Silmy Abdullah
Silmy Abdullah was born in Bangladesh. When she was a toddler, she moved with her family to the Middle East. She immigrated to Canada in 1998 and since then, has considered Toronto her home.
Silmy is working on a collection of short stories that highlight the Bengali immigrant experience in Toronto, inspired by the lives of families she observed while growing up in Scarborough. One of the stories from the collection has been published in
The New Quarterly, while another has received honourable mention in
Glimmer Train Magazine's contest for new writers. She is an alumnus of Toronto's Diaspora Dialogues Program for emerging writers and has been mentored by author, Lawrence Hill. She is also a lawyer by profession and works closely with the South Asian Immigrant community in Toronto, which also helps her to find the seeds for incredible stories of courage, love, and resilience.
 Jordan Abel
Jordan Abel is a Nisga'a writer from B.C. where he is pursuing a PhD at Simon Fraser University where his research concentrates on Indigenous literature. Abel's creative work has recently been anthologized in
Best Canadian Poetry (Tightrope),
The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (Arbiter Ring), and
The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century (Hayword). Abel is the author of
The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize),
Un/inhabited, and
Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize).
Currently, Jordan is working on a book about intergenerational trauma called NISHGA that interweaves memoir, poetry, and photography together to address the complex and plural life experiences of intergenerational survivors of residential schools. He is also working on a novel, tentatively titled Empty Spaces, that repositions descriptions of land from The Last of the Mohicans and then writes over, through, and between those descriptions. Excerpts from that project have been published in Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, and The New Quarterly.
Jordan is represented by Stephanie Sinclair, [email protected].
 Jeremy Allingham
Jeremy Allingham is an award-winning journalist from Vancouver, B.C. He currently works for the CBC where some of his most recent and poignant work has included investigating fighting in junior hockey in a series called "Major Misconduct: Why We Let Kids Fight On Ice". He has also delivered in-depth coverage on the opioid crisis, The Northern Gateway Pipeline, the craft beer industry, B.C. politics and pretty much anything music-related. Jeremy's writing has reached millions of readers on cbc.ca, and vice.com. He has appeared on CBC Radio shows World Report, The World at 6, As It Happens, Definitely Not the Opera, The Story From Here, along with a litany of national specials and local programs. Jeremy is also a critically-acclaimed musician. He releases his 8th studio album, Run Wild in April 2018.
Jeremy is represented by Samantha Haywood and Rob Firing, [email protected] and [email protected].
 Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song-bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.
Using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada and has twenty years of experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba, is currently faculty at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh (NWT) and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University. Leanne's academic works are regularly used in courses across Canada and the United States. Her latest academic book, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance was published by the University of Minnesota Press in the fall of 2017.
Leanne was named the inaugural RBC Charles Taylor Emerging writer by Thomas King in 2014. In 2017, her book of poetry and short stories, This Accident of Being Lost, a follow-up to the acclaimed Islands of Decolonial Love, was published by House of Anansi Press, and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Leanne is also a musician combining poetry, storytelling, song writing and performance in collaboration with musicians to create unique spoken songs and soundscapes. Leanne's second record f(l)light produced by Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns), was released in the fall of 2016 on RPM Records, and she is working on her next record.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is represented by Marilyn Biderman, [email protected].
 Chantal Braganza
Chantal Braganza is a writer and editor living in Toronto. By day she produces stories about social justice for Ontario public broadcaster TVO, and writes about books, food and pop culture in her spare time.
Braganza has reported on jazz icons, bank fraudsters and porn academia, and written personal essays on bilingualism, miscarriage and the cultural history of dunking foods. Her work has been nominated multiple times for National Magazine and Digital Publishing awards, and has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Hazlitt, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, Reader's Digest, FASHION Magazine and Maisonneuve, among others.
Chantal is represented by Stephanie Sinclair, [email protected].
 Ani Castillo
Ani Castillo was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. At a young age, she became a successful blogger which gave her the opportunity to work as a cartoonist for Mexican newspapers and TV. One fateful day, through Myspace, she met her now husband and moved to Canada to live with him. The adventure was thrilling but challenging, since she had to leave her people behind, speak in a new language and re-start her career from scratch. All while becoming a mother, redefining her identity and working hard towards overcoming her social anxiety.
Her work has been published in Mexican and Canadian newspapers and exhibited in galleries around North America. The humanistic nature of her work has opened the doors to partnering with institutions like Mental Health America, Doctors Without Borders and the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Ani lives in Toronto with her two daughters and her husband.
Ani is at work on a picture book exploring the nature of giving and receiving in human relationships, a story with beautiful art and philosophy for all ages called PING.
