The Buzz...About Books

Elizabeth Abbott is a writer and historian with a special interest in women’s issues, the lives of animals and the environment. 

Born and raised in London, England, Merlin drove an ambulance during the Second World War and in 1945, was the first civilian liberator at Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp, she grew oranges in South Africa, worked with Mother Teresa and worked as a proofreader for the Toronto Star. 

Lucile Barker is a Toronto poet, writer and activist who has written since swiping her grandmother’s fountain pen and her mother’s ink. Time spent in the corner gave her more writing opportunities. Hall time in high school offered her more chances to write, along with decreased prospects of gainful employment. She may have the world’s largest rejection slip collection. There are no plans for an exhibit of these. Her many print publications include both poetry and fiction and have appeared in Origins, Mamashee, B.C. Review and Memewar. Other online publications include Connotations, Wordsmith, Menacing Hedge and Ginger Piglet. She tends to submit to magazines with funny names. Since 1994, she has been the co-ordinator of the Joy of Writing, a weekly workshop at the Ralph Thornton Centre.

Judy Fong Bates is a writer, teacher and storyteller. Her novel Midnight at the Dragon Cafe was selected as the 2011 Keep Toronto Reading One Book community reads program. 

Steven W. Beattie is the review editor at Quill & Quire magazine. He also writes about short stories for The Globe and Mail.

Musician, author, journalist Dave Bidini is the only Canadian to have been nominated for a Juno, Gemini and Genie awards.

Lesli Bisgould

Lawyer and animal advocate Lesli Bisgould specializes in in the field of poverty and human rights law.

Vickery Bowles   

Vickery Bowles is currently Toronto Public Library’s City Librarian, although she was formerly Director of Collections Management and City-Wide Services, overseeing collection development for the Library’s print, audiovisual and electronic collections. She has also worked as a public service director for the Library where she worked to meet the needs of Toronto’s diverse population. Bowles spearheaded Toronto Public Library’s transition to digital collections while continuing to respond to customer demand for traditional books. She is a board member for the Centre for Equitable Library Access, an organization that promotes access to books for Canadians with print disabilities, and is also a member of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council Ebook Task Group. Most recently, Bowles became the chair of the Canadian Library Association Public Library Task Group on Ebooks.

Linda Bronfman

Linda Bronfman is a community psychologist and social entrepreneur. She founded the New Israel Fund of Canada, co-founded the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and Mabin Cares, a school based, community service project. 

Chester Brown

Montreal born cartoonist Chester Brown is best known for his comic book series Yummy Fur and his graphic novels Louis Riel and Paying for It. 

Martha Burns

An award winning actor, Martha Burns is a founding member of the Soulpepper theatre company. 

Kimberly Carroll

Kimberly’s specialty is helping folks connect to their centre, ignite their lives and transform the world around them. Her saucy, down-to-earth approach has made her popular as a coach and her intensive Life Reboot Program has been helping people – from diplomats to bus drivers to authors – power up their lives from the inside out. As a television host and producer, Kimberly has shown up on networks from North America to Africa to Europe. Kimberly’s also an activist passionate about social justice, environmental issues and democracy, but is especially devoted to animal protection and has helped mount farmed animal advocacy campaigns that have reached millions of people.

Arlene Chan   

Arlene Chan has written seven books about the history and culture of the Chinese in Canada, some shortlisted for the Ontario Speaker’s Book Award, Heritage Toronto Book Award, Silver Birch Award and Red Cedar Award. Growing up in Chinatown as a third generation Chinese Canadian, Arlene had a front-row seat to the development of the Chinese community in Toronto. She serves as a Chinatown tour guide for Heritage Toronto and The Ward Museum; president of the Jean Lumb Foundation; a former appointee of the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers Advisory Council; and serves on the board of Little Pear Garden Dance Company. She is an advisor for the Chinese Canadian Museum, Heritage Interpretation Working Group for Ontario Infrastructure, and Toronto Public Library’s Chinese Canadian Archives. Arlene is two-time member of the winning Canadian National Women’s Dragon Boat Team (2011 and 2013) and when she is not writing, speaking or leading tours, she is buried in research-related nonfiction. Arlene is working on her next book, an article about the Chinese Immigration Act for The Canadian Encyclopedia, and program notes for a new play at the Stratford Festival.

