LAMEES AL ETHARI holds a PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of Waterloo, where she has been teaching creative and academic writing since 2015. She has published a collection of poems titled From the Wounded Banks of the Tigris (2018) and a memoir titled Waiting for the Rain (2019). Her poems have …
VINH NGUYEN is an educator and writer. His writing appears in Brick, The Malahat Review, PRISM international, and Grain. He edits nonfiction for The New Quarterly. His memoir The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is forthcoming in 2025.
ERIN NOTEBOOM trained as a physicist but gave it up to write poetry and children’s novels. Against the odds, this worked out well. She’s published three volumes of poetry and six novels, which between them have won the GG, the TD, and the CBC. Her most recent books are A KNIFE SO SHARP ITS EDGE CANNOT BE …
MARGARET NOWACZYK, MD, MFA, is a clinical geneticist and a writer. She is a professor of pathology and molecular medicine and pediatrics at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Medicine in Hamilton, ON. Her memoir Chasing Zebras (Wolsak&Wynn 2021) won the 2022 Sarton Award for Memoir. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary magazines. Her as yet untitled collection …
Kamal Al-Solaylee is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, which won the 2013 Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to …
Madhur Anand is the author of the book of poems, A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes, and the experimental memoir, This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart, both considered trailblazing in their synthesis of art and science. A New Index was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. This Red Line won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. Her …
Shashi Bhat is the author of The Most Precious Substance on Earth (McClelland & Stewart, Canada, Fall 2021; Grand Central Publishing, US, Spring 2022) and a short story collection also forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart. Her debut novel, The Family Took Shape (Cormorant, 2013), was a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Shashi’s …
Selina Boan is a white settler-nehiyaw writer living on the traditional, unceded territories of thexʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. Her debut poetry collection, Undoing Hours, was released this Spring with Nightwood Editions. Her work has been published widely, including The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 and 2020. She has received several honours, including …
Kate Cayley has published two short story collections and two collections of poetry. She has won the Trillium Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, the Mitchell Prize for Poetry, and a Chalmers Fellowship, and been a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the ReLit Award and the K. M. Hunter Award. She has …
Paul Coccia is the author of the award-winning Cub, The Player, and the upcoming I Got You Babe, as well as coauthor with Eric Walters of the soon to be released On The Line. He has a specialist in English Literature from UofT and an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. He’s often found baking …
Ivan Coyote is a writer and storyteller. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, they are the author of thirteen books, the creator of four films, six stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, been named a Stonewall Honour Book, been longlisted for Canada Reads, shortlisted …
Guyanese-Canadian author Natasha Deen has published over twenty-four works for kids and teens. Her works have been chosen as CCBC Best Picks for Kids and Teens, as well as Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. Natasha’s YA novel, In the Key of Nira Ghani, was both a Red Maple Honour Book and the winner of …
Tamas Dobozy is the author of three previous collections of short fiction and novellas: When X Equals Marylou (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2003), Last Notes and Other Stories (HarperCollins Canada / Arcade (US), 2005), and the Governor General’s Award finalist and Writers’ Trust Award winner, Siege 13 (Thomas Allen / Milkweed (US), 2012). 5 Mishaps, a …
Krista Foss’ short fiction has appeared in Granta and has twice been a finalist for the Journey Prize. Her essay writing won the PRISM International creative non-fiction contest in 2016, has been featured in Best Canadian Essays. Her first novel, Smoke River, published by McClelland & Stewart (2014), won the Hamilton Literary Award. Half Life …
Brian Francis is the author of three novels: Fruit, a 2009 Canada Reads finalist; Natural Order, which was selected by the Toronto Star, Kobo, and Georgia Straight as a Best Book of 2011; and the YA novel Break in Case of Emergency, a finalist for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards. His latest book is …
Helen Humphreys is the author of 19 works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, including Rabbit Foot Bill and The Frozen Thames. She has won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, a Lambda Literary Award for Fiction, and the Toronto Book Award, and has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Book Award, and …
Chioke I’Anson is one of the voices of NPR’s sponsorship messages. Since 2016, he has tracked and delivered underwriting copy for newscasts and digital downloads. He is also a professor of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and is the Director of Community Media at VPM + ICA Community Media Center, which provides free …
Jackie Kaiser is President of Westwood Creative Artists, a Toronto based full-service literary agency that represents a diverse range of writers in the book publishing marketplace, working with co-agents to sell rights in more than 50 countries around the world, well as in the film, television, stage and podcast spaces. Prior to joining WCA, Jackie …
Alysia Kolentsis is an Associate Professor of English at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo.
Doretta Lau is the author of the short story collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? (Nightwood Editions, 2014). The book was shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award, longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and was named by The Atlantic as one of the best books …
Evelyn Lau has authored thirteen books. Her memoir Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid (HarperCollins, 1989), published when she was eighteen, was made into a CBC movie starring Sandra Oh. Evelyn’s prose books have been translated into a dozen languages; her poetry has received numerous awards. She has been writer-in-residence at UBC, Kwantlen and VCC, …
Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side, and she now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Her books include The Conjoined, nominated for International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award, The End …
Ágnes Vashegyi MacDonald is a Hungarian-Canadian sociologist. Born in Budapest and moved to Vancouver, Canada in the early 1990s, Ágnes has been enjoying the experience of living a hyphenated identity. This two-ness of being Hungarian and Canadian has given her a particular emigrant/immigrant view which she has been tapping into through her studies and scholastic …
Kirsteen MacLeod is the author of two books, In Praise of Retreat (nonfiction/memoir) and The Animal Game (short stories). A native Glaswegian, she has also lived in Toronto and Brazil. Her prose and poetry have appeared in many literary journals, magazines and anthologies, and her work has been a finalist for the CBC Literary Award …
Sara Martin is a high school librarian in Kitchener, where she has been connecting books and readers for nearly 20 years. When she’s not sharing her love of reading, Sara can often be found “Zoom baking” with her family or singing with the award-winning DaCapo Chamber Choir.