Ani is represented by Samantha Haywood and Amy Tompkins, [email protected] and [email protected].
 Nick Craine
Born in Toronto in 1971, Nick Craine is a visual artist from Guelph, Ontario, Canada. His illustrations have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic and many more. In 2008 he was chosen as 1 of 6 Canadians included in the TASCHEN international anthology, Illustration Now, a sampling of 150 of the world's best illustrators. He is a much sought after conceptual illustrator who's drawings have help his clients win the business of, Ford, Telus, Smirnoff, Pepsi, TD Canada Trust and many more. He is the 2008 gold medalist in the illustration category from The Dog Writers Association of America. He adapted Bruce McDonald's, Dance Me Outside and Hard Core Logo into graphic novels, the latter of which he was nominated for an Ignatz award in the Outstanding Artist category (1998).
In 2017 he illustrated 5-Minute Hockey Stories (Harpercollins) written by Meg Braithwaite. The project spent 7 weeks on The Globe and Mail's best seller list. 2018 sees the release of two follow up books, 5-Minute Stories for Fearless Girls (May) and 5-Minute Basketball Stories (October) both written by Sarah Howden.
Nick is currently at work on a graphic novel about William Shakespeare entitled, Parchment of Light. He lives with his wife Sandy and their son Michael.
 Tyler Enfield
Tyler Enfield is an Edmonton-based writer and photographer. He is the author of four novels, including Madder Carmine (Great Plains Publications, 2015), winner of the 2016 High Plains Book Award, and finalist for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Prize. His film, Invisible World (National Film Board of Canada, 2017) was co-written with Madeleine Thien, and winner of three Alberta Screen Awards. Other awards include ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year, New Brunswick Literary Prize for Fiction, and the Moonbeam award. Enfield's newest novel, The Dynamite Kid, is an Arabian Nights western, currently out on submission. You can learn more about him at TylerEnfield.com.
 Rebecca Fisseha
Rebecca Fisseha's debut novel, Daughters of Silence, which is currently on submission, is set in Ethiopia and Canada, against the backdrop of the widespread shutdown of airline travel due to the eruption in 2010 of a volcano in Iceland. Daughters of Silence tells the story of Dessie, a bereaved and newly-single Ethiopian-Canadian woman, and her struggle to deal with her fractured family and her own traumatic past. Rebecca's short fiction has appeared in The Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Room Magazine, the 2015 Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Anthology, Joyland Magazine, The Rusty Toque, and is upcoming in the Addis Ababa edition of Akashic Books' Noir series. She also contributes to Selamta, the in-flight magazine of Ethiopian Airlines. Her play, wise.woman was produced by b current in Toronto in 2009.
Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre and a Master's Degree in Communications and Culture from York University; a Diploma in Writing for Film and Television from the Vancouver Film School; and a Certificate in Creative Writing from the Humber School for Writers. Rebecca Fisseha was raised in Ethiopia, Austria, and Switzerland; and has been based in Toronto since 1998. https://rebeccafisseha.com
 Djamila Ibrahim
Djamila Ibrahim's debut short story collection Things Are Good Now was one of Now Magazine's 10 Books To Be Excited About in 2018, and has made several CBC lists of Books/Writers To Watch For in 2018. Things Are Good Now has been reviewed favourably in the Toronto Star, Literary Review of Canada (LRC), Quill and Quire, This Magazine and Toronto Life. Djamila's stories have been shortlisted for the University of Toronto's Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction and Briarpatch Magazine's creative writing contest.
Djamila was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was formerly a Senior Advisor for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. She now lives in Toronto. She is at work on her debut novel.
 Edward Lee
Edward Lee is a Toronto lawyer and arbitrator. Born and raised in Montreal, his fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in Descant Magazine, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Strike the Wok, an Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction, TOK, Writing the New Toronto, and other literary magazines. He is also the author of a radio play, Canasian Eh? His novel, The Laundryman's Boy, is the story of Hoi Wing Woo, a Chinese teenager who comes to St. Catharines, Ontario in 1913 to work in a hand laundry. Arriving in the late fall, Hoi Wing struggles against the harsh demands of his employer, the bitter climate, and the casual bigotry of the townspeople, but he also experiences the pain and elation of first love when he befriends a young Irish scullery maid.
The novel is loosely based on the lives of the author's grandfathers, both of whom came to Canada at the turn of the twentieth century.