Yung Chang

Internationally award-winning film maker, best known for his documentaries Up the Yangtze and The Fruit Hunters.

George Elliott Clarke

In addition to serving as Toronto’s Poet Laureate in 2012-2015, Clarke has won numerous laurels including The Governor-General’s Literary Award for Poetry (2001) The William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations (2008), and Appointments to the Order of Nova Scotia and to the Order of Canada. Clarke has also received eight honorary doctorates.

The critically acclaimed author of the novels Stealing Nazreen, Six Metres of Pavement and All Inclusive.

Kim Echlin’s books include Under the Visible Life, Elephant Winter, Dagmar’s Daughter, Inanna, and The Disappeared, a Giller short-list and winner of the Barnes and Noble award, translated into 17 languages. She won first prize in the CBC Literary Prize for Creative Non-fiction and the Torgi Award. She has been a documentary-maker at the CBC, a fiction editor at The Ottawa Citizen and has taught writing at the University of Toronto’s School for Continuing Studies. She has travelled widely, including Pakistan, Iceland, Europe and Central America. 

Terry Fallis is the author of The Best Laid Plans and The High Road, both satirical novels of Canadian politics. His debut novel (TBLP) was originally self-published in 2007 and won'the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour; the Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in Regional Fiction (Canada East); and was chosen as the 2010 One Book, One Community selection by the Waterloo region. In November 2010, CBC’s Canada Reads named The Best Laid Plans one of the Top 5 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade; the book won Canada Reads 2011 in February. The sequel, The High Road, was published in September 2010.

Joe Fiorito is a city columnist at the Toronto Star. He is a previous winner of the City of Toronto Book Award for his novel, The Song Beneath the Ice. His most recent book, Rust is a Form of Fire, has just been published by Guernica Editions.

Matt Galloway

Matt Galloway is the host of CBC Radio One 99.1’s Metro Morning. He has worked at CBC for more than 10 years, hosting almost a dozen different CBC Radio programs.

Avvy Go

Avvy Go is the Clinic Director of Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. Since her call to the Bar in 1991, she has worked exclusively in the legal clinic system, serving the needs of low income individuals and families, the majority of whom are non-English speaking immigrants and refugees. Immigration, human rights and employment law are her main foci. Avvy has given numerous lectures and published extensively in law journals, as well as mainstream newspapers addressing legal and policy issues affecting immigrants. Avvy spends much time doing community advocacy and co-founded the Colour of Poverty Campaign (COPC), a campaign to address the increasing racialization of poverty in Ontario. Avvy has received numerous awards including the Order of Ontario, the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers’ Lawyer of Distinction Award, City of Toronto’s William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations and President’s Award of the Women’s Law Association of Ontario.

Katherine Govier

Katherine Govier is an Alberta-born writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her tenth novel, The Three Sisters Bar and Hotel, is being published by Harper Avenue in March, 2016. Her work has appeared in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, the Commonwealth and in translation in Italy, Holland, Japan and Spain. Her novel, Creation, about John James Audubon in Labrador, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Katherine also directs The Shoe Project, a writing workshop for immigrant and refugee women. Katherine lives with her husband Nick Rundall, a publisher, and their dog Jasper, splitting her time between Canmore and Toronto.

Author of Girls Fall Down, selected as Keep Toronto Reading One Book Community Read in 2012. 

Mary Ito is the host of the CBC Radio 1 program “Fresh Air”. It’s the number one weekend morning show in the province and features a mix of interviews and music every Sat. and Sun. between 6 and 9 am. 

Andrea Johnson has a background in fine art and fashion, and has been making corsets and fetish related apparel since the early 90s. Her work has appeared in a variety of fashion and fetish publications including i-D, Skin Two, Marquis, Zink, Italian Vogue and Numero.

