The Festival of Literary Diversity A complete list of the FOLD 2023 schedule
Kelvin Kong
Cecilia Lyra
Bianca Marais
Carly Watters
Léonicka Valcius
Kate Beaton
Michael Christie
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Dimitri Nasrallah
Jael Richardson
Wayne Arthurson
R. Barri Flowers
Sandra SG Wong
Hyacinthe M. Miller
Ardo Omer has written for online platforms as a reviewer and critic for almost a decade. She’s been a judge for a few kids comics awards and is an advisor at the Canadian Comics Open Library. Omer lives in Toronto, Ontario, where she serves as the Kids Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD).
Amanda Leduc is the author of the nonfiction book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space, the novels The Miracles of Ordinary Men and The Centaur’s Wife. Her new novel, Wild Life, will be published by Random House Canada in 2024. Amanda has an MFA in Writing from the University of St. Andrews, UK. She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where she serves as the Communications and Development Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD).
Jael Richardson is the author of Gutter Child, The Hockey Jersey, Because You Are, The Stone Thrower, and the founder and Executive Director of the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD) in Brampton, Ontario. Gutter Child was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading White Pine Award. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario.
Kate Beaton
Michael Christie
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Dimitri Nasrallah
Jael Richardson
El Jones is a writer, professor, and activist who works with people facing deportation and incarceration. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies and Life from the Afrikan Resistance!.
ROBYN MAYNARD is the author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present (2017), a CBC, Toronto Star, and Globe and Mail national bestseller. Policing Black Lives was designated one of the best 100 books of 2017 by The Hill Times, and is the winner of the 2017 Errol Morris Book Award. It was also a finalist for The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers; an Atlantic Book Award; the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction; and the Concordia University First Book Prize. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, as well as glowing reviews in the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, NOW Toronto, Maclean’s, and the Ottawa Citizen. It was translated into French as NoirEs sous surveillance: Esclavage, répression et violence d’État au Canada, and won the prestigious Prix des libraires award in 2019.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, and musician. She is the author of seven books, including the recent non-fiction A Short History of the Blockade, and the acclaimed novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.
Kelvin Kong is the owner and principal agent at K2 Literary, and instructor/academic coordinator in the Toronto Metropolitan University/Chang School Publishing Certificate program.
Cecilia (“CeCe”) Lyra is an associate literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency representing adult fiction and nonfiction.
Bianca Marais is a bestselling author and a host of the popular podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. She’s also an award-winning creative writing instructor.
Carly Watters is Senior Vice President and Senior Literary Agent at P.S. Literary and co-host of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Podcast.
Léonicka Valcius is a second year law student at Lincoln Alexander at TMU, a host and Connect Group leader at C3Toronto Church, and a Literary Agent at Transatlantic Agency. She represents books for children and adults with a focus on commercial and genre fiction by writers of colour. Books she has worked on include Not The Plan by Gia de Cadenet, The Moonlight Blade by Tessa Barbosa and Falling Back in Love With Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom.
Fazeela Jiwa is an acquisitions and development editor with Fernwood Publishing. She has a special interest in writing of any genre about social justice and radical politics.
Ronan Sadler is an editor, sensitivity reader, and cultural consultant with a focus on disability and transgender issues.
Ameema Saeed (@ameemabackwards) is a writer, an avid bookworm, a book reviewer, and a sensitivity reader. She’s the Books Editor for She Does the City, where she writes and curates bookish content, and book recommendations. She also has experience as a freelance editor and DEI consultant. She writes about books, big feelings, unruly bodies, and her lived experiences, and hopes to write your next favourite book one day. When she’s not reading books, she likes to talk about books (especially diverse books, and books by diverse authors) on her bookstagram: @ReadWithMeemz.
Kate Beaton was born and raised in Cape Breton, where she lives with her family. After graduating from Mount Allison University, she moved to Alberta to pay down student loans. During the years she spent out West, Beaton began her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, quickly drawing a worldwide following. She has published five books: Hark! A Vagrant, Step Aside Pops, King Baby, The Princess and the Pony, and the graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands which was named a New York TImes Notable Book and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2022.
