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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 Shit No One Tells you About Writing, which has over two million downloads.

An Assistant Agent since 2021 under The Rights Factory, Tasneem has a keen eye for stories that resonate on deeper levels. Her literary pursuits extend beyond the boundaries of genre and tropes, embracing narratives that provoke emotions and challenge perceptions regardless of the settings and tools they use to do so. Her passion lies in representing diverse voices and narratives that leave an indelible mark on readers' hearts and minds, no matter the age group.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Monica Tang (she/her) is the Director of Adult Programming at the FOLD, and a Bookstagrammer where she shares her love of reading on Instagram (@goldfishreads).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Mughal Rana, author of the debut novel Hope Ablaze, is a writer and student at Oxford University, pursuing her MPhil at the intersection of human rights and policy. 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

Maya Ameyaw was born and raised in Toronto by family of voracious readers in a cozy little house bursting with books. A former bookseller, she currently works as a community arts writing group facilitator and has edited several mental health themed anthologies. In her free time, she interviews writers about their journeys toward publication for her blog and YouTube channel .  Her contemporary YA debut When It All Syncs Up (Annick Press, June 2023) received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal. She is represented by Lesley Sabga and Julie Gwinn of The Seymour Agency.

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.

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.

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.

Narjis Sheikh is a Muslim, Pakistani American women's fiction and romance writer. She serves as the founder & executive director of Muslim Literary Festival in Toronto, Ontario.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nafiza Azad is an award-winning Indo-Canadian Muslim author. She writes books featuring magic and spunky female protagonists.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.