KARIM ALRAWI is a playwright, novelist and children’s book author. His Arabic plays have twice won the Egyptian Ministry of Culture national playwriting award. He is the recipient of several international awards, including the Samuel Beckett and the John Whiting awards. His novel Book of Sands won the inaugural HarperCollins Prize for Best New Fiction. He is the author of several children’s books, including The Mouse Who Saved Egypt and The Girl Who Lost Her Smile. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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GEORGE ELLIOTT CLARKE is an internationally renowned poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, librettist and scholar whose books have won him many honours. Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Clarke presently resides in Toronto where he teaches African-Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. Clarke was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2008 and served as Canada’s 7^th Parliamentary Poet Laureate in 2016-17. (ONTARIO)

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WHITNEY GARDNER is an author, illustrator, and cartoonist living by the Salish Sea with her husband and two pugs. She started drawing stick figures in second grade and somehow no one’s been able to stop her. When she isn’t drawing, she’s baking, tending to her houseplants, or rolling twenty-sided dice. She is the author of You’re Welcome, Universe and Chaotic Good, as well as the creator of Fake Blood and Long Distance and the illustrator for Debbie Levy’s Becoming RBG. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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GORD HILL is a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation whose territory is located on northern Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland in the province of “British Columbia.” His previous books include The Antifa Comic Book, The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book, and the first edition of this book, published as The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book in 2010. He has been involved in Indigenous people’s and anti-globalization movements since 1990. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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UZMA JALALUDDIN is the bestselling author of Ayesha at Last and Hana Khan Carries On. A high school English teacher, she is also a Toronto Star columnist and a contributor to the Atlantic. Her first novel was published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and India and was optioned for film by Amy Pascal and Sony Pictures. (TORONTO)

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WAB KINEW is the bestselling, award-winning author of Go Show the World and The Reason You Walk. A member of the Midewin and an Honorary Witness for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, he is a former journalist, hip-hop artist and television host who was named by Postmedia News as one of “9 Aboriginal movers and shakers you should know.” Kinew, a provincial politician, lives in Winnipeg with his family. (MANITOBA)

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JEN SOOKFONG LEE is the author of The Conjoined, nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Jen was a columnist for CBC Radio One’s The Next Chapter for many years. She teaches at The Writer’s Studio Online with Simon Fraser University, edits fiction for Wolsak & Wynn and co-hosts the literary podcast Can’t Lit. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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SUSIN NIELSEN has written for many beloved Canadian TV shows. Her first two young adult novels, Word Nerd and Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom, won multiple young readers’ choice awards. She won the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Canadian Library Association’s Children’s Book of the Year for The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen. Her most recent novel, No Fixed Address, won the Red Maple Award, the Violet Downey Book Award and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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LOIS PETERSON is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction for children, and numerous short stories, essays and articles for adults. She worked at a public library for more than 35 years and worked as executive director of a homeless shelter. Lois lives in Nanaimo. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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DAVID A. ROBERTSON is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award. The Barren Grounds received a starred review from Kirkus and was a Kirkus and Quill & Quire best middle-grade book of 2020. A sought-after speaker and educator, as well as recent recipient of the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Freedom to Read Award, Robertson is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation. (MANITOBA)

David is available for two Writers in the Classroom events: one for On The Trapline and one for The Great Bear: The Misewa Saga, Book Two.

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KEVIN SANDS has worked as a researcher, a business consultant, a teacher, and a professional poker player since escaping from university with a pair of degrees in theoretical physics. He is the author of the bestselling The Blackthorn Key series. (ONTARIO)

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ADAM SOL has published four previous books of poetry, and one collection of essays, How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry. He is the Coordinator of the Creative Expression & Society Program at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College. Broken Dawn Blessings is his newest collection of poetry. (ONTARIO)

Presented thanks to the generous support of Sam Znaimer in memory of Nancy Richler, and of ECW Press.

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ASHLEY SPIRES grew up in Tsawwassen. As a child she was constantly making drawings, stories and small polymer clay figures. Despite being told she wasn’t the best drawer, she set out from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design to become a children’s book illustrator. Now, some twenty years later, she is known for creating many quirky beloved characters, including Small Saul, Larf, and Binky the Space Cat, who is now featured on his own animated television series. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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ROBIN STEVENSON is the author of more than twenty books for children and teens. She regularly presents in schools, offering book talks, creative writing workshops, and presentations on LGBTQ+ Pride. Robin’s YA novel A Thousand Shades of Blue was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and is included on CBC’s list, “100 YA Novels that Make You Proud to Be Canadian”. Stevenson lives on the west coast of Canada with her partner and their son. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

TOM RYAN is an award-winning author for children and teens. His debut novel, Way To Go, was nominated for the OLA White Pine Award and made the 2013 ALA Rainbow List. His follow-up, Tag Along, received glowing reviews and was nominated for a number of distinctions, including CCBC’s (Canadian Children’s Books Council) Best Books and the 2013 ALA Rainbow List. Ryan was born and raised in Inverness, and lives in Halifax with his husband and their awesome dog. (NOVA SCOTIA)

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XIRAN JAY ZHAO is a first-gen immigrant from small-town China who was raised by the Internet. A recent graduate of Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University, they wrote science fiction and fantasy while they probably should have been studying more about biochemical pathways. You can find them on Twitter for memes, Instagram for cosplays and fancy outfits, and YouTube for long videos about Chinese history and culture. Iron Widow is their first novel. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

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