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2024 Speakers

  • Artist Alan Syliboy studied privately with Shirley Bear and attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where twenty-five years later, he was invited to sit on the Board of Governors. Alan looks to the Indigenous Mi’kmaw petroglyph tradition for inspiration and develops his own artistic vocabulary out of those forms. When the Owl Calls Your Name is his fifth children’s book. He lives in Truro, Nova Scotia.

  • As a screenwriter and story editor, Alex Pugsley has worked on over 185 produced episodes of television, writing for performers such as Lauren Ash, Scott Thompson, Jenn Whalen, Ennis Esmer, Mark McKinney, Dan Aykroyd, and Michael Cera, and for such series as Hudson & Rex, The Eleventh Hour, Life with Derek, Baxter, Heartland, G-Spot, I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, and The Gavin Crawford Show. His feature film Dirty Singles won for him the Irving Avrich Emerging Filmmaker Award at TIFF. Following the publication of his debut novel, Aubrey McKee, he was named one of CBC’s 2020 Writers to Watch. His first story collection, Shimmer, was nominated for the 2023 ReLit Award for Short Fiction. His new novel, The Education of Aubrey McKee, has just been longlisted for the City of Toronto Book Awards.

  • Alexander MacLeod's fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta and The O Henry Prize Stories. His first book, Light Lifting, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. In 2021, Lagomorph, his collaboration with Andrew Steeves, won the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia’s Masterworks Arts Award. Animal Person, released in April 2022, is his newest work.

  • Amanda Peters is a Mi’kmaq/ Settler writer from the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Her debut novel The Berry Pickers won the Barnes and Noble Discovery Prize, the Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime First Novel, the Dartmouth Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction. Her collection of short fiction, Waiting for the Long Night Moon was released in August 2024. She has a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the Institute for American Indian Arts in New Mexico. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Theatre at Acadia University.

  • Andrea Currie’s debut book Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves is a weaving of memoir, essay and poetry that illustrates the depth and breadth of the impact of the Sixties Scoop, the love between a brother and a sister, the challenges of living with profound cultural loss, and the healing that is sometimes possible. The pieces range from bluntly honest critique of the colonial practices that permeate child welfare agencies to tender accounts of two children’s vulnerability in childhoods defined by that system. In this timely work of narrative non-fiction, Currie asks as many questions as she answers.

  • Anne Fleming writes short stories, novels, poems, essays and books for children. Anne’s writing has won National Magazine awards and has been shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award, the Journey Prize, the Danuta Gleed Award, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and Italy’s Premio Strega children’s prize. The Goat, named one of the ten best children’s books of the year by The Wall Street Journal and the New York Public Library, was also a White Ravens winner and Junior Library Guild selection. Anne teaches Creative Writing at UBC’s Okanagan Campus.

  • Atharv Mahajan was one of the participants in the first annual AfterWords Youth Mentorship Program this year. Atharv has always loved being on a stage because this is the place where he feels seen and this is the place he considers home, and he dreams of working in movies as an actor and a writer one day. He lives in Halifax with his ever encouraging and supportive parents.

  • Always in the mood for a good scare, B. R. MYERS spent most of her teen years behind the covers of Lois Duncan, Ray Bradbury, and Stephen King. She is the author of the international bestseller, A Dreadful Splendor, winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award, as well as numerous YA books. A member of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, she lives in Halifax with her family—and there is still a stack of books on her bedside table.

  • Bria Miller (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, jewelry maker, graphic facilitator, graphic designer and owner of Bria Makes Things. Bria was born + raised in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, currently residing and creating within Kjipuktuk (Halifax) since 2011.

  • Carol Bruneau is the author of eleven books: four short fiction collections, including Threshold (Nimbus Publishing/Vagrant Press, 2024), six novels and one nonfiction book, No Ordinary Magic: the Art of Laurie Swim (Goose Lane Editions, 2023), nominated for this year’s APMA Best Atlantic Published Book. Her novels include Brighten the Corner Where You Are, inspired by the life of Maud Lewis (Nimbus/Vagrant, 2020), nominated for the IMPAQ Dublin Literary Award, and A Circle on the Surface (Nimbus/Vagrant, 2018), winner of the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. Her 2017 story collection, A Bird on Every Tree, was a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction. Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won both these awards in 2001. Other novels include These Good Hands (Cormorant Books, 2015) which explores the life and art of French sculptor Camille Claudel, and Glass Voices (Cormorant, 2007), a Globe and Mail Best Book. Bruneau lives and works in Halifax/Kjipuktuk, Nova Scotia/Mi’kmaki.