Canadian by birth, Anita Kunz’s art has been widely published worldwide for three decades. She has produced cover art for many magazines including Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Magazine.

Rob Laidlaw is a Chartered Biologist and Executive Director of the wildlife protection organization Zoocheck. His work throughout the years has taken him from Canada’s north to the far reaches of tropical Asia. Laidlaw is also an award-winning children’s author; his latest books are 5 Elephants and Cat Champions, Caring for Our Feline Friends. Numerous people have asked him for recommendations on books about social change and activism. While there are a lot of great books out there, these are a few that he found particularly informative, accessible and, in some cases, revelatory.

Vincent Lam

Dr. Vincent Lam is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam, and was born in Canada. Dr. Lam’s first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won'the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Amanda Lang is CBC’s award-winning senior business correspondent and journalist, reporting for its flagship nightly news program, The National. She is also co-host of The Lang & O’Leary Exchange, a daily business program on CBC News Network.

John Lorinc is a Toronto journalist, editor and author. He writes about urban affairs, business and local history for a range of publications, including The Globe and Mail, Spacing, The Toronto Star and Walrus. He is co-editor of The Ward and Subdivided, both from Coach House Books.

Jenny’s Grandma Lowell fostered a love of reading in all of her children and grandchildren and Jenny has had her nose in a book since she first learned how to read. In Grade 6, she was kicked out of class for covertly reading and as a teen, her mother would take her books away as a punishment. Ouch. To this day, she prefers a book to a TV show and a library or a bookstore to a movie theatre. And as a paren't, both her kids know that she will always buy them a book if they are in a bookstore!

RABINDRANATH (Robin) MAHARAJ, author of five novels and three short story collections, was born and raised in Trinidad. In the early 1990s, he immigrated to Canada and now lives in Ajax, Ontario. His books include the novels The Amazing Absorbing Boy (2010, Knopf Canada), A Perfect Pledge (2005, Knopf Canada and in the US with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, finalist for both the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize).

Pascal Malla

Pasha Malla is the author of four books. His first novel, People Park, was published in July 2012.

Raymond Mar is an associate professor of psychology at York University, where he studies how people imagine themselves within the worlds of narrative fiction and what the outcome of these experiences might be. In collaboration with colleagues, he also edits a website on the psychology of fiction (onfiction.ca). He finds that an irony of being a fiction researcher is that there is precious little time for actual fiction reading.

Originally from the west coast, Nancy studied German and Anthropology at the University of Victoria. She moved to Toronto in 2002 and graduated from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She is a teacher with the Peel District School Board, where she is passionate about early literacy and children’s literature. An active community member, Nancy has sat on the board of the South Riverdale Child Paren't Centre (An Ontario Early Years Centre) and was Co-Chair of the Dundas PS Paren't Council. Nancy has two daughters who have thankfully embraced her love of children’s books. Although our usual Who’s Reading What? lists focus on books for adults, Nancy’s list focusses on great children’s titles, perfect for holiday giving! 

Award-winning photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur has been documenting the plight of animals around the globe for over a decade. Her work has contributed to hundreds of campaigns, protests, editorials, organizations and academia. She is the founder of the We Animals project; author of the book We Animals; and the subject of the celebrated film The Ghosts in Our Machine. Jo-Anne comes from a family of avid readers and part of their regular banter is about what they’re reading, what they liked and why. She says “Books, both fiction and non-fiction alike, shape us and can provide us with insight into our own lives through relatable characters, times, places and ideas. We see ourselves in the pages; we are transformed. We learn. Books make us better.”

Diana Matheson was born and raised in Oakville. She attended Princeton University where she graduated with a degree in economics. She is currently playing professional soccer in Norway. She has played for Canada’s Women’s Soccer Team since 2003, playing in 140 international games for Canada–the second highest number of games played by a Canadian player. She has played in three FIFA Women’s World Cups in 2003, 2007 and 2011 and two Olympic Games in Bejing 2008 and London 2012. In London, she scored the winning goal in the bronze medal match against France.

