2024 Festival

Barbara Adhiya is an independent Writer and Editor, and a Paralegal and Notary Public in Ontario. Her journalism career spanned over 20 years with The Canadian Press and Reuters. And she is on the board of Compassionate Eye, a Canadian Charity that raises funds by selling stock photography through Getty Images to support small sustainable projects around the world.

Charlie Angus is a nationally recognized politician, author, and musician. He has published nine books and is the recipient of numerous writing awards, including the Trillium Book Award finalist Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower. Angus has served in the Canadian Parliament for twenty years. He has earned a national reputation as a fierce fighter for social justice and Indigenous rights. Angus was the founding member of Toronto punk band L’etranger. He is the leader of the roots band Grievous Angels; their ninth album is Last Call for Cinderella. Angus lives in Cobalt, Ontario, with his wife, author Brit Griffin. They have three daughters.

Yvonne Blomer’s sixth book of poems is Death of Persephone: A Murder, a mystery based on the Persephone myth, the noir mystery genre and the ongoing violence to girls and women. Previous books include The Last Show on Earth, 2022, which explores grief, love and climate change. She is an award-winning poet and nonfiction writer who has edited five anthologies, most recently: Hologram: Homage to PK Page. Yvonne holds an MA with Distinction from the University of East Anglia and is the past poet laureate of Victoria, BC. She lives on the territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) speaking people.

Kelsey Borgford is a Nbisiing Nishnaabekwe from the Marten clan. She is an emerging author, passionate about utilizing writing as a tool to revitalize cultural connections. After losing her Gokomis-baa in 2014, Kelsey sought out a means of connection with her grandmother and found that connection to her through the arts. Kelsey’s work aims to pass along cultural traditions and identity. Her work is predominantly centered in the practice of beading and writing. She has a children’s book, What’s in a Bead, forthcoming from Second Story Press. In all aspects of her creativity, Kelsey draws inspiration from her culture, her mother, her community, and relatives in the natural world.

Rod Carley is the award-winning author of three previous works of literary fiction (humour): Grin Reaping, Kinmount, and A Matter of Will. He’s been long-listed twice for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, received an IPPY Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction, and was a Foreword Review INDIES Bronze Winner for Humour. His short stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian literary magazines. He was a finalist for the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Prize and the 2009 winner of TVO’s Big Ideas/Best Lecturer Competition and a proud alumnus of the Humber School for Writers. Rod has lived in Toronto, North Bay, and recently returned to his hometown of Brockville.

Kern Carter is the author of Boys and Girls Screaming, along with two self-published novels, Thoughts of a Fractured Soul (novella) and Beauty Scars. In addition to his writing, Kern is a filmmaker and also teaches professional writing at a local college, committed to supporting emerging writers and helping them find their voice. He lives in Toronto.

Shana Calixte Pitawanakwat lives in N’Swakamok, on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe. This territory, part of the Robinson-Huron Treaty, is home to the Atikameksheng Anishinabek and Wahnapitae First Nations.

With over 25 years of experience in health equity and mental health, Shana has supported diverse communities across northern Ontario. Her work has been recognized with awards such as Fierté Sudbury Pride’s Golden Brick Award and the Jack Layton Leadership Award. In her free time, she enjoys reading and learning new and exciting things about living with and on the land, thanks to her partner and family-in-law, who mostly live in Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island.

Kate Cayley is the author of three poetry collections, including Lent, a young adult novel, and two short story collections. How You Were Born won the of the Trillium Book Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. She has won the O. Henry Short Story Prize, the Mitchell Prize for Faith and Poetry, and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. She has been a finalist for the K. M. Hunter Award, the Carter V. Cooper Short Story Prize, and the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and the CBC Literary Prizes in both poetry and fiction. Cayley’s plays have been produced in Canada, the US and the UK, and she is a frequent collaborator with immersive company Zuppa Theatre. Cayley lives in Toronto with her wife and their three children.