Michael Christie is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Greenwood, which was a finalist for Canada Reads, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has been translated into 10 languages. His previous novel, If I Fall, If I Die, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick. His linked collection of stories, The Beggar’s Garden, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction, and won the Vancouver Book Award. A former carpenter and homeless shelter worker, he lives in Victoria, BC, on the unceded territory of the Lkwungen speaking people, and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSÁNEC First Nations.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic. She won the Locus and British Fantasy awards for her work as a novelist, and the World Fantasy Award as an editor.
Dimitri Nasrallah is the author of four novels. His most recent, 2022’s Hotline, is a national bestseller that’s been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads. He was born in Lebanon in 1977, and moved to Canada in 1988. His previous books include The Bleeds, Niko, and Blackbodying. He lives in Montreal, where he serves as fiction editor for Véhicule Press’s Esplanade Fiction imprint and teaches creative writing at Concordia University.
Hana El Niwairi is a literary agent and Rights Manager at CookeMcDermid Literary Management. She is also a writer herself and media enthusiast who appreciates a good story no matter the format it’s delivered in, from ads to movies, and of course, books. Prior to joining the publishing industry, Hana worked in the non-profit, arts, and culture sectors. She is also one of the co-founder of the non-profit organization BIPOC of Publishing in Canada.
Casey Plett is the author of A Dream of a Woman, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; Little Fish, winner of a Lambda Literary Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada; and and A Safe Girl to Love, also a winner of a Lambda Literary Award. She was the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers alongside Cat Fitzpatrick. Plett has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Winnipeg Free Press, and other publications, and she is also the publisher at LittlePuss Press.
Author, writer, and community builder. Kern Carter is writing his own story and helping others share their own.
Jesmeen Kaur Deo grew up in northern British Columbia, where she spent most of her childhood daydreaming. She loves books that can make her laugh and tug at her heartstrings in the same paragraph. When not wrapped up in stories, she can be found biking, playing the harmonium, or struggling to open jars. TJ Powar Has Something to Prove is her debut novel.
Wayne Arthurson is a writer and literary agent of Cree/French Canadian descent, the author of eight novels and five books of non-fiction. His books have won the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award, Best Trade Fiction from the Book Publishers of Alberta and was the first Indigenous writer to win an Arthur Ellis Award for Canadian Crime Writing for his book, The Red Chesterfield. His latest novel is Dishonour in Camp 133. He lives in Edmonton.
R. Barri Flowers is an award-winning criminologist and bestselling author of more than one hundred books. These include gripping crime, thriller, and romance fiction, entertaining young adult mysteries and children’s books, riveting true crime books, and outstanding criminology titles. As a graduate of Michigan State University, Flowers is the recipient of the prestigious Wall of Fame Award from its renowned School of Criminal Justice. As an expert on violent criminality and serial killers, the author has appeared on popular television crime investigative documentary series, such as the Biography Channel’s Crime Stories, Investigation Discovery’s Wicked Attraction, and Oxygen’s Snapped: Killer Couples.
Sandra SG Wong (she/her) writes fiction across genres, including the cross-genre Lola Starke novels, Crescent City short stories, and the bestselling standalone thriller, In The Dark We Forget. A Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence finalist & Whistler Independent Book Awards nominee, as well as a speaker, mentor, and hybrid author, Sandra currently chairs the DEIJB Advisory Committee for Sisters in Crime, and is an active member of Crime Writers of Color. You can join her Reader Group via sgwong.com.
Hyacinthe M. Miller writes crime fiction spiced with seasoned romance. Her debut novel, Kenora Reinvented, will be followed by The Fifth Man, book two of the series.
Zoulfa Katouh is a Canadian with Syrian roots based in Switzerland. She is currently pursuing her master’s in Drug Sciences and finds Studio Ghibli inspiration in the mountains, lakes, and stars surrounding her. When she’s not talking to herself in the woodland forest, she’s drinking iced coffee, baking aesthetic cookies and cakes, and telling everyone who would listen about how BTS paved the way. One of her many dreams is to get Kim Nam-joon to read one of her books. Her first novel, As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow, is out now.
Cody Caetano is the author of Half-Bads in White Regalia (Hamish Hamilton). He works as a literary agent with CookeMcDermid.
Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side, and she now lives with her family in North Burnaby. Her books include The Conjoined, nominated for International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award, The End of East, The Shadow List, and Superfan. Jen acquires and edits for ECW Press and co-hosts the literary podcast Can’t Lit.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Ali Hassan
Catherine Hernandez
Jen Sookfong Lee
Alessandra Naccarato
Anuja Varghese
Téa Mutonji
Lindsay Ruck is a mother, 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. Lindsay’s first published book, Winds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Calvin W. Ruck, is a biography of her grandfather. Her first book for younger readers, Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians, is nominated for a Hackmatack Children’s Book Award. My Favourite Colour, a rhyming children’s picture book, will be released Fall 2023.
Alyssa Gray-Tyghter (she/her) is an educator, writer, speaker, and PhD student. For over 10 years, she has taught a variety of subjects in a public middle school in Peel where she is now an Equity Resource Teacher. In 2020, She began a series on Instagram (@AlyssaGTyghter) titled #HerstoricallySpeaking where she tackles Canadian Black History, Indigenous Stories, and other racialized communities in Canada. Her current research focuses of Black girlhood, identity, and belonging in Canada.
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a writer living in Tio’tia:ke, author of knot body (Metatron Press 2020) and The Good Arabs (Metonymy Press 2021).The Good Arabs 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 is forthcoming Spring 2023. With co-editor Samia Marshy, they are editing El Ghourabaa, an anthology of queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers, forthcoming Spring 2024.
Susan Mockler is a disabled writer living in Kingston, Ontario. Her recent memoir, Fractured, details her experiences with acquired disability following a car accident that left her with an incomplete spinal cord injury. Her book provides insights into the physical and psychological challenges she faced in rehabilitation and beyond, as well as the discrimination and marginalization she encountered when she was no longer able-bodied. Susan’s fiction and nonfiction have been published in a variety of Canadian and US publications.
Nisi Shawl (they/them) is the multiple award-winning author, co-author, and editor of over a dozen books of speculative fiction and related nonfiction, including the standard text on diverse representation in literature, Writing the Other; the African Congo alternate history novel Everfair; and the first two volumes of the New Suns anthology series. They’ve guest lectured at Duke University, Spelman College, Stanford University, Sarah Lawrence College, and many other institutions. Recent titles include the horror-friendly story collection Our Fruiting Bodies and the Middle Grade historical fantasy novel Speculation. Shawl teaches online writing courses via Hugo House and the writingtheother.com website.
Jessie Conrad is an emerging Author enrolled in an MA degree in community engagement. She was part of the Audible Indigenous Writers’ Circle 2022, a 2008 CBC Non Fiction Reader for CBC Books and published her first story, “Where They Belong“, in 2012. Currently she’s writing a speculative fiction novella, Fish Bait. Born in Windsor, Ontario she has also lived in Yellowknife, Vancouver and Edmonton. Being part of the communities she lives in is instrumental to her writing practice, as is receiving mentorship from established authors and peers.
Julian Martin is a Two-Spirited Indigenous Man. Julian has always been passionate about writing and storytelling from a very young age. Julian describes himself as an aspiring Author who strides to share the unheard voices of Indigenous people. His goals is to share knowledge and awareness of the Indigenous people of Turtle Island (Best known as North America) His stride is to encourage the younger generation to be open and proud to call themselves Indigenous. By sharing stories from the young age point of view and from the modern world.
January Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora poet, media producer, performance and sound art-ist. She lives on her home territory of Six Nations of the Grand River where she operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions.
Kerry C. Byrne an autistic, queer and nonbinary editor/community organizer/writer/cat lover living in Toronto, ON. They are the Co-Founder and Publisher of Augur Magazine, as well as the Co-Director of AugurCon, a two-day Canadian speculative literature event. As a writer, their fiction and poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Solarpunk Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, THIS Magazine, and others. Otherwise, they can be found rifling through the depths of their D&D world, Illaran. Find them on Twitter as @kercoby.
Anita Chong is Executive Editor at McClelland & Stewart, where she edits literary fiction and memoir, and champions writers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Books she has edited include Souvankham Thammavongsa’s How to Pronounce Knife, Tsering Yangzom Lama’s We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies, Sharon Bala’s The Boat People, Reema Patel’s Such Big Dreams, Michael Christie’s Greenwood, and, most recently, Jen Sookfong Lee’s Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart and Janika Oza’s A History of Burning. Anita is also the manager of the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for emerging Canadian writers.
