Authors & Speakers

Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation. He has written four fiction titles, and his short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies. His breakthrough novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, was published in 2018 and became a national bestseller. The sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, was published in October 2023. He graduated from the journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2002, and spent most of his journalism career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a video journalist and radio host. He left CBC in 2020 to focus on his literary career. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario with his wife and three sons.

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer who lives with bipolar disorder. Named Scarborough’s Emerging Writer in 2016 and nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019, she co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada’s largest mental health hospital and teaches at the University of Toronto. Never Been Better is her debut novel.

MATTHEW R. MORRIS is an educator, anti-racism advocate, and writer based out of Toronto. He earned a BA (Hons) and an MA in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto. In addition to teaching, his work and public speaking on the deconstruction of Black masculinity, hip-hop culture, and schooling has taken him across North America to consult on and learn about the challenges facing students and educators in the current education system. He has written articles for TVO, Huffington Post, ETFO Voice, and Education Canada and has been featured in Toronto Star and Sun, on CBC Radio and CityNews. He is the author of Black Boys Like Me.

Alicia Elliott is an award-winning Mohawk writer and editor living in Brantford, Ontario. Her best-selling first book, A Mind Spread Out On The Ground, was nominated for the Hilary Weston Nonfiction Prize. Her debut novel And Then She Fell was an instant national bestseller.

Nafiza Azad is an award-winning Indo-Canadian Muslim author. She writes books featuring magic and spunky female protagonists. She is also the co-editor of Writing in Color.

Craig Shreve is an author that was born and raised in North Buxton, Ontario. His debut novel One Night in Mississippi was published in 2015. His 2023 novel, The African Samurai, was listed by Paste Magazine and Bookbub as one of 2023’s most anticipated new releases, and was named by Quill and Quire and The Miramachi Reader as one of 2023’s best novels. It has been translated internationally in thirteen different languages, and was optioned for a Netflix series. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Catherine Leroux is the author of three highly praised novels and an innovative sequence of short stories. Her bestselling second novel, The Party Wall, a translation of Le mur mitoyen, won the France–Quebec Prize in the original and, in translation, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Award. Leroux’s story sequence, Madame Victoria, won Quebec’s Adrienne Choquette Prize. The French original of The Future (L’avenir) won the Jacques Brossard Prize. Catherine Leroux works as a translator and editor in Montreal. She was awarded the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation.

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. ​ When she is not writing, she works as a narrative designer in games. Her hobbies include language study, obsessing a healthy amount over her favourite video games, and perfecting her skincare routine. She currently resides in the Toronto area.

Christina Wong is a playwright, prose writer, and an interdisciplinary artist who also works in sound installation and printmaking. Her plays have been performed at Factory Studio, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, and Palmerston Library Theatre. Christina was also part of Diaspora Dialogues Mentorship Program (playwriting and short-form), Nightwood Theatre’s Write From the Hip, and fu-GEN’s Kitchen playwriting unit. Her work has also appeared in Spacing, TOK Magazine, and on CJTM 1280AM. She also holds a PhD in Music from the University of Leeds. She is the author of Denison Avenue.

Oakland-born law grad, Taj McCoy, is the author of SAVVY SHELDON FEELS GOOD AS HELL, ZORA BOOKS HER HAPPY EVER AFTER, and editor of the disaster romcom anthology EVEN IF THE SKY IS FALLING. In addition to writing, Taj works as a literary agent and a higher education consultant. She joined Rees Literary Agency in 2022 and aims to widen the entryway for marginalized authors and to normalize Black joy, fat joy, celebrations of culture, and love without limitations, representing Children’s and Adult Fiction and Nonfiction. Her newest novel THE GOOD ONES ARE TAKEN releases in April 2024.

