ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD is the host of CBC Radio show Commotion. He was a founding co-host of the CBC Politics podcast Party Lines, and he is a contributor to The National’s At Issue panel. His work has appeared in Buzzfeed News, Rolling Stone, the Globe and Mail, and others.

JORDAN ABEL is a queer Nisga'a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of The Place of Scraps, Un/inhabited, Injun, NISHGA, and Empty Spaces. Abel has won the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General's Award and is a Professor at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures, Research-Creation, and Creative Writing.

SHARON BALA is the bestselling author of The Boat People, which won the 2020 Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award and the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. It was a finalist for Canada Reads 2018 and the 2018 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. She has published stories in Hazlitt, Maisonneuve, Riddle Fence, Room, and Prism International. She lives in St. John’s, NL, with her family.

GARY BARWIN is a writer, musician, and multimedia artist and the author of thirty-five books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His bestselling novel, Yiddish for Pirates, was shortlisted for and won many awards. His latest novel is The Comedian’s Book of the Dead. Barwin lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

DINA DEL BUCCHIA (she/her) is the author of the story collections Tougher Than the Rest and Don't Tell Me What to Do (Arsenal Pulp Press) and five collections of poetry: Coping with Emotions and Otters, Rom Com (written with Daniel Zomparelli), It's a Big Deal!, You're Gonna Love This (all Talonbooks), and Blind Items (Insomniac Press). She lives in Vancouver, BC.

AARON CULLY DRAKE was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his debut novel, Do You Think This Is Strange? Drake is a former newspaper reporter and editor. He lives in Coquitlam, BC, with his wife and children.

AMAL EL-MOHTAR is a Hugo Award-winning author of science fiction, fantasy, poetry and criticism. Her books include The River Has Roots and the New York Times bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which has been translated into over ten languages. Her reviews and articles have appeared in the New York Times and on NPR Books. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

PORTIA ELAN studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to California, where she has worked as a teacher and public librarian. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel.

KEVIN HARDCASTLE is a fiction writer from Simcoe County, Ontario. He is the author of the novel In the Cage and the short story collection Debris, which won the Trillium Book Award and the ReLit Award for Short Fiction, was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and a finalist for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. He lives and works in Toronto.

ZAK JONES is a writer, literary scholar and US Army Veteran. He is the winner of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s 2023 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the 2023 Norma Epstein National Award. Zak holds an MA in English Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate studying veterans’ narratives in American Literature.

DORETTA LAU started watching horror movies at age nine and sketch comedy at eleven. After that, there was nothing to do but become a writer. She is the author of the collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? and the novel We Are Underlings. Visit dorettalau.com.

KLIPH NESTEROFF is the author of four books, including The Comedians. Called the "historian of comedy" by The New York Times, his work is praised by Mel Brooks and Steve Martin. A regular on WTF with Marc Maron, he appears on CNN and HBO, and has worked with Judd Apatow and Rob Reiner. Born in Castlegar, BC, he grew up watching Wayne and Shuster and The Kids in the Hall on CBC.

CAROL OFF spent almost sixteen years co-hosting the multi-award-winning CBC radio program, As It Happens. Her books include the number one bestseller At a Loss for Words: Conversations in an Age of Rage and All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey into the Lives of Others, winner of the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

HERVÉ PELAGE, aka DJ ICE-B, is a Vancouver-based DJ known for bringing hip-hop, R&B, soul and house to the dance floor. A longtime member of Vancouver’s street-dance community, DJ ICE-B has been DJing and creating music experiences for audiences across the city for several years. He has also been part of the Vancouver Writers Fest’s events for the past 3 years, helping bring music, rhythm and energy to its celebrations. His sets move between old-school favorites, soulful grooves, classic house and feel-good dance-floor tracks, with a focus on keeping the crowd connected, moving and having a good time.

ROLLIE PEMBERTON AKA CADENCE WEAPON is Edmonton-born, Hamilton-based writer, rapper, producer, DJ and cultural commentator Rollie Pemberton. He has released six albums, winning Canada’s 2021 Polaris Music Prize for Parallel World. His writing has been published in Pitchfork, The Guardian, Wired, The Walrus and Hazlitt. His debut memoir, Bedroom Rapper, was a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year.

CHANEL SUTHERLAND is a Vincentian Canadian writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. She won the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, which she was also longlisted for in 2022. Chanel is also the winner of the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize and the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and was named one of CBC Books 30 Writers to Watch in 2022. Chanel lives in Montreal.