Danielle Daniel is a writer, an award-winning children’s book author and an illustrator. Like many Francophones with origins in Quebec, she shares an ancestral link to the people who inspired Daughters of the Deer, a first novel that springs from the story of what happened to the daughter of an Algonquin woman and a soldier/settler from France. Her picture books include Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox (winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and a Best 100 title at the New York Public Library) and You Hold Me Up, shortlisted for the 2018 Marilyn Baillie Award, among other honours. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and recently moved to Manitoulin Island with her family.

John Degen is a poet and novelist with three published books, including The Uninvited Guest, shortlisted for the 2006 Amazon.ca First Novel Award. His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly, The Globe and Mail, The Hill Times, and more. He has served on boards such as the Book & Periodical Council and the Canadian Creators’ Coalition. Degen holds a Master’s in Literature from the University of Toronto and has spent 20 years advocating for authors. He is the CEO of The Writers’ Union of Canada and Chair of the International Authors Forum. He lives, works, and swims (six months of the year) in Northern Ontario

Sophie Anne Edwards (she/her/settler) lives on Mnidoo Mnising, Manitoulin Island, in Northeastern Ontario with her dog Bea and a roster of other WWOOfers who help in the garden. Her writing has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council and published by numerous journals and micropresses across Canada. She was shortlisted for the 2019 Arc Poetry Magazine poem of the year, and longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2021. Sophie has an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies, a Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College, and is a Ph.D. candidate in geography at Queen’s University.

Alicia Elliott is a Mohawk writer and editor based in Brantford, Ontario. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, CBC, and Hazlitt, earning several National Magazine Award nominations, including a gold in 2017. Her debut book, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, was a national bestseller, nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and won the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award. Her novel, And Then She Fell, was also a bestseller, winning the Indigenous Voices Award and the Amazon First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Louise Ells was born and raised in Northeastern Ontario. After years of travel, she moved to Cambridge and earned her PhD in Creative Writing. She was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2017 and published her short story collection, Notes Towards Recovery (Latitude 46), in 2019. Louise teaches at universities and colleges in England and Canada and lives just north of Toronto, where she can often be found in her library surrounded by books and snuggled up with her cats.

Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. She has published two chapbooks, You Must Imagine the Cold Here (Scrivener, 1997) and Fault Lines and Shatter Cones (Emergency Flash Mob Press, 2023), as well as five full books of poetry, including: braille on water (Penumbra Press, 2001), The Narcoleptic Madonna (Penumbra Press, 2012),

Some Other Sky (Black Moss Press, 2017), These Wings (Pedlar Press, 2019), and Emptying the Ocean (Frontenac House, 2022). Kim is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada (2023-25), a full member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. She was Poet Laureate for the City of Greater Sudbury from 2016-18.

Hollay Ghadery: is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in rural Ontario on Anishinaabe land. Fuse, her acclaimed memoir of mixed-race identity and mental illness, (MiroLand, 2021) and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her debut collection of poetry, Rebellion Box, (Radiant Press, 2023). Hollay’s short-fiction collection, Widow Fantasies, is due out with Gordon Hill Press in 2024.

Ariel Gordon(she/her) is a Winnipeg/Treaty 1 Territory–based writer, editor and enthusiast. She is the ringleader of Writes of Spring, a National Poetry Month project with the Winnipeg International Writers Festival that appears in the Winnipeg Free Press. Her previous work of nonfiction,Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests, was shortlisted for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. She has five collections of poetry with the latest Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest (Wolsak & Wynn, 2024).

Liisa Kovala is a Finnish Canadian author and certified Author Accelerator book coach. Her debut novel, Sisu’s Winter War (Latitude 46) was released in 2022. Her first book, Surviving Stutthof: My Father’s Memories Behind the Death Gate (Latitude 46, 2017), was shortlisted for a Northern Lit Award and published in Finland under the title Stutthofin selviytyjä (Docendo, 2020). Her work is inspired by her Finnish heritage and the northern landscape she calls home. She lives in Greater Sudbury, Ontario.

