Pedro Mendes
In-Person Conference Pedro Mendes has worked as a radio producer, documentary maker and writer for over twenty years. He has produced a number of radio documentaries on masculinity, men’s style and the history of menswear for CBC Radio. He also has bylines in Toronto Life, Title Magazine, Sharp Ma
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Vanessa Riley
Virtual Conference Vanessa Riley is an acclaimed author known for captivating novels such as Island Queen, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, and Queen of Exiles, an ABC View Lit Pick. She was honored as the 2023 Georgia Literary Fiction Author of the Year for Sister Mother Warrior. Her craft highlig
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Harini Nagendra
Virtual Conference Harini Nagendra is a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University, and a well-known public speaker who has received multiple awards for her research. Her award winning non-fiction books include Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities. The Bangalore Detectives Club, her first
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Adriana Herrera
Virtual Conference USA Today Best Selling and Audie winning author Adriana Herrera was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last fifteen years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting una
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Yasmin Angoe
Virtual Conference Yasmin Angoe is a former educator, independent editor, and author of the critically acclaimed and Anthony-nominated Her Name is Knight of the Nena Knight trilogy. Her standalone, Not What She Seems releases later this year. Connect with Yasmin at www.yasminangoe.com.
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Danya Kukafka
Virtual Conference Danya Kukafka is the author of the nationally bestselling novels NOTES ON AN EXECUTION and GIRL IN SNOW. Her books have been reviewed favorably in outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and have been translated into over a dozen languages
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Sandra SG Wong
In-Person Conference Sandra SG Wong (she/her) writes fiction across genres as a hybrid indie/trad author. The cross-genre Lola Starke novels and Crescent City short stories have garnered Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence finalist nominations. The standalone thriller, IN THE DARK WE FORGET
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Eliana West
In-Person Conference Eliana West, the recipient of the 2022 Nancy Pearl Award for genre fiction, is committed to embracing diversity in her writing. That means she doesn’t limit herself to a single genre. Instead, Eliana welcomes every story that comes her way with open arms. She aims to create ch
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Kim Spencer
In-Person Conference Kim Spencer’s best-selling debut novel, Weird Rules to Follow, was named a USBBY 2023 Outstanding International Book and a Bank Street College of Education Children’s Book Committee Best Children’s Books of the Year. It won the IODE Violet Downey Book Award, th
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Emily Seo
In-Person Conference Emily Seo holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of British Columbia. She worked as an Associate Editor for two science journals and ran a multidisciplinary laboratory before experimenting with creative writing. The Science of Boys is her debut novel about a girl who uses
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Premee Mohamed
In-Person Conference Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, Locus, British Fantasy, and Crawford awards. Currently, she is the Edmonton
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Alexa Martin
In-Person Conference Alexa Martin is the award-winning author of Next-Door Nemesis, Better than Fiction, Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes, and the Playbook Series. Her novels have been chosen by NPR and Amazon for the best books of the year and her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Entertainment W
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Mia P. Manansala
In-Person Conference Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer and certified book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series, and uses humour (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora,
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Lauren Kung Jessen
In-Person Conference Lauren Kung Jessen is the author of Lunar Love and Red String Theory and has a fondness for witty, flirtatious dialogue and making meals with too many steps but lots of flavor. She is fascinated by myths and superstitions and how ideas, beliefs, traditions, and stories evolve ov
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Dallas Hunt
In-Person Conference Dallas Hunt is Cree and a member of Wapsewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty Eight territory in northern Alberta. He has had creative works published in Prairie Fire, PRISM international and Arc Poetry. His first children’s book, Awâsis and the World-famous Bannock,
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Leah Henderson
In-Person Conference Leah Henderson is a writer, mentor, and teacher. Her books for young readers have appeared on numerous Best Books lists including the New York Public Library, Bank Street College, and the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature. They have been American Libr
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Cara Masten DiGirolamo
In-Person Conference Cara Masten DiGirolamo writes fantastic fiction–from music that can cause earthquakes, to fairie drag balls and queer scholars riding language-dragons. Currently, they teach English and Creative Writing at Capilano University in North Vancouver. They are a graduate of the
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Finnian Burnett
In-Person Conference Finnian Burnett is a writer whose work explores the intersections of the human body, mental health, and gender identity. They are a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts grant, a finalist in the 2023 CBC nonfiction prize, and a 2024 Pushcart nominee. Their work appears in
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