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and a publishing certificate from Toronto Metropolitan University. She has won national awards for her editing, fiction, and poetry and seeks to destigmatize bipolar disorder and psychosis. 

Shade Lapite is British-Nigerian. She works in digital marketing, blogs regularly about books by authors of colour and is on a mission to watch every Korean drama. Her debut novel, Goddess Crown, is a YA fantasy adventure about a girl raised in secret who discovers she has royal heritage and enemies who would rather see her dead than wearing the crown.

Lois Lorimer is a poet, actor, and educator. Trained at The National Theatre School, she has performed at Shaw Festival, Royal Alex, Tarragon and Centaur theatres. Born in Brockville, and after decades in Toronto, she’s thrilled to return to the vibrant Arts community of her hometown. A published poet, her poetry appears in: Arc, Literary Review of Canada, Hart House Review, and many anthologies including an American anthology: The Wonder of Small Things. Her poetry chapbook Between the Houses was published in Edinburgh. Lois’s poetry collection is Stripmall Subversive. She is delighted to bring her expertise to the Poetry Panel.

Darlene Madott is an award-winning author of 10 books, including Winners and Losers, Stations of the Heart, and Making Olives and Other Family Secrets. Winners and Losers (her 9th book) grew out of her legal practice of over three decades and was named The Miramichi Readers Best of2023. She has twice won the Bressani Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Vanderbilt-sponsored Carter V. Cooper EXILE editions award three times, and for the inaugural Nona Heaslip Best Canadian Short Stories Award. Widely anthologized, she has participated in international literary conferences, most recently as an invited plenary-panel speaker on Alice Munro for the International Conference of the Short Story in English, 2025, Killarney, Ireland. Her 10th book, Closing Ceremonies, now includes Dying Times.

Michael Mirolla has published more than two dozen novels, plays, film scripts and short story and poetry collections. Awards include the Hamilton Literary Award for the novella, The Last News Vendor, and three Bressani Prizes: the novel Berlin; the poetry collection The House on 14th Avenue; the short story collection Lessons in Relationship Dyads. A symposium on Michael’s writing was held in 2023. When not writing, Michael serves as Guernica Editions’ editor-in-chief. Born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Michael makes his home on a farm (along with five dogs, a cat and sundry humans) outside the town of Gananoque.

Juliette Miron is a writer-illustrator from Québec’s Eastern Townships. Rooted in nature, her work blends gentle storytelling with whimsical, animal-centred artwork. She is the creator of the Maple and Renoir graphic novel series, published by Éditions Michel Quintin. She loves to roam in nature in search of her next muse. She was the 2025 winner of the Canine Centrale de France Literary Prize recognizing books that value the relationship between dogs and humans. She is the illustrator for The Great Catsby by Hilton.

Donna Morrissey is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Pluck, which was a finalist for the Atlantic Book Awards' Non-Fiction Award, and of seven acclaimed and bestselling novels, including the national bestseller Rage the Night. She won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction for The Fortunate Brother; Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize; and The Deception of Livvy Higgs was a One Read pick for Nova Scotia in 2017. Her fiction has also won awards in the US and the UK and has been translated into several languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she lives in Halifax.

Maggie North writes deeply emotional, strangely hilarious romance novels about introverts, STEM, Canada, and other overlooked, underappreciated things you’d love to discover. A doctor by day, author by night, she lives in Ottawa, Canada with the man she met in ninth grade, their kid, and a rotating cast of hypoallergenic aquarium friends. Maggie enjoys being autistic a lot more since her diagnosis as an adult. Her books include RULES FOR SECOND CHANCES, THE RIPPLE EFFECT, and FOSSIL FEUD.

Randall Perry is a writer, editor, and micropress publisher living in Toronto, Ontario. He has edited several books published by Exile Editions, Guernica Editions, Latitude 46 Publishing, and Simon & Schuster Canada. He served as administrative judge and anthology editor for the final three years of the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Competition and has moderated publishing industry panels at both Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival and Librissimi Toronto Italian Book Festival. His fiction has appeared in Islandside, On the Run, and Blood+Honey magazines; in the anthologies Fear from a Small Place and Storgy 2019; and in the chapbooks Tsunami and Nostalgic, published by his imprint, October Park Editions. His non-fiction essays, columns, and reviews have appeared in Wayves, The ARC Quarterly, Outlooks, and fab.

Heidi Reimer is a novelist and essayist, a writing coach at Sarah Selecky Writing School, and the author of the novels The Mother Act and What We Found Instead. She has published in Chatelaine, The New Quarterly, Literary Mama, Lit Hub, and the anthologies The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood and Body & Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seekers. She writes about creativity and self-becoming in her Substack newsletter, The Visibility Letters. More at her website below.

