Biographies

Kate Atkinson’s first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year Award, becoming an international bestseller. She is the author of the short story collection Not the End of the World and the novels Human Croquet and Emotionally Weird. The first book in her Jackson Brodie series, Case Histories, won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and was developed into a successful television series on the BBC. In Life After Life, Atkinson follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again.

Rosemary Aubert is the author of 11 novels including the acclaimed Ellis Portal mystery series. Aubert has won numerous awards for her writing, most notably the Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Crime Novel and Best Crime Short Story. Her novella, Terminal Grill, comes out this spring. Rough Wilderness: The Imaginary Love Poems of the Abbess Heloise, is Aubert’s third poetry collection and the second in her series of books of imaginary love poems told in the voices of famous women.

John Banville is the author of 16 novels, some of them written under the pen name Benjamin Black. He is the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize and a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. Banville has also written and adapted screenplays and contributed to numerous BBC radio programmes. Banville’s moving new novel, Ancient Light, is the story of an actor in the twilight of his life and his career: a meditation on love and loss, and on the inscrutable immediacy of the past in our present lives.

Linwood Barclay is a former columnist for the Toronto Star and the internationally bestselling author of nine critically acclaimed novels, including Fear the Worst, Too Close to Home and No Time for Goodbye. Barclay shares Trust Your Eyes, which begins when a map-obsessed schizophrenic named Thomas Kilbride stumbles across an image online that looks like a woman being murdered.

Giles Benaway is of Odawa/Potawatomi, Cherokee, Métis and European descent. A descendant of women from three Indigenous nations, French and Scottish voyageurs, and original Mayflower immigrants, he represents a unique voice in the field of Indigenous writing. His poetry can be found in First Nations House Magazine and Muskrat Magazine. Benaway’s Ceremonies for the Dead examines the haunting themes of inter-generational trauma, cyclical abuse and inherited grief.

Carol Bishop-Gwyn is a writer and dance historian. She holds two post-graduate degrees in dance history and has taught courses at York University, Ryerson University and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Bishop-Gwyn has worked as a broadcaster and producer for CBC National Radio and as a freelance magazine writer. The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca tells the story of Celia Franca, the dancer who built the National Ballet of Canada into a major cultural force.

Christian Bök is the author of Eunoia, a bestselling work of experimental literature that won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2002. He is well-known for his virtuoso recitals of “sound-poems” and has performed at more than 200 venues around the world in the last four years. Bök is currently finishing "The Xenotext," a project that requires him to engineer the genome of an indestructible bacterium whose DNA might become not only a durable archive to store poems, but also an operant machine that writes poems in response. He teaches in the Department of English at the University of Calgary.

Kenneth Bonert's short stories have appeared in Grain and The Fiddlehead. His story “Packers and Movers" was shortlisted for the Journey Prize and his novella "Peacekeepers, 1995" appeared in McSweeney's 25. A one-time journalist, his articles have appeared in the Globe and Mail, National Post and other publications. Born in South Africa, he currently lives in Toronto. Bonert’s debut novel, The Lion Seeker, tells the story of an irrepressible Jewish boy and his indelible mother in 1930s South Africa.

Rhidian Brook is an award-winning writer of fiction, television and film. His debut novel, The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, won three prizes including the Somerset Maugham Award, and was made into a film. His numerous stories have appeared in the Paris Review and New Statesman, and he has written for the Observer, Guardian and Daily Telegraph. Brook presents his latest novel, The Aftermath, a story about our fiercest loyalties, deepest desires and the transformative power of forgiveness.

Cathy Marie Buchanan’s stories have appeared in several of Canada’s most respected literary journals, and she has received awards from both the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. Her debut novel, The Day the Falls Stood Still, was a New York Times bestseller. Buchanan shares her #1 national bestselling novel The Painted Girls, a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.”

David Byrne is a Scottish-born musician and artist most known for his role as a founding member and principal songwriter of the band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera and non-fiction. He has received Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe awards and been inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Byrne's latest book How Music Works, is a brainy, irresistible adventure, and an impassioned argument about music’s liberating, life-affirming power.

Natalee Caple is the author of six books of fiction and poetry, including the novel The Plight of Happy People in an Ordinary World; the short story collection The Heart Is Its Own Reason, which has been optioned for film; and the poetry collection A More Tender Ocean, which was nominated for a Gerald Lampert Award. She is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Calgary. Caple’s latest novel In Calamity’s Wake tells the story of orphaned Miette’s quest to find her mother, the notorious Calamity Jane.