Writers
Miriam Toews
Miriam Toews is the author of the internationally acclaimed and bestselling novels Fight Night, Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Irma Voth, The Flying Troutmans, A Complicated Kindness, A Boy of Good Breeding, and Summer of My Amazing Luck, as well as the nonfiction work Swing Low: A Life. She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction, the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award. Several of her novels have been adapted into feature films, including All My Puny Sorrows and the Oscar-nominated Women Talking. Miriam Toews lives in Toronto.
RICHARD FORD
Richard Ford is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He is the author of fifteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Independence Day and the New York Times bestseller Canada. His work has been recognized with numerous prizes in the US and abroad, including the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, the Carnegie Medal for Fiction, the Prix Femina in France, the Princess of Asturias Prize in Spain, and the Gerhard Lenz Prize in Germany. He writes frequently on politics for a wide range of European newspapers and served for a decade as the Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. He lives with his wife, writer Kristina Ford, in Edgecomb, Maine.
Mark Critch
Mark Critch is co-creator, star, and co-writer of the hit CBC series Son of a Critch, based on his bestselling memoir. For 23 seasons, Mark has also been a cast member and writer of CBC’s longest-running comedy series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Mark is the author of three national bestsellers: Son of a Critch, An Embarrassment of Critch’s, and Sorry, Not Sorry, published by Penguin Random House. He has appeared in the films BlackBerry and The Grand Seduction. Mark hosted CBC’s Halifax Comedy Festival for ten years and is a frequent writer and performer for the Just For Laughs series, where he has written for The Muppets and John Oliver. Mark is the recipient of six Canadian Screen Awards and three Gemini Awards.
Ian Williams
Ian Williams is the author of seven acclaimed books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. He delivered the 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say, which explores the rehabilitation of conversation. His novel Disorientation was named a best book of the year by The Boston Globe, and his debut novel, Reproduction, won the Giller Prize.
His poetry collection Word Problems won the Raymond Souster Award, while his earlier collection Personals was shortlisted for both the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. His short story collection Not Anyone’s Anything received the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for best first collection of short fiction in Canada.
Williams is a trustee of the Griffin Poetry Prize and serves as a professor of English and director of the Creative Writing program at the University of Toronto.
Mary Walsh
Mary Walsh created and starred in This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC’s comedic take on current affairs. The series earned her many of her numerous Gemini Awards (now called the Canadian Screen Awards) and showcased her dynamic range of characters, including the flagrantly outspoken Marg Delahunty.
Walsh wrote, produced, and starred in the award-winning series Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, which returned to CBC in 2017 as a feature length presentation called A Christmas Fury, with Walsh and the original cast reprising their roles.
She has also been nominated for two Genies for her performances in feature films Crackie and New Waterford Girl. In 2017 she published her debut novel, the Canadian bestseller Crying for the Moon.
Among her many awards and doctorates, Mary is the recipient of the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Performing Arts, and the CSA’s Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in television acting.
Anita Rau Badami
Anita Rau Badami is the bestselling, award-winning author of Asha in Her Garden, Tamarind Men, The Hero’s Walk, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?, and Tell It to the Trees. Her novels have won and been nominated for numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Before turning to fiction, Badami worked as a freelance journalist, with her writing appearing in newspapers and magazines in Canada and internationally. She is also a visual artist and the recipient of the Marian Engel Award for her body of work.
Anita Rau Badami lives in Montreal.
Donna MorRissey
Donna Morrissey is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Pluck, which was a finalist for the Atlantic Book Awards’ Non-Fiction Award, and seven acclaimed and bestselling novels, including the national bestseller Rage the Night. She won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction for The Fortunate Brother; Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; and The Deception of Livvy Higgs was a One Read pick for Nova Scotia in 2017. Her fiction has also won awards in the US and the UK and has been translated into several languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she lives in Halifax.
Elizabeth Murphy
Elizabeth Murphy’s second novel, The Weather Diviner, was nominated for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the 2024 BMO Winterset Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Nixes Mate Review, Reckon Review, Bright Flash Literary Review, and Tiny Molecules, among others. Her academic writing includes a co-authored book and more than one hundred publications. She holds a BA and MA in French Language and Literature and a PhD in Education Technology from Université Laval in Québec. Elizabeth retired from Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she received the President’s Award for Outstanding Research. Originally from Newfoundland, she now lives in Nova Scotia.
Diedre Halbot
Diedre Halbot is a writer, environmental scientist, and mother from the Bay of Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her first book, Little Spoons, published by Breakwater Books, was released in February 2026. Diedre’s writing is heavily inspired by the stories and landscapes of Western Newfoundland, especially Bay St. George, where her family resides.
david Ferry
David Ferry is a director, dramaturge, actor, and writer. His short story April’s Fool was published in Riddle Fence Magazine. His full length play Breaking Windows (November 9, 1938) was commissioned by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto. He recently edited and wrote the forward to the award winning historical look at Theatre Passe Murialle by Peter Jobin (Beyond Walls -Porcupine’s Quill.)
He has written a stage adaptation of the music CD 11/11 (songs by Ron and Connie Hynes) that is in development for production. He has adapted or written, and directed/produced 11 previous pieces for Short Waves, Short Stories, a program he developed for Writers at Woody Point. He produced, directed and co-wrote the site specific promenade play The Postman which was commissioned by the 2015 PanAmerican Games in Toronto.
David’s most recent play, Tobacco Road, is a one person play for actor Stuart Hughes, with Blues songs played by Stuart, that is in development for production. He has voiced many Audio books and has directed over 20 of them for Penguin-Random House, Audible and ECW Press. In 2011, David was the recipient of the City of Toronto Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award for contribution to the Arts.
Des Walsh
Des Walsh’s published writings include poetry and screenplays of the international hit miniseries’ The Boys of St. Vincent and Random Passage. His work has won many prestigious international awards including a Gemini Award and the Gold Medal at the Banff Television Festival, the UmbriaFiction Award in Italy, the Grand FIPA d’Or Cannes and the 1995 Peabody Award.