Therese Estacion is part of the Visayan diaspora community. She is an elementary school teacher and is currently studying to be a psychotherapist. Therese is also a bilateral below knee and partial hands amputee. She has been a guest editor and judge for Poetry in Voice. Her first book, Phantompains, was published by Book*Hug, and was a finalist for the CLMP Firecracker Awards and the 2021 Indies Foreward Review. She lives in Toronto/Tkaronto.
Markus Harwood-Jones (he/they) is a proudly queer and trans space-case who has been writing since he can remember. Markus specializes in writing young-adult fiction and has a soft-spot for sappy love stories. He lives in downtown Toronto with his husband, their platonic co-parent, and their extra-cute kiddo. Markus is an aspiring TikTokker and can be found on social media under the handle @MarkusBones.
Danny Ramadan is an award-winning Syrian-Canadian author and advocate for LGBTQ-identifying refugees. His work includes The Clothesline Swing, The Foghorn Echoes, and the children’s series Adventures of Salma! His upcoming memoir Crooked Teeth will be released in 2024. He had raised over $300k for Rainbow Refugee society since his arrival to Canada as a refugee in 2014.
Hailing from Jamaica, and raised in Toronto, Tanya Turton is an award-winning entrepreneur, storyteller, wellness educator, and mental health advocate. Tanya’s work uses an intersectional lens to explore the relationship between narrative, mental wellness and care. As a wellness world builder Tanya takes steps to tell intersectional stories, and construct a world for Black and queer communities to feel heard, seen, and witnessed. Tanya is the author of Jade Is a Twisted Green, A coming-of-age story about Jamaican Canadian identity, love, passion, chosen family, and rediscovering life’s pleasures after loss.
Daniel Aleman is the award-winning author of Indivisible. He was born and raised in Mexico City. A graduate of McGill University, he is passionate about books, coffee, and dogs. After spending time in Montreal and the New York City area, he now lives in Toronto, where he is on a never-ending search for the best tacos in the city. His second novel, Brighter Than the Sun, was published this past March.
Jen Ferguson (she/her) is Métis and white, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. Her debut YA novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, is out now from Heartdrum / HarperCollins and won the 2022 Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature. Her latest novel, Those Pink Mountain Nights, is forthcoming in September 2023.
Talia Hibbert is a New York Times bestselling romance author who lives in a bedroom full of books. Supposedly there is a world beyond that room, but she has yet to drum up enough interest to investigate. Talia writes diverse and indulgent love stories because marginalised people deserve honest and joyous representation. She enjoys tea and biscuits, the colour pink, and unnecessary sarcasm.
Yeli Cruz (she/her) is a voracious reader, a writer, and a publishing professional. In her free time she loves playing video games and wearing cozy sweaters.
Author of Getting His Game Back and Not The Plan, Gia de Cadenet is a Maggie Award finalist, BCALA Literary Award nominee, and lifelong romance reader. She is also a business school professor and former translator and editor for UNESCO. A native Floridian, she currently lives in Paris with her children and her teacup Pomeranian, Sumo.
Roselle Lim is the critically acclaimed author of Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune, Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop and Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club. She lives on the north shore of Lake Erie and always has an artistic project on the go.
Kevin heronJones is a youth basketball coach, author, poet, journalist, editor, actor and lecturer. This electrifying artist is best known for his profound and powerful delivery. His poetry is edu-tainment. It is poignant and inspiring. Words that equally speak to the street, the church, the night club and institutions of higher learning. He attempts to analyze life beyond the physical and spiritual norms to find the scientific parallels between our art forms, belief systems and history. His prose challenges young people to look inward to find solutions and encourages young athletes to become more involved with literature.
Liselle Sambury is the Trinidadian-Canadian author of the Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalist, Blood Like Magic. Her work spans multiple genres, from fantasy to sci-fi, horror, and more. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the sometimes complicated business of being an author.
Born and raised in Kingston, Ontario, Britta Badour, better known as Britta B., is an award-winning artist, voice talent, educator, and poet living in Toronto. Her work has featured in notable spheres such as The Walrus Talks, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canadian Women’s Foundation, as well as literature festivals like the FOLD, Toronto International Festival of Authors, and LitFest Bergen. Britta holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph and teaches spoken word performance at Seneca College. Wires that Sputter (McClelland & Stewart, 2023), is her debut collection of poetry.