Waubgeshig Rice grew up in Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay and now resides in Sudbury, Ontario. He's the author of four fiction books, most notably the novel Moon of the Crusted Snow and its sequel Moon of the Turning Leaves, published in 2018 and 2023 respectively. He holds a journalism degree from Toronto Metropolitan University, an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Nipissing University, and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His forthcoming novel, Early Bird, will be published by Random House Canada in early 2027.

Armand Garnet Ruffo (Anishinaabe) is a member of the Chapleau Fox Lake Cree First Nation. He is a recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Latner Poetry Prize and an Honourary Life Membership Award from the League of Canadian Poets. Armand is recognized as a major contributor to both contemporary Indigenous literature and Indigenous literary scholarship in Canada. His books include Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing Into Thunderbird (2014) and Treaty# (2019), finalists for Governor General Literary Awards. His latest book is The Dialogues: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow, winner of the 2025 Warland Award, recognizing books that blend genres.

Russell Smith grew up in Halifax and lives in Toronto. For 20 years he wrote a weekly column on the arts in the national Globe and Mail. His novels and story collections have been nominated for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize, the Dublin Impact Award, the Trillium Prize and the City of Toronto Book Prize. His most recent novel, his tenth book, is Self Care.

Judith Thompson is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. She has twice won the Governor General's Award for Drama and has been recognized with many other awards including the Order of Canada, the Walter Carsen Performing Arts Award, the Toronto Arts Award, The Epilepsy Ontario Award, the Dora, the Chalmers, the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, and many others. Her plays have been produced all over the world in many languages. She has received honorary doctorates from Thorneloe University and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Born in Montreal, she now lives in Toronto. In Crow's Field is her first novel.

Brockville-born Carolyne Van Der Meer is a Montreal author, public relations professional and former university lecturer who has published articles, essays, short stories and poems internationally. Her five published books are: Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience (WLUP, 2014); Journeywoman (Inanna, 2017); Heart of Goodness: The Life of Marguerite Bourgeoys in 30 Poems (Guernica Editions, 2020); Sensorial (Inanna, 2022) and All This As I Stand By (Ekstasis Editions, 2024). Chapbook publications include Broken Pieces: Hospital Experiences (2023), Birdology (Cactus Press, 2025) and Sincerely, Sincerely, (Agatha Press, 2025), co-written with Rayanne Haines.

Heidi von Palleske is a Canadian actor and writer whose voice resonates across page, stage, and screen. Her 2026 novel The Lost Queen, published by Dundurn Press, is the second installment in The Glass Eye Trilogy, following the success of Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack—a LOANSTARS Top 10 Pick and finalist for the Foreword Review’s Best Literary Novel in North America (2021). Her debut novel, They Don’t Run Red Trains Anymore, won the HR Percy Award.

Von Palleske first gained international attention in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers and has since taken on leading roles in films including My Animal and Body in the Trunk. A long career in film and theatre informs her prose; she writes with both a camera lens and a poet’s ear. She is currently completing a collection of sonnets, Fourteen Strokes, forthcoming next February.

Emily A Weedon is the author of the dystopian fiction debut Autokrator, the sexy horror/crime cross-over Hemo Sapiens and has work in the anthology Monsters, and co-edited the forth coming fiction anthology, Whatever. She will also be releasing her first Chapbook Total Depravity with October Park Editions. A CSA award winning screenwriter, she teaches Genre Writing for the Humber Creative Writing Program. Emily created and hosts the irreverent reading series Drunk Fiction in Toronto. You may have seen her in The Bride of Chucky or playing the Cameron House with her band. Emily has lived in Hamilton, Coe Hill and Budapest but has mostly called Toronto home. (Photo Credit: David Leyes).

Patricia Westerhof’s latest book is The Canadian Guide to Creative Writing and Publishing (Dundurn Press 2023). She also has two traditionally published novels, The Dove in Bathurst Station and Catch Me When I Fall, and stories and essays in Room, The Dalhousie Review, Write, West End Phoenix, The Feathertale Review, the Toronto Star and Post Road. She is a past winner of the Word Award for Best Contemporary Novel, a K.M. Hunter Award finalist, and the recipient of multiple writing grants and residencies. Patricia teaches creative writing and a course on getting published at University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, where she won the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award. Find her at her website below.

Ronald Zajac has been reporting on the arts (and more) in Brockville since he first started at The Recorder and Times thirty years ago. In his other life, he writes fiction. His short stories have appeared in Matrix, Blank Spaces, The New Quarterly and the short fiction anthologies The Things We Leave Behind (Chicken House Press, 2022) and Will There Be A Sunset? (Chicken House Press, 2024). Another of his short stories is due for publication in an anthology slated for the near future. He was a nominee for the 2026 Pushcart Prize.

He is currently seeking a publisher for his first novel, while working on his second in a series. He has a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from McGill University, and a Diploma in Journalism from Concordia University.