Jean McNeil is the author of 14 books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and travel. She has twice been the winner of the PRISM International competition, and her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Journey Prize, the National Magazine awards, and the Pushcart Prize. In 2016 her memoir and travelogue based on …
Pamela Mulloy is the Editor of The New Quarterly and the Creative Director of the Wild Writers Literary Festival. Her debut novel The Deserters was published by Véhicule Press in 2018, and her second novel As Little As Nothing will be published by ECW Press in the fall of 2022. She has lived in Poland, England and the United States and now …
Nam Nguyen is a Toronto-based playwright and lyricist of Vietnamese descent. His publisher forced him to write this bio less than a month after he graduated from the University of Toronto, at a time when his only work of note was this one. Nam was named one of NOW Magazine’s Breakthrough Stage Artists of 2019 …
Susan Olding is the author of Pathologies: A Life in Essays, and Big Reader (Freehand Books, 2021). Her poetry and prose have appeared widely in literary journals and magazines, including Arc, Prairie Fire, Maisonneuve, the Malahat Review, and the Utne Review. Her most recent contribution to TNQ is “Pacific Spirit,” the magazine’s first photo essay. …
Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to sci-fi fantasy TV to Japanese role-playing games and other geeky things, all of which have largely inspired her writing. Sarah has been nominated …
Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist from Wasauksing First Nation. He has written three fiction titles, and his short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies. His most recent novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, was published in 2018 and became a national bestseller. He graduated from the journalism program at the …
Susan Scott has an ear for the sublime, the personal, and edgy. Transgressive storytelling that inspires change informs her life-writing webinars and collaborations with fellow artists, activists, and scholars. As TNQ’s lead nonfiction editor (2012-9), she championed neglected voices and attracted National Magazine Award-winning work that went on to Best Canadian- and Best American Essays. …
Heather Smith is originally from Newfoundland, and now lives in Waterloo, Ontario. Her novel, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe, won the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award and the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award, and was shortlisted for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. Her middle-grade novel, …
Carrie Snyder is the author of three books of fiction, including Girl Runner, which was translated into a dozen languages and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers Trust Prize, and The Juliet Stories, a finalist for the Governor General’s award. Her new novel, Francie’s Got A Gun, is forthcoming in 2022 from Knopf Canada. …
Claire Tacon is the author of In Search of the Perfect Singing Flamingo (Wolsak & Wynn), which was the 2019 Hamilton Reads selection. Her first novel In the Field (Biblioasis), was the winner of the 2010 Metcalf-Rooke Award and her short fiction has been shortlisted for the Bronwen Wallace Award, the CBC Literary Prize and has appeared in various …
Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang is the author of the poetry books Status Update (2013), which was nominated for the Pat Lowther Award and the Gerald Lampert award winning Sweet Devilry (2011). Her new book, Grappling Hook, is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press. She has been widely anthologized in such collections as Best Canadian Poetry 2013, Poet-to-Poet (2013), …
Paul Vermeersch is the author of seven books of poetry, a professor of publishing at Sheridan College, and the senior editor of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph for which he received the Governor General’s Gold Medal. His most recent book is Shared Universe: New …
Isabella Wang is the author of the chapbook, On Forgetting a Language (Baseline Press 2019), and her full-length debut, Pebble Swing (Nightwood Editions, 2021). Among other recognitions, she was most recently shortlisted for Arc’s Poem of the Year award and was the youngest writer to be shortlisted twice for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay …
Jack Wang is the author of We Two Alone (House of Anansi, HarperVia), winner of the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award from the Writers’ Union of Canada for best debut collection in English. His fiction has been longlisted for the Journey Prize and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. He is the recipient of …
Andrew Westoll is an award-winning author and professor whose writing explores our fraught, ever-evolving relationship with the natural world. His books include The Riverbones (2008), the Charles Taylor Prize-winning The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary (2011), and The Jungle South of the Mountain (2016). His next book, The Zoo and You, explores the many enigmas of the modern zoo, and is forthcoming from Doubleday Canada. …
Kathleen Winter’s novel Annabel was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Orange Prize, and numerous other awards. It was also a Globe and Mail “Best Book,” a New York Times “Notable” book, a Quill & Quire & “Book …
Janie Yoon is Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada, acquiring literary fiction and nonfiction in subjects that include politics, geopolitics, social justice, humanitarian issues, history, biography, memoir, science and technology, and nature and environment. Previously, she was at House of Anansi Press, where she worked with bestselling and award-winning Canadian and international authors such …
Equipoise, Katie Zdybel‘s debut collection of short fiction, was shortlisted for the 2018 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction and received a 2019 Canada Council for the Arts Award. Stories within the collection were awarded the 2018 Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award, the 2019 Exile’s Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Award for Emerging Writers (a …
