37. BOOKS WITH BUZZ

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.

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  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.

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.

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.