 Canisia Lubrin
Canisia Lubrin is an award-winning writer, critic, teacher and former community arts administrator. She has written for the stage and for a wide range of print and online publications, including Room Magazine, The Puritan, The Rusty Toque, Arc Poetry Magazine, Vallum, Lemonhound, The Unpublished City, The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, The Capilano Review, and Cordite Poetry Review. Lubrin was featured on CBC's 2017 HERStory in Black and is a 2017-2018 Poetry in Voice Poet in Residence. Poetry editor at Humber Literary Review and advisor to Open Book, Lubrin is co-artistic director and co-host of Pivot Readings and is Consulting Editor with Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and is the author of augur (2017) and Voodoo Hypothesis (2017) which appeared on multiple end-of-the-year book lists and was named a CBC Best Book of the Year. Canisia is working on her first novel.
 David Macfarlane
David Macfarlane's first book, The Danger Tree, was once described by Alice Munro as "about the best prose to come out of this country, for my money".
His first novel, Summer Gone, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and his second, Figures of Beauty, won the Bressani Literary Prize. Macfarlane's newspaper and magazine work have earned both National Newspaper and National Magazine awards.
His play, Fishwrap, was produced at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre. His musical portrait of the city in which he lives, The Toronto Suite, was performed at the Glenn Gould Theatre with the Via Salzburg Ensemble. His two-man show, The Door You Came In (with musician and songwriter, Douglas Cameron), continues to be performed across Canada. The show - part song, part spoken word, and based on stories from The Danger Tree - was described by curator and writer, Sarah Milroy, as "miraculously beautiful".
David is at work on a stunning new memoir tentatively titled, LIKENESS. It is inspired by his life-sized portrait painted by the acclaimed artist John Hartman, who is working on a series of portraits of Canadian writers. LIKENESS brilliantly examines the universal themes of home, fatherhood and the passage of time, ripe with the wisdom of examined memory and vintage Macfarlane prose. LIKENESS will be available for consideration shortly.
David plays rhythm guitar in the celebrated R&B band, Three Chord Johnny. He lives in Toronto with his family.
 Eternity Martis
Eternity Martis is a Toronto-based journalist, and the associate editor at Xtra.
She holds a double honours major from Western University in English Language and Literature and Women's Studies, as well as a Certificate in Writing. She is also a graduate of Ryerson's Master of Journalism program.
She writes features, personal essays and longform pieces about race and racism, pop culture, music, relationships and women's issues. She was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2017.
Her work has been featured in Vice, Salon, The Huffington Post, CBC, Hazlitt, The Walrus, Canadaland, The Fader and Complex and more.
She is currently working on a collection of personal essays about being a student and woman of colour amidst the growing anti-Black racism, white nationalism and alt-right ideologies in Canada and on Canadian campuses.
 Michael Melgaard
Michael Melgaard's fiction has appeared in Grain, The Puritan, The Antigonish Review, and other magazines in the U.S. and U.K. His story, "A Pregnancy," was honorably mentioned in The Humber Literary Review's Emerging Writers' Fiction Contest, with judge Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer calling the story "...an extraordinary, urgent, and devastating rendering". He is a regular contributor to the National Post's book section, and has contributed articles and criticism to The Millions, Torontoist, and elsewhere. He collection of short stories, Coming and Going, is currently on submission. He is working on his first novel, and lives in Toronto.
Visit his website, Michaelmelgaard.com
 Shani Mootoo
Shani Mootoo was born in Ireland, grew up in Trinidad and has lived in Canada for the last thirty-five years. She holds an MA in English from the University of Guelph, writes fiction and poetry, and is a visual artist who has exhibited locally and internationally. Mootoo's novels include Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, long-listed for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Lambda Award; Valmiki's Daughter, long-listed for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize; He Drown She in the Sea, long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Award, and Cereus Blooms at Night, shortlisted for the Giller Prize, The Chapters First Novel Award, The Ethel Wilson Book Prize, and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. She is a K.M. Hunter Arts Award and 2017 Chalmers Fellowship Award, and the James Duggins Outstanding Midcareer Novelist Award recipient. Her visual art has been exhibited locally and internationally, most notably at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, and at the Venice Biennale at the Transculture Pavilion. She currently lives in Prince Edward County in Ontario.
Shani is currently at work on POLAR VORTEX, a tension-filled, intelligent novel that dances the line between drama and suspense, about a woman named Priya, and what happens when a visit from an old friend Prakesh disrupts Priya's home life with Alex and questions of Priya's true intentions surface in her monogamous relationship with Alex.