Brenda McNeilly is an advertising copywriter, freelance article writer and Vice President, Creative Director for FUSE Marketing Group. In her spare time, Brenda is a voracious collector of vintage Halloween, vintage beaded and mesh purses and art deco jewellery. She is also active in animal protection and has three fat and healthy FIV-positive rescue cats who have adopted her and husband Robert. Halloween being her favourite time of year, Brenda offers us her top 20 picks for the scary season. She’s also included the top three picks as selected by her friend, George Romero, famed director of Night of the Living Dead. Romero describes his philosophy as “more of a storyteller than an image maker.” His top three are stories that haunt, disturb, shock and push our boundaries.

Shawn Micallef is the author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto and Full Frontal TO; he is also a columnist at the Toronto Star; and a senior editor and co-owner of the independent, Jane Jacobs Prize-winning magazine Spacing.

Alanna Mitchell is an award-winning Canadian journalist and author who writes about science and social trends. She is a global thinker who specializes in investigative reporting. Her most recent book, Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis, is an international bestseller that won'the prestigious U.S.-based Grantham Prize for excellence in environmental journalism. Mitchell is one of North America’s most respected environmental and science journalists who has done field research with scientists on every continent. Mitchell lives in Toronto.

Ratna is an internationally recognized expert on migration, diversity and inclusion. She came to Canada from Iran in 1981 and her own experiences of displacement, integration and citizen engagement have been the foundation of her work. Ratna is the founding Executive Director of the Global Diversity Exchange (GDX) at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University. GDX is a think-and-do tank on diversity, migration and inclusion that connects local experience and ideas with global networks. Ratna is Chair of Lifeline Syria, a citizen led program that is supporting residents of Toronto to privately sponsor 1,000 Syrian refugees and bring them to the region over the next two years. She is also the co-author of the newly released book Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada (2015). Ratna is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, with both honours recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and her devotion to reducing inequality in Canada.

Ngozi Paul is an award-winning Canadian actress and producer of film, television and trans-media projects. Ngozi is best known for creating, producing and starring in the award winning television series ‘da Kink in My Hair, broadcast in more than a dozen countries and winner of multiple nominations and awards.

Gary Pieters is President of Toronto’s Urban Alliance on Race Relations, and an educator within the Toronto District School Board. He is interested in issues pertaining to equity, diversity and inclusion and has contributed to a large number of opinion editorials and other articles in news publications; has given many presentations as a speaker and conference participant in recent years; and has won numerous awards.

Ian Purdy obtained a MA in Critical Animal Studies from Brock University in 2013. As his book list suggests, his life revolves around animals: he co-organizes the Animal Rights Academy (http://animalrightsacademy.org/), a free lecture series at the University of Toronto, and sits on the Board of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/), an interdisciplinary scholarly center dedicated to promoting the field of Critical Animal Studies, a discipline which, among other features, advances a holistic understanding of oppressions facing both human and non-human animals. In addition, Ian holds the position of servant-in-chief for his numerous rescued companion animals.

Jane Pyper was the City Librarian for the Toronto Public Library 2008-2014 and is an avid reader.

Derek Quenneville is a 3D printing expert and digital fabrication artist in Toronto, Canada. He is currently 3D Guru at MakeLab, teaching 3D modelling at Toronto Public Library, runs Toronto 3D Printers meetups, and is a former director at Site 3 coLaboratory. In his free time, Derek gives talks at various non-profits around the city – he has introduced and demoed 3D printing to literally thousands of people at local events since 2009. Also sometimes he makes games. Holy cow, he’s a busy dude.

For nearly three decades, Ceta Ramkhalawansingh provided leadership in the City of Toronto’s equity and diversity office. Toronto City Council appointed her in 2014 as the Ward 20 Councillor to fill a vacancy. In her early student activist life, she organized to set up women’s studies at University of Toronto. Ceta has worked to save and build affordable housing, to protect and value heritage and to fend off inappropriate development. A volunteer on several non-profit boards, Ceta is the National Chair, The Word On The Street Canada; President, Learnxs Foundation and is a member of Friends of Fort York, Toronto Foundation, Innis College Council and Grange Community Association. Her booklist celebrates Toronto, discovers lost history, examines the impact of colonialism and imperialism, and addresses power relations between men and women, rich and poor, white and black. Her selections are based on her identity as an immigrant and a feminist of colour.