  • Caroline Adderson is the author of five novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice, The Sky Is Falling, Ellen in Pieces, A Russian Sister), three collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased to Meet You, A Way to Be Happy) as well as many books for young readers. Her work has received numerous award nominations including the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. In 2017, she was a YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Arts, Culture and Design nominee. Her awards include three BC Book Prizes, three CBC Literary Awards, the Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement, and a National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Fiction.

  • Catherine Leroux is Québec novelist, translator and editor born in 1979. Her debut novel La marche en forêt was published in 2011. Two years later, Le mur mitoyen won the France-Quebec Prize and its English version, The Party Wall, was nominated for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Future (L’avenir in French), won the 2024 edition of Canada Reads. Her latest novel, Peuple de verre, is a speculative fiction about the housing crisis. As a translator, Catherine has brought the works of Sean Michaels, Andrew Kaufman and (soon) Sarah Bernstein into French, and won the 2019 Governor general award for her translation of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien. She lives in Montreal with her two children.

  • Charlene Carr studied literature at university, attaining both a BA and MA in English, including a study program at Oxford. She has independently published nine novels and her first agented novel, Hold My Girl, sold to HarperCollins Canada, and three international publishers. It was shortlisted for both the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award and has been optioned for adaptation to the screen. Charlene received grants from Arts Nova Scotia and Canada Council for the Arts to write and revise her most recent novel, We Rip The World Apart, and is working on her next novel. She lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with her husband and young daughters.

  • Christina Cooke's debut novel BROUGHTUPSY (House of Anansi (CAN); Catapult (US)) was published in January 2024 and has been named a must-read title by over 20 publications across the US, UK, Canada, and the Caribbean -- including CBC Books, Indigo, The Atlantic, ELLE, and Cosmopolitan UK. Her short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany, Apogee, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. A Journey Prize winner and MacDowell Fellow, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City.

  • Cory Lavender is a poet of African Nova Scotian and European descent living in Mi’kma’ki. His work has appeared in journals such as Grain, Prairie Fire, Riddle Fence, and The Fiddlehead, and in Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to the Climate Crisis (Coach House Press, 2020). His full-length collection of poems, Come One Thing Another, is out in 2024 with Gaspereau Press.

  • Deepa Rajagopalan is the author of the short story collection, Peacocks of Instagram, shortlisted for the 2024 Giller prize. She won the 2021 PEN Canada New Voices Award for the title story of the collection. Her writing has appeared in literary magazines such as The New Quarterly, Room Magazine, The Malahat Review, and the anthologies like the Bristol Short Story Prize 2023. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph.

  • Elizabeth Renzetti is an award-winning author and journalist. Her most recent book is What She Said: Conversations About Equality. She is also, with Kate Hilton, the author of the Quill & Packet mystery series.

  • Elliott Gish is a writer and librarian from Nova Scotia. Her work has appeared in The New Quarterly, Vastarien, Dark Matter Magazine, and many others. Her debut novel, Grey Dog, was published by ECW Press this year. Elliott lives in Halifax with her partner and a small black cat named Mr. Raymond Parks.

  • Erin Brubacher is the author of the novel These Songs I Know By Heart (Book*hug, 2024), the co-author of the performance text/ travel memoire 7th Cousins: An Automythography (Book*hug, 2019), and the poetry collection In the small hours (Gaspereau Press, 2016). She has been a participant in commissioning programs and artist residencies including the Banff Playwrights Lab (Canada) and LIFT’s Concept Touring (UK). She holds a practice based MA International Performance Research, with distinction, jointly from the University of Warwick and University of Amsterdam. She has lived in ten cities, and now makes Tkaronto her home.

  • Erin Wunker is a writer and a teacher who lives in Mik'ma'ki.

  • Fawn Parker is a writer from Toronto, currently based in Fredericton where she is a SSHRC-funded PhD candidate at the University of New Brunswick. She is the author of six books including her latest novel, Hi, It's Me (M&S). Fawn is the current Poet Laureate of Fredericton.

  • Geneviève Bigué is an illustrator and comic artist based in Montreal. With a formation in Traditional Animation (Cégep du Vieux Montréal) and Graphic Design (UQÀM), she now works in many fields, such as books, advertisement and the cultural scene. In 2022, she published her first graphic novel as an author, Parfois les lacs brûlent (When the Lake Burns). Her book has won many awards, including the 2023 Prix des libraires du Québec. It was also nominated for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Awards in Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books (French).

  • Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent novel, When We Lost Our Heads, was a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Her previous works include The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives there today.

  • Heidi Tattrie Rushton has been a freelance reporter, social media manager, international recruiter, and preschool teacher. She also, like her Pet Tales protagonist, has experience working at an animal shelter, was a kid-activist through her writing, and rides the roller coaster of life with anxiety. She calls Fall River, Nova Scotia, home, along with her husband, two children, and a tiny dog who thinks she’s a cat. In 2021, Pet Tales was awarded the WFNS Joyce Barkhouse Writing Prize and was released by NP’s imprint, Trap Door Books, in April 2024.

  • Jack Whelan divides his time between family homes in Oshawa, Ontario, and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Recently, he can sometimes be found crossing the country in a truck carrying a replica of the cell in which he was once imprisoned, seeking justice for those who endured solitary confinement as children.

  • Jack Wong was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. In 2010, he left behind a life as a bridge engineer to pursue his Bachelor of Fine Arts at NSCAD University; he continues to live and work in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. As a children’s author/illustrator, Jack seeks to share his winding journey with young readers so that they may embrace the unique amalgams of experiences that make up their own lives. Jack’s picture books include ​W​HEN YOU CAN SWIM (Scholastic; winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and a Governor General’s Literary Award, finalist for the Ezra Jack Keats Award), ​T​HE WORDS WE SHARE (Annick Press​; winner of an Atlantic Book Award), and ​ALL THAT GROWS (Groundwood Books).

  • Originally from France, where she worked as a textile designer for 10 years, Johanna Lezziero moved to Canada 7 years ago. She lives in New Brunswick, near the Bay of Fundy, where she draws the inspiration she needs to nourish her creative universe. Her watercolors are populated by forest animals, houses lost in the woods and wild landscapes that draw inspiration from her daily life. She has illustrated 3 children's books with Bouton d'or Acadie.

  • Johanna Skibsrud is an award-winning Canadian writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her numerous titles include the Giller-prize winning novel, The Sentimentalists (Gaspereau 2010; Penguin Random House 2016), a book of essays, “The nothing that is”: Essays on Art, Literature and Being (Book*hug 2019), a scholarly monograph, Fool (Routledge 2023) and—most recently—a collection of poetry, Medium (Book*hug 2024). Born in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1980, Johanna received her PhD in English Literature at the Université de Montréal. She is currently Professor of English at the University of Arizona and divides her time between Tucson, Arizona, and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

  • Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer, Jonny Appleseed, Making Love with the Land, and Indigiqueerness: a Conversation about Storytelling as well as the editor of Love after the End: an Anthology of Two Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction. Currently, Whitehead is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary.

  • Kiahna Brennan was one of the participants in the first annual AfterWords Youth Mentorship Program this year. She has been crafting stories in her mind for as long as she can remember, telling stories since she could form sentences. She lives in Amherst, Nova Scotia.

  • Lindsay Ruck is an author and editor from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She studied journalism at Carleton University’s School of Journalism in Ottawa before returning to her home province to continue her writing career. Her first three books were works of non-fiction (Winds of Change, Against the Grain, and Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians. Winds of Change was nominated for an Atlantic Book Award and Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians was nominated for a Hackmatack Book Award. Lindsay has written two children’s picture books (My Favourite Colour and This Big Heart). Her next book (My Nova Scotia) will be released Spring 2025.

  • Lisa Alward's Cocktail won the 2023 Danuta Gleed Award, for the best first collection of short stories by a Canadian in English, as well as the New Brunswick 2024 Mrs. Dunster's Fiction Prize, and was long-listed for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. She was born and grew up in Halifax and worked in literary publishing in Toronto before moving with her family to Vancouver and ultimately to Fredericton, where at 50 she began writing stories.

  • Lisa Moore is the author of the bestselling novels Alligator, February, Caught, and This is How We Love; the story collections Open and Something for Everyone; and a young adult novel, Flannery. Her books have been finalists for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, CBC Canada Reads, the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Man Booker Prize. Lisa is also the co-librettist, along with Laura Kaminsky, of the opera February, based on her novel of the same name (2023). Lisa lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

  • 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) for best work of fiction in Canada; the Governor General's Prize (2009) for best work of nonfiction; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa, 1990); and the Bressani Prize. "Nostalgia", his dystopian novel, was a finalist for CBC's Canada Reads. His work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Swahili. In June 2015, MG Vassanji was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize for the Arts.

