ROUND TABLE: Novelists for a New Age

Catherine Bush is the author of three novels, Claire’s Head, The Rules of Engagement and Minus Time. Her fourth novel, Accusation, will be published in fall 2013. Bush has held a variety of writer-in-residence positions and writing fellowships, and taught creative writing at a number of universities. She’s worked as an arts journalist, been a dance columnist and written two young adult biographies. She is coordinator of the creative writing MFA programme at the University of Guelph.

Matt Lennox first pursued a military career, becoming a captain in the Canadian army, where he was posted to Afghanistan between 2008 and 2009. While there, he wrote many of the stories in his first short story collection, Men of Salt, Men of Earth, shortlisted for the 2010 ReLit Award. He lives in Toronto and is completing his MFA at Guelph-Humber. Lennox's debut novel, The Carpenter, explores the back alleys and dark corners of small-town life and of the human heart.

Stacey Madden holds a BA in English from the University of Toronto and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph. His writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Review of Books, Broken Pencil, Front&Centre and Open Book: Toronto, among other places. His first novel, Poison Shy, tells the story of a 29-year-old nobody whose world is turned upside down when he meets a young wild child.

Aga Maksimowska lives in Toronto. She is currently head of English at an independent day school for boys. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph, a bachelor of education from the University of Toronto and a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University. Her work has appeared online and in print in Canada and Australia. Her first novel, Giant, is about an 11-year-old girl in an adult’s body whose coming of age in a country undergoing a revolution is interrupted by a sudden and cruel move to Canada.

Grace O'Connell's work has appeared in various publications including The Walrus, Globe & Mail and Journey Prize Stories and has twice been nominated for National Magazine Awards. She has taught creative writing at the University of Toronto and George Brown College and writes a books column for This Magazine. She also serves as the Associate Editor for Taddle Creek magazine. Her debut novel, Magnified World, follows a young woman who begins to experience unexplained blackouts in the wake of her mother's suicide.

Tanis Rideout has been a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the CBC Literary Awards. In 2006, she was named Poet Laureate for Lake Ontario. Rideout also joined Sarah Harmer’s I Love the Escarpment Tour to read a commissioned poem. She was born in Belgium, grew up in Bermuda and in Kingston, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto. Rideout’s debut novel, Above All Things, is a work of historical fiction based on George Mallory's ill-fated 1924 attempt to be the first man to conquer Mount Everest. Her collection of poems, Arguments with the Lake, will be published this spring.