Kazim Ali is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and cross-genre work. He has translated books by Ananda Devi, Marguerite Duras, and Sohrab Sepehri. Founding Editor of Nightboat Books, he currents serves as professor and chair of the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

Farzana Doctor is a Tkaronto-based author, activist and psychotherapist. She has written four critically acclaimed novels including Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All Inclusive, and Seven, a poetry collection You Still Look The Same, and a self- and community care workbook for helpers and activists, 52 Weeks To A Sweeter Life. In 2023, Farzana received the prestigious Freedom To Read Award. A founding member of WeSpeakOut and the End FGM Canada Network, she is also the Maasi behind Dear Maasi, a sex and relationships column for FGM/C survivors. www.Linktr.ee/farzanadoctor

Mai Nguyen is the author of SUNSHINE NAILS, which was longlisted for Canada Reads 2024. She is also a journalist and copywriter who has written for Wired, The Washington Post, The Toronto Star, and several major brands. Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she now lives in Toronto.

Tara Sidhoo Fraser is a queer writer and creator of South Asian and Scottish ancestry. She graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA in Anthropology, and her work has been published with Autostraddle and Anathema magazine, among others. When My Ghost Sings is her first book. She lives in Vancouver.

RJ’s essays on baseball and other topics have been featured at Catapult, VICE Sports, Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs, among others. They were the inaugural Writer in Residence at the Upstart & Crow Literary Arts Studio. Their debut novel, ALL THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN, is forthcoming in April 2024 from ECW Press.

Tania De Rozario is a writer and visual artist. Her essay collection, Dinner on Monster Island, was published by Harper Perennial (2024). Her work has won the New Ohio Review Nonfiction contest (2020), the Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry Contest (2021) and Singapore’s Golden Point Award (2011). Her memoir, And The Walls Come Crumbling Down was a Lambda Literary Award finalist (2021), and her first collection of poetry, Tender Delirium, was shortlisted for the the Singapore Literature Prize (2014).

Rodney Diverlus (They/Them) is a Haitian-Canadian storyteller and artivist who use body, voice, and the pen to weave diasporic and queer narratives of life and freedom. They create works across mediums; working extensively in film, theatre, dance, and multidisciplinary performance. Their artivism imagines large-scale public installations that blur the lines of protest, art, and performance. Diverlus is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter—Canada, and the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism. They are co-author of Canadian bestseller Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada.

Jessica Johns is a queer nehiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry and a member of Sucker Creek First Nation. Her debut novel, Bad Cree, was shortlisted for the Amazon first novel award and is a Canada Reads finalist.

Tiffany Morris is an L’nu’skw (Mi’kmaw) writer from Nova Scotia. She is the author of the swampcore horror novella Green Fuse Burning (Stelliform Books, 2023) and the Elgin Award-winning horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in the Indigenous horror anthology Never Whistle At Night (Vintage Books), as well as in Nightmare Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, and Apex Magazine, among others. She has an MA in English with a focus on Indigenous Futurisms and apocalyptic literature.

Alina Khawaja is a Canadian-Pakistani author. A graduate from the University of Toronto with a BA in English, History and Creative Writing and from Toronto Metropolitan University with an MA in the Literatures of Modernity, it’s been clear from day one that the only thing Alina could be is a storyteller. Alina lives in Ontario, Canada, where she spends the summer at theme parks and the winter cozying up inside with a ridiculously expensive coffee. When she’s not writing, she’s either reading or trying to keep up with her endless list of k-dramas. She is the author of Maya’s Laws of Love.

Marjorie Beaucage is a Two-Spirit Métis Auntie, filmmaker, art-ivist and educator, a land protector and a water walker. Born in Vassar, Manitoba, to a large Métis family, Marjorie’s life’s work has been about creating social change, working to give people the tools for creating possibilities and right relations. She is giving back to future art-ivists as they stand up for themselves and community through creating art, music, writing, ceremony. To create change and healing for the people with story medicine. Marjorie is the author of Leave Some for the Birds.

Roshan James (she/her) is a Tibetan-Indian multidisciplinary artist, poet, and musician, living as a settler in southwestern Ontario. Roshan researches and experiments to create work that embodies decolonization, identity, timelessness, mindfulness, purpose, and healing. Entrenched in her work is anti-oppression advocacy and representation of marginalized, queer, and melanated voices to help dismantle colonial, capitalistic systems. She is deeply involved in advocating for mental health and the arts – Roshan is on the Board of Governors for Lutherwood Canada, and she sits on the Board of Directors for the Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener + Area (CAFKA). She is the author of Pink Moon.