  • Marie-France Comeau Marie-France Comeau est une autrice, une éducatrice, et une médiatrice littéraire hors pair. Grâce à son écriture poétiques et son rapport authentique avec les enfants, elle et ses albums jeunesse circulent constamment dans la francophonie mondiale. L’étoile dans la pomme, un bestseller de littérature jeunesse est en constante réédition depuis vingt ans.. Marie-France Comeau a reçu en 20O5 le prix de l’alphabétisation Marilyne Trenholme Counsell du N.-B. Son album Un monstre dans ma cuisine a été finaliste du prix Champlain, album jeunesse 2022 et a reçu une mention « Meilleur livre publié en Atlantique» de l’Atlantic Publisher Book Publishers Awards. Un bisou coquelicot, son plus récent album fait partie de la sélection de lectures de Communication Jeunesse automne 2023 et finaliste pour les Éloizes 2024 artiste de l’année en littérature, et a été sélectionné pour le prix Jeunes lecteurs comme le gagnant 2024 de roman français Hackmatack.

  • Marie-Louise Gay has written and/or illustrated over seventy books for children: from picture-books like the Stella and Sam series, Caramba, Any Questions? Fern and Horn, I’m Not Sydney! The ThreeBBrothers, Walking Trees to novels like Travels with my Family and Travels in Cuba. Her books have been published in over twenty languages. Some of her books have been adapted for puppet theatre, live theatre and an award-winning animated TV series. She has won many awards for her work, such as two Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalfe Body of Work Award, the E.B.White Award and has been nominated twice for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

  • Mary Lynk is an internationally award-winning journalist and producer, with a keen interest in human rights coverage. Among her award-winning documentaries are Habtom’s Path (New York Festivals Gold/United Nations Award); The Road to Damascus (Gabriel Award); Canada’s Slavery Secret: The Whitewashing of 200 years of Enslavement (RTNDA), and I Will Never See the World Again: Ahmet Altan (Amnesty International Award. Mary is the host of The Kill List, a CBC podcast, and is a producer with CBC’s celebrated radio program IDEAS.

  • As a child, Meghan Marentette loved collecting odds and ends to build miniature homes for her toy animals, and wandering in the woods, building forts from fallen logs. As an adult, she turned her love of craft into a career in the film industry, eventually becoming costume designer for a stop motion animation TV series. It was during that job she was reminded of her childhood passion for tiny worlds, inspiring her to write a children’s novel about a family of mice (The Stowaways―Pajama Press, 2013), before moving on to create an actual tiny world in her photo-illustrated diorama picture book, Rumie Goes Rafting (Owlkids, 2024). She lives near the forest in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she continues to combine her love of writing, craft and nature into stories about Rumie.

  • Mercedes Peters (she/her) is a Mi’kmaw PhD Candidate in History at the University of British Columbia. Mercedes is a band member of Glooscap First Nation. While her research focuses on Mi'kmaw and Wolastoqey women's grassroots activism, she has a passion for all things horror.

  • Penelope Jackson is the co-author of the middle-grade books Papergirl and Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women. An editor and ghostwriter of children's and adult books for over two decades, she is also a singer/songwriter and gardener. She hikes wild trails and swims in the cold ocean with her family in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

  • 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.

  • Portia Clark is the host of Information Morning for Mainland Nova Scotia airing from 5:55 a.m. to 8:37 a.m. on CBC Radio One.

  • Rebecca Thomas is an award winning Mi'kmaw writer of things. Sometimes they are poems, sometimes they are childrens’ books and sometimes they are love notes for family and friends. But they are always done with purpose and intention. She is a registered band member of Lennox Island First Nation in Epekwitk. Her ultimate goal is to take up space as an Indigenous woman in a world where they aren’t as valued or worthy as other groups of people. Rebecca dares you to tell her to be smaller and see what happens. She has been the Poet Laureate of Halifax and caregiver to her father who is a survivor of the Shubenacadie Residential School. She has performed with the Halluci Nation, Symphony Nova Scotia, and has spoken and lectured at conferences and coffee houses from coast to coast. Her first book I'm Finding My Talk has been shortlisted for the First Nations Community Reads Award. Her most recent collection of poetry called "I place you into the fire" was listed as one of CBC's top 20 books of 2020. Her book "Swift Fox All Along" was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Award for children's literature. She has an upcoming children's book called "Grampy’s Chair" is set to be released in September of 2024. She pays her bills by helping students who are overwhelmed with life and studies as a Student Services Advisor at the Nova Scotia Community College.