David Rider is the Toronto Star’s city hall bureau chief. Prior to joining the Star, where he has also been an editor and feature writer, Rider worked for outlets including Reuters News Service, CBC, the Toronto Sun, the Ottawa Sun, the Winnipeg Sun and the Brandon Sun. During breaks from full-time journalism, he taught high school English and foreign affairs in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, and was a 2013-14 Southam Journalism Fellow at the U of T’s Massey College.

Erika Ritter is a novelist, playwright, essayist and creative non-fiction writer. Her published works include: Automatic Pilot, a Chalmers Award-winning play; three collections of essays: Urban Scrawl, Ritter in Residence, and The Great Big Book of Guys: Alphabetical Encounters with Men; a novel, The Hidden Life of Humans; and a non-fiction book of journalistic and philosophical investigation, The Dog by the Cradle, The Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human-Animal Relationships, shortlisted for the Writers Trust Non-Fiction prize in 2009.

Robert Rotenberg is a criminal lawyer in Toronto and the author of two bestselling novels, Old City Hall, The Guilty Plea and Stray Bullets. His novels have been translated into nine languages and are sold in more than 40 countries.

Frederika Rotter is a lawyer who recently retired from her job at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. She now sits on the Law Society Tribunal where she hears discipline cases concerning lawyers and paralegals. She was raised and educated in Montreal, and studied English literature at McGill University. After coming to Toronto she studied law at the University of Toronto. She enjoys travel, music and the green world, and is an avid and constant reader.

Clayton Ruby

Clayton C. Ruby is one of Canada’s leading lawyers, an outspoken proponent of freedom of the press, and a prominent member of the environmental community. Ruby, who specializes in criminal, constitutional, administrative and civil rights law, has devoted his professional career to ensuring that those who are underprivileged and those who face discrimination are given equal access to the legal system of this country.

Elizabeth Ruth

Elizabeth Ruth is the author of the acclaimed novels Ten Good Seconds of Silence, a finalist for the Writer’s Trust of Canada Fiction Prize and Toronto Book Award, Smoke and The Matador. She is also committed to sharing her passion for writing with others through teaching and mentoring programs.

Robert J. Sawyer   

Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the science-fiction field’s top awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. According to the Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards, he has won more awards for his novels than anyone else ever in the history of the science-fiction and fantasy genres. The 2009 ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name. In 2014, Rob was one of the initial nine inductees to the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. His 23rd novel, Quantum Night, about an experimental psychologist trying to recover memories of a time in which he himself might have been a psychopath, was published in March 2016 and spent five weeks on the Maclean’s fiction bestsellers list.

Hilary Scharper   

Hilary Scharper is a Canadian author, living in Toronto. She has spent more than a decade as an assistant lighthouse-keeper and steward at the Cabot Head Lighthouse and Bird Observatory, located on the northern Bruce Peninsula. Her eco-gothic novel, Perdita, draws on her experiences at Cabot Head. She is also an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Scharper always goes up to the Bruce Peninsula and Georgian Bay for the summer where she does much of her writing. This summer she is taking a “literary trip” into nature, and some of its “wild spaces” including an exploration of the human-animal boundary. She notes that a dictionary check shows that the word “nature” refers to: 1) everything NOT made by humans; and 2) the innate way that BOTH animals or humans behave. So nature is something that is both outside and inside us. What, then, defines the human-animal boundary?

Siam

Siam is a former stray, rescued by Toronto Cat Rescue (torontocatrescue.ca), and now living with her full-time attendants, a dog and a few other foster kitties.

Patricia Storms

Patricia Storms is an award-winning cartoonist, as well as a children’s book illustrator and picture book author. Her picture book The Pirate and the Penguin was named one of the top 10 Great Books for Children for 2011, by the Canadian Toy Testing Council. Patricia was the artist for the 2008 TD Summer Reading Club, and travelled to Nunavut for the 2009 TD Canadian Children’s Book Week. She is also the new cartoonist who draws Chirp, the much-loved yellow bird from Owlkids.