Former NYC Public Defender, ABC Legal Contributor appearing on GMA, World News, Nightline, ABC News Live and on his GMA3 segment, “Better Call Brian.” Trial Counsel at Hamilton Clarke LLP, where he handles federal criminal defense and civil rights cases. Law & Crime Host and memeber of the Board of Trustees for Coney Island Prep.

Born in Congo-Kinshasa, Téa Mutonji is a writer and poet based in Toronto. Hr short stories, Property of Neil and The Photographer’s Wife were awarded in The Journey Prize 33. Her debut collection, Shut Up You’re Pretty was shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writer’s Trust Prize (2019) and won the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award (2020) and the Trillium Book Award (2020). Mutonji is the recipient of the Jill Davis Fellowship (2021) at New York University where she is an MFA candidate.

Adam Pottle is an award-winning Deaf author whose works span multiple genres. His books include the horror novel APPARITIONS, the historical suspense novella THE BUS, and the writing memoir VOICE. He is the author of the groundbreaking Deaf musical THE BLACK DRUM, and his children’s book BUTTERFLY ON THE WIND was released in March. When not writing or teaching, he is at the boxing gym, the library, or the park with with his wife Deborah and their goldendoodle Valkyrie. He lives in Saskatoon.

Tessa Hulls is an artist, writer, and adventurer who is equally likely to disappear into a research library or the wilderness. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Adventure Journal, and her comics have been published in The Rumpus, City Arts, and The Margins. She has been awarded grants from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture, and the McMillen Foundation, and is the recipient of the Washington Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. Feeding Ghosts is her first book.

Christine Estima is a novelist and freelance writer based in Toronto. Her debut book THE SYRIAN LADIES BENEVOLENT SOCIETY was one of CBC’s Best Books of 2023. She has written for The New York Times, The Walrus, The Observer, The Globe and Mail, VICE, The Toronto Star, Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, and many more.

Sarah Mughal Rana, author of the debut novel Hope Ablaze, is a writer and student at Oxford University, pursuing her MPhil in Asian studies at Oxford. She is a BookTok personality and the co-host of On the Write Track Podcast where she enjoys spilling tea with her favourite authors about the book world. Outside of school, she falls down history rabbit holes and trains in traditional martial arts. These days you can find her on Instagram & Tiktok.

Kim Thúy was born in Vietnam in 1968. At the age of 10 she left Vietnam along with a wave of refugees and settled with her family in Quebec, Canada. A graduate in translation and law, she has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, and restaurant owner.She has received many awards, including the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award, and was one of the top 4 finalists of the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2018. Her books have sold more than 850,000 copies around the world and have been translated into 31 languages and distributed across 43 countries and territories.

Natalie Sue is a Canadian author of Iranian and British descent. She spent her formative years moving around western Canada with a brief stint in Scotland, where she discovered her passion for storytelling and the comfort of reading. She’s served her country in the Tim Hortons drive-through, been a bartender and an assistant, and worked in criminal justice, but through it all she’s been a writer. She lives in Calgary with her husband, daughter, and dog. She is the author of I Hope This Finds You Well.

Clara Kumagai is from Ireland, Canada, and Japan. Her fiction and nonfiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, The Kyoto Journal, Room and Cicada, among others. Her debut young adult novel Catfish Rolling was published in 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Great Reads Award, nominated for the YOTO Carnegie Award and named as one of USBBY’s 2024 Outstanding International Books. She lives and writes in Ireland.

Opal Wei is the author of the screwball rom-com Wild Life, which was called “breathtaking” by The New York Times Book Review. As Ruby Lang, she’s written several contemporary romances featuring multicultural characters and their rambunctious families. As Mindy Hung (yes, she has a lot of names), her work has appeared in The Walrus and The New York Times. She lives in Toronto with her family.

Matteo L. Cerilli (he/him) is a transmasc author specializing in speculative fiction for all ages. His writing aims to erase the barrier between liberation movements and the people they’re for, by opening doorways to Big Ideas like queer liberation, youth equity, neurodivergent justice, and community care. His activism work includes setting up gender care for trans students at Trans Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Asexual @ York University (TBLGAY) and helping to found the Students for Queer Liberation in Toronto, where he currently lives with his partner.