 Philip Dwight Morgan
Phillip Dwight Morgan is a first-generation Canadian journalist, poet, and activist of Jamaican heritage. He is the inaugural rabble.ca Jack Layton Journalism for Change Fellow and his essays, op-eds, and poetry have appeared with Maclean's, CBC, rabble.ca, the Toronto Star, and in Briarpatch, Spacing, and Geez magazines. Phillip is currently working on his first book, Where do we begin?, a collection of essays exploring Black identity in Canada through analyses of media representation, activism, politics, sexuality, and masculinity. Phillip views writing as a process of self-discovery, emancipation, and nourishment.
 Jocelyn Parr
Jocelyn Parr was born in New Zealand, but grew up on the West Coast. She holds a PhD in English Literature, which she completed as a cotutelle with the Erasmus Mundus Doctoral programme, graduating from the universities of Tübingen and Perpignan. Her writing has appeared in publications in France and Germany, as well in Canadian literary magazines such as Brick and Grain. Her debut novel, Uncertain Weights and Measures, was shortlisted for the Governor General's award for English-language fiction.
 Michelle Parise
Michelle Parise has been a producer for CBC Radio and Television for over two decades. Born and raised in Toronto in a gigantic Italian immigrant family, Michelle was surrounded by storytellers, and as a child she wrote hundreds of short stories about her life. When she was 11-years-old she wrote a feminist novella in response to a book she'd taken issue with on the Grade 7 reading list. The teacher made it part of the curriculum in the years following. Her commitment to honest storytelling started early, is what we're getting at, and is part of everything she creates, continually striving to make connection through shared experience.
 Joshua Whitehead
Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit/ Oji-Cree/nehiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1) in Manitowapow. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Calgary where he focuses on Indigenous Literatures and Cultures in the English Department. Joshua is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks) and the forthcoming Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press).
Joshua is currently working on a third book tentatively titled, Making Love to the Land - a hybrid form of nehiyaw storytelling that includes poetry, fiction, and personal essay on ways of reading the land from a queer Indigenous perspective. Pieces from the manuscript have been published with Arc Poetry Magazine, in Refuse: CanLit in Ruins, and forthcoming work in Prairie Fire's NDN Country and The Fiddle.
Joshua is represented by Stephanie Sinclair, [email protected].
 Dr. Raj Waghmare
Dr. Raj Waghmare has two abiding passions in life: emergency medicine and writing. In his upcoming first book, Panic Room, Dr. Waghmare tells the stories of twenty patients, and follows his life's path - from an uncertain medical student to a front-line doctor and mentor in one of the country's busiest ERs. Dr. Wagmare's blog, The Overhead Page, is enjoyed by thousands of readers in over one hundred and twenty countries, and has been featured in television and in print. He is also a regular guest on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's national lifestyle show, The Goods, where he presents "Tales from the ER". Dr. Waghmare holds a Bachelor of Science from McGill University, and an MD from the University of Western Ontario. He lives in a suburb of Toronto with his wife and two young children.
Dr. Waghmare is represented by Marilyn Biderman, [email protected].
 Susan Wenzel
Susan Wenzel is a certified Sex Therapist, relationship expert, clinical sexologist, and psychotherapist with years of experience working with individuals and couples, and leading seminars and workshops. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree, and a Master of Arts Degree in Counselling from Providence University College in Manitoba. She is also a member of The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). She and her husband were featured in a New York Times Sunday Magazine article called "Is an Open Marriage a Happier Marriage?". Susan's book on the subject, which very recently sold in North America, My Happy Life in an Open Marriage: How I Dealt with Jealousy and How You Can, Too, part memoir and part self-help, draws on her experience in her own marriage and on her clinical expertise. Her goal is to help others struggling with jealousy and insecurities in monogamous and open relationships, alike. Susan was born and raised in Kenya, moved to Canada in 1999, and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Visit her website, Susanwenzel.ca.
Susan is represented by Marilyn Biderman, [email protected].
 Samra Zafar
Samra Zafar is an International Speaker, two-time TEDx Presenter, Human Rights Activist, Scholar, and Social Entrepreneur. Samra proudly graduated with a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Toronto with the highest distinction, winning over a dozen awards and scholarships. She was the first mature student to win the most prestigious John Moss Award, a $17k scholarship awarded annually to the single most outstanding student across all three U of T campuses. Today, she serves as the youngest alumni Governor for the University, while pursuing a rewarding career in financial services.
Samra advocates tirelessly for equity, human rights, women's rights, diversity and inclusion through many channels. Her passion is to motivate and empower all people to believe in themselves, achieve their goals and reach their full potential, no matter what the circumstances might be. Samra's story and work have been featured in prominent media, including Toronto Life, CTV, CBC, Global News, Yahoo, and many others, collectively reaching tens of millions of people worldwide.
Samra is represented by Samantha Haywood and Stephanie Sinclair, [email protected] and [email protected].
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