Carol Ufford

Carol Ufford has been a voracious reader for as long as she can remember – she was the child who read books with a flashlight under the covers! Carol was born and raised in Montreal. She came to Toronto for university and had no intention of staying. Then she got a job she loved, and never left. Luckily she takes public transit to work so she can read. Carol and her husband (a non reader – how DID that happen?) have a teenage daughter (a sometimes reader – when the book intrigues her). They love to travel, go to the theatre, and walk their dog. So many books, so little time!

Virginia Van Vliet

Born in Montreal, after graduating with an MLS from McGill University, Virginia moved to Toronto to work as a librarian in 1976. Starting in Children’s Services, she later became the head of several branch libraries and later a District Manager. Since retiring, she is active as a volunteer with the Royal Ontario Museum, leading historic walking tours of Toronto, and with the Cabbagetown Preservation Association. An avid reader – more than 100 books a year – she also travels extensively.

Adria Vasil

Adria Vasil is an environmental journalist and the best-selling author of Ecoholic, Ecoholic Home and Ecoholic Body. She has been writing the Ecoholic column for Toronto’s NOW Magazine since 2004.

Raghu Venugopal

Raghu practices emergency medicine at the University Health Network and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is an overseas volunteer with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and has worked in the Central African Republic, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and West Bank/Gaza as well as refugee camps in Albania and Kosovo. Raghu has authored textbook chapters on emergencies among world travellers and on global humanitarian medicine and disaster relief. He was awarded both the University of Toronto Outstanding Clinical Teaching Award in Emergency Medicine and the Dr. Helen Karounis Memorial Award for Professionalism in Emergency Medicine. He writes, “I have chosen books mostly grappling with the reality in the poor and conflicted world, far from Toronto. As a physician, I am privileged to work here at home and in nations facing privation and insecurity. We are blessed in Canada with riches and rights that are found in few places. My book list is thus a reality check of what we have and what others do not have, and about the ongoing need for change and justice.”

Sunny Verma

Sunny Verma is passionate about entrepreneurship. After completing his Masters of Business Entrepreneurship and Technology, Sunny founded TutorBright, a company focused on helping students reach their potential, now in more than 30 cities, working with thousands of students. Sunny is an advocate of self-employment, dedicating his time to help individuals realize their dreams through entrepreneurship.

Eleanor Wachtel is the host and co-founder of CBC Radio’s Writers & Company, which is celebrating its 24th anniversary. She also co-founded and hosts Wachtel on the Arts. Her most recent books are Original Minds and Random Illuminations: Conversations With Carol Shields, which won'the Independent Publisher Book Award. Wachtel has received many honours for her contributions to Canadian cultural life including eight honorary degrees and the Order of Canada.

George A. Walker

George A. Walker is an associate professor at OCAD University in Toronto, where he teaches book-related arts in the printmaking program. He is the author of the best-selling how-to book, The Woodcut Artist’s Handbook (Firefly, 2005) and is also recognized for his book on wordless novels, Graphic Witness (Firefly, 2007). In 2002, he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in recognition of his achievements in Canadian Book Arts.

Alissa York

Alissa York’s bestselling, internationally published novels include Mercy, Effigy (shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize) and Fauna (shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award). She is also the author of the short fiction collection, Any Given Power, stories from which have won'the Journey Prize and the Bronwen Wallace Award. Her essays and articles have appeared in such periodicals as The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire and Eighteen Bridges. Alissa has lived all over Canada and now makes her home in Toronto.

David S. Young

David Young is an acclaimed Toronto-based writer and educator. He is the author of seven plays including Inexpressible Island, Glenn, and Fire, with Paul Ledoux, and No Great Mischief (adapted from Alistair MacLeod’s award-winning novel of the same name). His works have won or been nominated for the Chalmers Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, and the Governor General’s Award.