Britta Badour
Tahira Rajwani
Gavin Russell
The Wild Woman
Tahira Rajwani is a student, volunteer and spoken word artist. She is the winner of Mississauga’s 2022 poetry slam and has been published with The Stranger Poets, Poetry Undressed and Paper Crane Magazine. Most recently, she was also the runner-up for Button Poetry’s 2022 poem cover contest. Tahira is currently Marketing Lead with Sauga Poetry, an up-and-coming organization that aims to foster the local spoken word community and create opportunities for spoken word artists. By day, she is a psychology student at the University of Toronto.
Gavin Russell is a Spoken Word Artist out of Whitby, Ontario. Over the course of the last decade, he has brought his words to stages all over, attempting to bring levity, contemplation, and a desire to relish in the mundane to audiences everywhere. I multi-city champion in poetry slam, and a one time national champion, He hopes to enlighten and entertain with you. Yes, you specifically.
Britta Badour
Tahira Rajwani
Gavin Russell
The Wild Woman
The Wild Woman is a Jamaican-born creator rooted deeply in her intersections as Black, woman, and queer, to harness purpose and use poetry, spirituality, and sensual self-introspection to challenge thoughts and ideals, instigating waves of change. With a career spanning over a decade, The Wild Woman is an award-winning spoken word artist, poet, author, educator, and workshop facilitator. She is also an event producer, host, speaker, and curator.
Britta Badour
Tahira Rajwani
Gavin Russell
The Wild Woman
Meegan Lim is an illustrator and arts facilitator based in Brampton, Ontario that strives to nurture community growth and healing through visual arts. She is known for her detailed illustrations focusing on food and cultural identity, and the vast stories within those intersections. She holds a Bachelor of Design in Illustration, specializing in Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation, from OCAD University.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud is the host of CBC’s Commotion, and author of the No. 1 national bestseller Son of Elsewhere, a New York Times notable book of the year. He is a Reporter at Large for BuzzFeed News and a contributor to The National’s At Issue panel. Elamin was a founding host of Party Lines and Pop Chat for CBC Podcasts. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Globe, and others. When he gets a chance, he writes bad tweets.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Ali Hassan
Catherine Hernandez
Jen Sookfong Lee
Alessandra Naccarato
Anuja Varghese
Téa Mutonji
Ali Hassan is a Stand-up Comic, Actor and CBC Personality. Ali is the host of the CBC Radio stand-up comedy show Laugh Out Loud, and the host of Canada Reads – the annual battle of the books celebrating the best of Canadian literature. Ali appears can be seen as a recurring guest star in Sort Of on CBC GEM and HBO Max, and the sitcom Run The Burbs on CBC Television, and just began touring his latest solo show ‘Does This Taste Funny?’ across Canada. His comedic memoir Is There Bacon in Heaven? is out NOW with Simon & Schuster.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Ali Hassan
Catherine Hernandez
Jen Sookfong Lee
Alessandra Naccarato
Anuja Varghese
Téa Mutonji
Catherine Hernandez (she/her) is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is a proud queer woman who is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent and married into the Navajo Nation. Her novel, Scarborough, was a finalist for several awards including Canada Reads 2022. She wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Scarborough, which won 8 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Her second novel, Crosshairs, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Her latest novel, The Story of Us, was published this year. She is currently working on a few television projects and her fourth novel.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Ali Hassan
Catherine Hernandez
Jen Sookfong Lee
Alessandra Naccarato
Anuja Varghese
Téa Mutonji
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), her poetry and essays speak to intersections of disability and ecological change, and have appeared widely in publications such as The New Quarterly, Room Magazine, and Event. She is the recipient of numerous recognitions, including the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award and the CBC Poetry Prize, and holds graduate degrees in both creative writing and community economic development, supporting two decades of work in grassroots social change, community arts, and the prevention of gender-based violence.
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Ali Hassan
Catherine Hernandez
Jen Sookfong Lee
Alessandra Naccarato
Anuja Varghese
Téa Mutonji
Anuja Varghese (she/her) is a QWOC Pushcart-nominated writer based in Hamilton, ON. Her work appears in Hobart, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Plenitude Magazine, and others. Anuja is also a professional grant writer and editor, and in 2021, took on the role of Fiction Editor with The Puritan. Her debut short story collection Chrysalis (House of Anansi, 2023) centers brown women and girls in genre-blending stories that tackle sexuality, cultural expectations, and transformation through a feminist lens. Find Anuja on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok or through her website.