Emily Pohl-Weary is the author of eight books, a play, and a girl pirate comic. Her young adult novel, How to Be Found, features a “grittier Nancy Drew” (Toronto Star) and “captures the angst and drama of teen life” (Zoomer). The Witch’s Circle, her 40-minute audio play, can be streamed at https://theotherpath.ca/listen. Previous books include Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl (YA), Strange Times at Western High (middle-grade), Ghost Sick (poetry), and Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril (non-fiction). She lives in Vancouver, on Musqueam Territory, where she teaches at the University of British Columbia.

Alexis Kienlen is a mixed race writer living in Edmonton on Treaty 6. She is a journalist, poet, fiction writer, novelist and essayist, and the author of 4 books. She dabbled in reading horror fiction for years, but fell fully in love with the genre in 2021. She is an associate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Amanda Leduc is the author of DISFIGURED: ON FAIRY TALES, DISABILITY AND MAKING SPACE and the novel THE CENTAUR’S WIFE. She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Bianca Marais is the bestselling author of The Witches of Moonshyne Manor, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words, and If You Want to Make God Laugh. She’s an award-winning creative writing instructor, and the founder and cohost of the popular podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers become published.

Calypso Haine (all pronouns) is a mixed Cree, queer, transsexual, twospirit poet. Their work focuses on the body and its relation to the land, as well as personal queerness that is nurtured by nature. Her work is playful, emotional, and highly personal. He believes that anything can be poetry, and that poetry is inherently an act of resistance and decolonization. By sharing their poetry, they hope to inspire others to dig deeper into themselves and find both the emotions that may hide from them and the strength to communicate them.

Carly Watters is a Senior Literary Agent at P.S. Literary and VP of PACLA (Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents). She’s been an agent for 13 years and represents award-winners and bestsellers in a variety of categories. Clients have been translated into 40 languages, optioned for TV, and have been on every bestseller list including the New York Times, USA Today and Globe and Mail. Carly co-hosts The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing podcast.

Castor is a Victoria-based writer with his roots in both Indigenous and Filipino heritage which he brings to his storytelling. He primarily writes in both stage plays and YA fiction. Having recently participated in Audible’s Indigenous Writing Circle under the mentorship of Renulta Arluk, Castor is on a creative odyssey, leaving his mark both onstage and the literary stage. Beyond the written word, he’s heavily involved in Victoria’s arts scene, passionately contributing to theatre, opera, and live events.

CeCe Lyra is a literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency representing adult fiction and nonfiction. A longterm strategic thinker, CeCe prioritizes the creative reach and sustainable longevity of her authors’ careers, and she is especially looking for clients with whom she can build fruitful, lasting relationships. CeCe believes that stories are empathy generating machines capable of healing, connecting, and enacting true change. As a mixed race Latinx immigrant, CeCe understands the power of seeing oneself reflected in books, hence her passion for championing under or misrepresented voices and narratives. She is also the co-host of the popular podcast, The Sh*t No One Tells you About Writing, which has over two million downloads.

David Yoon is a Waterloo Region native working in Canada’s high tech hotbed with a side hustle as an avid reader and semi-prolific booktuber focused primarily on literary fiction. A massive fan of the serendipity of shared experiences, he’s helped organize and run local events like TedXWaterloo and Ignite Waterloo Region. Lately David’s been busy being a father, husband, tequila fan, and enthusiastic eater of doughnuts. Avowed introvert but capable of faking it otherwise. Big supporter of kindness, long lunches, and guaranteed to be super into whatever you’re up to lately.

Jason Purcell is a writer and musician from Treaty 6 (Edmonton, Alberta). They are the author of Swollening and was co-founder of Edmonton’s Glass Bookshop.

Jess Kirk is an artist, organizer, and Executive Director of Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism – a community hub that nurtures Black creative possibilities.

Bookseller for 20 years. She is currently the Co-coordinator at Another Story Bookshop.

