Helen Humphreys
A festival favorite, former Kingston poet laureate, and the award-winning author of nine novels, four books of poetry, and five works of creative non-fiction. member on boards of theatre, literacy, and sports organizations where she gained a great deal of experience in event planning, governance and volunteer management. She is now a beekeeper in addition to her community commitments.

Terry Fallis
A two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the award-winning author of eight national bestsellers including The Best Laid Plans which was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC Canada Reads as the “essential Canadian novel of the decade”.

Shyam Selvadurai
An award-winning author, anthology editor, screenplay writer, and had the interesting honour of having a spider named after him: Brignolia shyami, a small goblin spider.

Tim Wynne-Jones
An award winning novelist, lyricist, playwright, critic, and children’s writer, and member of the Order of Canada.

Abena Beloved-Green
An award-winning multi-disciplinary artist, poet, spoken word artist, freelance writer and editor, Abena also has over ten years of experience dancing and teaching traditional and modern West African Dances and step (also referred to as stomp).

Craig Davidson
Craig has published five books of  award-winning literary fiction, including Rust and Bone, which was made into an award-winning film. As Nick Cutter, his horror pseudonym, is the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller The Troop (which is currently being developed for film with producer James Wan), as well as The Deep and Little Heaven.

Andrew Pyper
Andrew is the internationally bestselling author of eleven novels, including The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers award for Best Hardcover Novel, and The Killing Circle, which was selected a New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year.

Karen Connelly 
Karen is the prize-winning author of eleven books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and memoir. She also studies psychodynamic psychotherapy and trauma counselling.

Stuart Ross 
Stuart is the award-winning author of 20 books of poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as an editor, writing teacher, and small press activist. Stuart has taught workshops in elementary and high schools across the country, and was the 2010 Writer-in-Residence at Queen’s University and the 2021 Writer-in-Residence at University of Ottawa.

Brenda Leifso 
Brenda is the award-winning author of several books of poetry. Her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies across Canada, has won the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award, and has been short- and long-listed for the CBC Literary prize. She is a freelance editor and occasional academic instructor, and is CFO of Brick Books one of the few poetry-only publishers in the world and a long-venerated member of Canada’s publishing industry.

Alayna Munce
Alayna’s creative work and travel writing has appeared in numerous Canadian literary journals. Her novel, When I Was Young and in My Prime was nominated for the Trillium Book Award. She works a freelance fiction editor and publisher for Brick Books.

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