Melanie Marttila has been writing since the age of seven, when she made her first submission to CBC’s “Pencil Box.” She is a graduate of the University of Windsor’s masters program in English Literature and Creative Writing and her poetry has appeared in Polar Borealis, Polar Starlight, and Sulphur. Her short fiction has appeared in Pulp Literature, On Spec, Pirating Pups, and Home for the Howlidays. She lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario, in the house where three generations of her family have lived, on the street that bares her surname, with her spouse and their dog, Torvi.

Jennifer Alicia (she/they) is a queer, mixed Mi’kmaw and settler (German/Irish/Scottish) multidisciplinary artist originally from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay of Islands, Newfoundland), now residing in Toronto. She is a two-time national poetry slam champion and her work has been featured in Canthius Magazine, NOW Magazine, CBC and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival to name a few. Jennifer Alicia co-edited a poetry anthology titled The Condor and the Eagle Meet and has a debut chapbook titled Mixed Emotions. Most recently, she participated in the Animikiig Creators Unit through Native Earth Performing Arts, working on her debut play titled To Go Home.

Randall Perry is a writer and editor living in Toronto, Ontario. He holds a Certificate in
Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University and is currently a fiction editor at
Exile Editions and Exile Quarterly. He has served as administrative judge and
anthology editor for both the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Competition (years eight
through ten) and the inaugural Nona MacDonald Heaslip Short Story Prize (2023). His
own fiction has appeared in Islandside and On the Run magazines, and in the
anthologies Fear from a Small Place and Storgy 2019. His non-fiction essays, columns,
and reviews have appeared in Wayves, The ARC Quarterly, Outlooks, and fab.

Jonathan Pinto is the host of CBC Sudbury and CBC Sudbury’s afternoon radio show on CBC Radio One, Up North. He started his career as a producer at CBC Toronto, and most recently was a reporter and guest host at CBC Windsor and CBC London’s Afternoon Drive. He also has a Masters in Urban Planning and a Bachelor of Arts in Canadian Studies.

When Jonathan isn’t caring for his infant daughter, you can find him browsing local markets, sampling beloved eateries or cooking at home. He’s a self-professed food lover and is open to all must-try suggestions!

Heidi Reimer is a novelist and writing coach at Sarah Selecky Writing School. Her debut novel, The Mother Act, was published by Random House Canada/Dutton in April 2024, receiving a starred review from Publishers Weekly and a #1 spot on best books lists from People Magazine and Chatelaine. Heidi has published in The New Quarterly, LitHub, Chatelaine, and the anthologies The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, Body & Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seekers, and Outcrops: Northeastern Ontario Short Stories. She is from Northern Ontario.

Markus Schwabe got his start with CBC Radio as an intern while attending the School of Journalism and Communications at the University of Regina. After graduating, and working a short stint at Gemini News Service in London, England, he moved back to his hometown of Regina to work for CBC Radio as a part time researcher. The north called and Markus answered, working for CBC Radio in Northern Saskatchewan (LaRonge), Northern British Columbia (Prince George) and since 1996, Northern Ontario (Sudbury, which is the farthest south he’s ever lived).

Markus enjoys the mornings, meeting people and sharing stories with listeners across the region. Since they bought a minivan in 2000, he and his wife have logged more than a quarter million kilometres shuttling their four children to school events, arts rehearsals, sports practices and cultural events.

Brendan Roy has been a dedicated trivia host and writer for Nickel City Trivia since 2018. He brings fun and challenging trivia every Tuesday night at the Townehouse Tavern and also caters to private trivia events upon request. Outside of his trivia passion, Brendan works full-time at Science North, and enjoys spending quality time with his wife, Erin.

Alex Tétreault (he/him) is a bilingual theatre creator and queer community activist from N’Swakamok (Sudbury). A graduate of Laurentian University, he has served on several boards, including the Centre de santé communautaire du Grand Sudbury and Fierté Sudbury Pride. Currently, he is the President of Théâtre Action, supporting Ontario’s francophone theatre community. In 2023, he co-produced the award-winning play Nickel City Fifs, with a Spring 2025 tour planned. Named Greater Sudbury’s Poet Laureate in 2024, Alex also writes a social issues column for Le Voyageur.