Téa Mutonji is a poet writing fiction. Her short stories collection, Shut Up You’re Pretty (2019), was published by VS. Books and Arsenal Pulp Press.
Dan K. Woo edited the anthology, The Spirits Have Nothing to Do with Us, forthcoming in Spring 2023 from Buckrider Books. He was winner of the 2018 Ken Klonsky Award, a literary prize for a novella with a social justice theme, and is also the author of Letters to Little Comrade (2023). His recent collection, Taobao: Stories, was featured on the Chicago Review of Books most anticipated reads of 2022. He also works full time as a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers and occasionally teaches at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
Ajhani Azure is a 21-year-old independent artist, producer, and vocalist from Brampton Ontario. His goal as an artist is to stand out with his unique approach and sound, inspire others to push boundaries and break the mold, & become the first tide of a new wave of genre-defying and groundbreaking artists from Brampton!
Cherie Dimaline‘s book, The Marrow Thieves, was declared one of the Best YA Books of All Time by TIME Magazine and won the Governor General’s Award and the Kirkus Prize. Her novel Empire of Wild became an instant Canadian bestseller and was named Indigo’s 2019 Best Book. Hunting By Stars was a 2022 American Indian Library Association Honor Book and her new novel VENCO debuted at #1 on Canadian bestseller lists. Other 2023 titles include Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Anthology of Monsters, and Into the Bright Open. Cherie lives in her community and writes for television and stage.
Suzette Mayr is the author of six novels including her most recent, The Sleeping Car Porter, winner of the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Award. Her other novels have won the ReLit Award and City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canada-Caribbean Region, the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s Best First Book and Best Novel Awards, and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. Mayr teaches Creative Writing at the University of Calgary.
Shelly Grace is a Toronto-based spoken word poet, photographer, and arts educator. In 2022 she was named Toronto’s Breakthrough Artist by Toronto Arts Foundation, and JAYU’s Emerging Artist of the year. In 2019 she won the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word while on the Up From The Roots slam team, becoming a National Spoken Word Champion. She is involved with VIBE Arts on their artist roster, where she works as an art educator and performer. She has also performed and worked for groups such as Toronto Poetry Slam (TPS), Toronto Public Library (TPL), Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and more.
Shahaddah Jack is an 18 year old bilingual spoken word poet, author, performer, emcee, human rights activist, arts facilitator, and student of life. She uses the realities of her identity to create stories of art that connect with others and are used to teach one of her greatest beliefs in life, that your pain is your power and our beauty is our story. Not only does she do this with her poetry, but conjointly with her activism and arts facilitation as well. For her efforts, Shahaddah has recently been announced as BGC Canada’s 2022 National Youth of The Year.
Janika Oza is the author of the novel A History Of Burning, forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart in May 2023. She is the winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction, and the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award, and her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The Best Small Fictions 2019 Anthology, Catapult, The Adroit Journal, and Prairie Schooner, among others. She lives in Toronto.
Sheila Murray’s 2022 debut novel, Finding Edward, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and was a longlisted nominee for Canada Reads 2023. It was listed in the Globe and Mail’s 100 best books, CBC’s best fiction, 49th Shelf’s best books and the Toronto Star’s books gift guide. Her short fiction has appeared in many Canadian literary journals. Sheila has worked as a documentary filmmaker and television sound editor. She moved to the non-profit sector in 2009, and leads a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative that engages urban residents in adapting to local climate change impacts.
![Next up at #Fold2023: @TaliaHibbert! She is a NYT bestselling romance author who wrote HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS AND UNFAIRLY CUTE, available now with @PenguinRandomCA. Join us virtually (April 30 - May 3) and in-person (May 4 - 7) in downtown Brampton. Registration is now open!
[Image description: Square graphic with a black border on the top and bottom showcasing author Talia Hibbert next to the cover art for her book HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS AND UNFAIRLY CUTE. At the bottom of the graphic is a black bar with white text: THE FESTIVAL OF LITERARY DIVERSITY. April 30 - May 7. Registration opens March 23 at thefoldcanada.org. April 30 - May 3 Virtual, May 4 - 7 In-Person Brampton.]](https://thefolddev.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
