ROUND TABLE: The Advocates

Rachel Giese is a senior editor at The Walrus. Formerly, she was a columnist for the Toronto Star, a writer and editor at CBC.ca’s Arts Online, a senior editor at Chatelaine and a journalism instructor at Ryerson University.

Conor Grennan spent eight years at the EastWest Institute (EWI), where he developed and managed a wide variety of projects focusing on social issues such as peace and reconciliation, community development, and anti-trafficking policies. He left EWI in 2004 to travel the world and volunteer in Nepal, where he would eventually return to found Next Generation Nepal, an organization dedicated to reconnecting trafficked children with their families and combating the root causes of child trafficking in rural villages in Nepal. His book Little Princes is based on these experiences.

Rachel Simon is an award-winning author and recognized public speaker. She is best known for her critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir Riding the Bus with My Sister, which was adapted for a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie of the same name. Simon presents her new novel The Story of Beautiful Girl – named by USA Today as one of “Ten Books Not to Miss” – an unforgettably moving love story about the unbelievable odds faced by a couple with disabilities and a lost child.