  • Sarah Everett is the award-winning author of several books for young readers. Her newest is THE SHAPE OF LOST THINGS. When she is not reading or writing, she is dreaming about summer, gearing up for her next travel adventure, perfecting her tree pose, or yodeling with her dog.

  • Sarah Hampson is an award-winning journalist and author, who was a columnist and feature writer for over 20 years with The Globe and Mail.

  • Sarah Mian's debut novel, When the Saints, won the Jim Connors Book Award, the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award, and was a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. She wrote the screen adaptation and is now working on her second novel, The World in Awful Sleep.

  • Shashi Bhat is the author of the story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts (McClelland & Stewart), and the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth (M&S, Grand Central), a finalist for the 2022 Governor General's Award for fiction, and The Family Took Shape (Cormorant), a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her fiction has won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award and has appeared in such publications as Hazlitt, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Best Canadian Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories. Shashi is the editor of EVENT magazine and teaches creative writing at Douglas College.

  • Sidura Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed Canadian author who has been a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and a runner-up in the Little Bird Short Story Contest. She recently won the 2021 Vine Award for best Jewish fiction for her debut short story collection, You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi Press, 2020). She also authored Holding My Breath (Key Porter Books, Canada; Shaye Areheart Books, U.S.; Tindal Street Fiction, U.K., 2007). Her debut picture book, Rising, illustrated by Sophia Vincent Guy, was published in 2024 by Candlewick, and her debut middle grade novel SWAN: The Girl Who Grew is published by Nimbus Publishing. Sidura studied Creative Writing at York University in Toronto, and obtained a Master of Journalism from Carleton University. She is a 2021 graduate of the M.F.A. program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. More information is available at: https://siduraludwig.com

  • Stewart Legere is a multi-disciplinary artist from Punamukwatijk/Dartmouth. He is the Artistic Director of queer live-art company The Accidental Mechanics Group & Associate Artistic Director of Zuppa Theatre. His performances have been presented at theatres & festivals across Canada & the UK, including the Stages Festival (Halifax), OUTstages (Victoria), SummerWorks (Toronto), PuSh (Vancouver), FTA (Montreal), IMPACT (Kitchener), Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff, Wales) and MAYFEST (Bristol, UK). He is a vocalist with orchestral pop outfit The Heavy Blinkers, & a solo singer/songwriter. He composes music and sound for theatre and film. He makes short films (RT Collective, SpiderWebShow, CBC). An avid and passionate collaborator, his work is fascinated with vulnerability, intimacy, the destruction of persona and the celebration of performance.

  • Sue Goyette has published nine books of poems and a novel. Her collections include Monoculture, The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl, and Ocean (for which she was awarded the 2015 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award). She is the editor of Resistance: Righteous Rage in the Age of #MeToo (University of Regina Press, 2021), The 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology (Anansi, 2017) and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 (Tightrope Books, 2013). Her work has been translated into French, Spanish and German and has been featured in films, subways, buses, spray painted on a sidewalk and tattooed. She was nominated for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Award and has won several national awards. She lives in Halifax (K'jipuktuk) and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Dalhousie University.

  • Sue Murtagh lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a graduate of the Alistair MacLeod mentorship program (Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia) and the Humber School for Writers, where she worked with mentor Danila Botha. Her writing has appeared in The Nashwaak Review, Grain, carte blanche, the Humber Literary Review, The New Quarterly and yolkliterary.ca. Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press published her debut short story collection, We're Not Rich, in October 2024. Award-winning writer Alexander MacLeod edited the linked collection.

  • Tanya Talaga is of Anishinaabe and Polish descent and was born and raised in Toronto. She is a member of Fort William First Nation. Her mother was raised on the traditional territory of Fort William First Nation and Treaty 9. She is the acclaimed author of the national bestseller Seven Fallen Feathers, which won the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and the First Nation Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult Award. A finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, the novel was also CBC’s Nonfiction Book of the Year and a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book. Talaga was the 2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy and the 2018 CBC Massey Lecturer. She is also the author of the national bestseller All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward. For more than twenty years she was a journalist at the Toronto Star and is now a regular columnist at the Globe and Mail. Tanya Talaga is the founder of Makwa Creative, a production company formed to elevate Indigenous voices and stories.