Lareina Abbott is a writer who pens Métis themed speculative fiction, essays and memoir. Her stories have a tie to the spiritual or natural world, and to ancestry. She received the 2023 Howard O’Hagan Short Story award for her short story “Ma Soeur Marie” published in the Prairie Witch Anthology, and was part of the 2023 Audible Indigenous Writers Circle. She originates from a cattle ranch in northern British Columbia but currently lives and writes in Calgary on Métis Local 87 and Treaty 7 territory.

Léonicka Valcius is 2024 graduate from the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, 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, FALLING BACK IN LOVE WITH BEING HUMAN by Kai Cheng Thom, and THE GROVER SCHOOL PLEDGE by Wanda Taylor.

Salma Hussain grew up in the U.A.E. to parents from Pakistan and immigrated to Canada when she was thirteen years old. She writes poetry and prose. Her writing has appeared in the Fiddlehead, the Humber Literary Review, Queens Quarterly, The Antigonish Review and Pleiades: Literature in Context. Her debut novel, The Secret Diary of Mona Hasan is a funny story of a young girl’s immigration and menstruation journey. Salma lives in Toronto.

Simone Dalton is an award-winning author, teaching artist, and playwright. Her work is anthologized in Watch Your Head, Black Writers Matter, and more. Simone holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and is working on her first book.

Tasnim Geedi is a 24-year-old Somali Canadian nursing student and content creator. When she is not studying, she promotes own-voice stories on her Tik Tok account under the handle @groovytas. Passionate about diversity and accessibility within the publishing industry, she uses her platform to not only review popular books but spotlight titles that centers and uplifts people of colour. Tasnim hopes to complete her master’s degree in psychotherapy and pursue a career that advocates for women’s health. When not creating, Tasnim spends time with her friends and family in Toronto, immersing herself in another fantasy book or blasting SZA on repeat.

Tina May is a passionate reader and bookstagrammer in Vancouver, BC. Find her on Instagram and Goodreads @tinamayreads where she shares book recommendations, reviews and her current reads. She loves reading multiple books at once especially Can Lit and visiting little free libraries around the city.

Warren Cariou is a Métis writer, artist and professor based in Winnipeg. In addition to his own creative work, he has edited books by numerous Indigenous writers.

afrakaren is a critical thinker and contemporary philosopher who is deeply invested in claiming spaces of healing and rest for #theblackbodypolitic. With a mission to be on stage who she is off stage, afrakaren’s work/words/art/thought is embodied in the life she lives, the child she raises and the community that requires her to be her unapologetic and authentic self. Forever spiralling through this life, guided by the force of her ancestors, afrakaren believes “the artistic creation of anything can be the birth of an everything” and it is her personal mandate to midwife as many revolutions as is possible through this personal philosophy.

Caterina Sauro is a poet, multi-faceted artist and self-published author based in Mississauga, ON. In 2022, Caterina introduced her poetry to open mics and featured events across the GTA, working hard backstage to have her first book, Hi, My Name is Monella, published later that year. In 2023, She then launched a free monthly writing workshop series with a featured poet portion called Exprosé and has produced 8 events since. Caterina continues to dedicate her work to creating community for poets and artists, locally and across the globe.

Born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida residing in Scarborough. David Delisca is a writer, poet, actor and humorist. A versatile artist, he uses stories about the immigrant and diasporic experience, as well as other various human realities, to bridge realms of communication. His works and performances have been featured in Toronto Star, CBC, Netflix.

Rooted in her intersections as Black, woman, and queer, award-winning spoken word artist, The Wild Woman uses poetry, spirituality, and sensual self-introspection to instigate waves of change.

Hilary Atleo is the co-owner of Iron Dog Books, a independent bookstore located in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood of Vancouver. Hilary is Anishinaabe from Curve Lake, Ontario but now spends more time in her husband Cliff Atleo’s Nuu Chah Nulth territories on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Hilary believes books should be available and accessible and that bookshops are fundamentally place-making.

Amoya Reé (she/her) is a Jamaican-Canadian performance poet and 2018 Canadian National Champion. Her writing is rooted in her lived experiences as a Black Woman, mother, & arts educator. Exploring the cultural significance of things like race, mothering and love, she often blends historical fact with present realities, making for a poetic experience that is both informational and inspirational.