About the Author

Anthology editor Russell Smith is a novelist and acquiring editor at Dundurn Press. He lives in Toronto.
Angie Abdou’s first novel, The Bone Cage, was a Canada Reads finalist, and her two memoirs have hit the Canadian bestseller list. Her most recent book isThis One Wild Life. Abdou is the professor of creative writing at Athabasca University.
Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur and In the Beggarly Style of Imitation and of the forthcoming Kilworthy Tanner. The National Post has hailed his writing as an “inventive escape from the conventional.”
Tamara Faith Berger writes fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays. Her work has been nominated for the Trillium Book Award and her third novel, Maidenhead, won the Believer Book Award. Her latest novel is Yara.
Jowita Bydlowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, and lives in Toronto. Her most recent book is the novel Possessed.
Xaiver Campbell, born and raised in Jamaica, has considered Newfoundland and Labrador home for over a decade. His fiction has been published in The Malahat Review, Riddle Fence, and the anthologies Us, Now and Hard Ticket, by Breakwater Books, and in Release Any Words Stuck Inside You, III, by Applebeard Editions.
K.S. Covert, a devoted observer of human nature, enjoys putting her characters in morally dubious situations and seeing how — or whether — they might transform themselves to suit. Her first novel, The Petting Zoos, was described as a dystopian sex adventure. She lives in Ottawa.
francesca ekwuyasi is from Lagos, Nigeria. Her debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread, was awarded the 2022 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. It was longlisted and shortlisted for numerous other awards, including the 2020 Giller Prize, the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award, and the 2022 Dublin Literary Award.
Anna Fitzpatrick is the author of the novel Good Girl and the children’s book Margot and the Moon Landing (published as A.C. Fitzpatrick, because some things are best kept separate).
Drew Hayden Taylor is an award-winning playwright, novelist, journalist, and filmmaker. Born and currently living on the Curve Lake First Nation, he has done everything from stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, to being artistic director of Canada’s premiere Indigenous theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts.
Victoria Hetherington is the author of Mooncalves (2019) and Autonomy (2022). She lives in Toronto.
Marni Jackson is an award-winning journalist and the author of two works of fiction (Don’t I Know You? and a forthcoming novel, You Again). Recent collaborative writing projects include two stage shows — The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience and The Shape of Home: Songs in Search of Al Purdy.
Andrew Kaufman has published seven novels, including All My Friends Are Superheroes, Born Weird,and The Ticking Heart. His non-fiction has appeared in the Guardian and the Globe and Mail. His novels have been translated into eleven languages and published in eighteen countries.
Michael LaPointe is the author of The Creep (2021). He has written for the New Yorker and The Atlantic, and he was a columnist for the Paris Review.
Pasha Malla is the author of, most recently, Kill the Mall, a novel. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario, and teaches at York University.
Sophie McCreesh’s first novel Once More, With Feeling was published in 2021. She lives in Toronto.
Lisa Moore is the author of four novels, Alligator, February, Caught, and This Is How We Love. She wrote the story collections Degrees of Nakedness, Open, and Something for Everyone. Lisa is the co-librettist, along with Laura Kaminsky, of the opera February,adapted from the novel by the same name.
Heather O’Neill is the author of seven books, including Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Lonely Hearts Hotel. Her essays have been published widely. Her most recent novel was When We Lost Our Heads. She lives in Montreal.
Lee Suksi's debut, The Nerves (Metatron), won the 2021 LAMBDA Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Erotica. They have recent work in the Brooklyn Review, Peach Mag, and BESIDE magazine. They are an artist’s model and astrologer in Toronto, where they write horoscopes for TheGrind.
Susan Swan’s fiction has been published in twenty countries. She is best known for her novel The Wives of Bath, a gothic tale about a girls’ boarding school. Swan is working on a new Stupid Boys Are Good to Relax With story collection and a memoir, Too Big, about how her size shaped her destiny.
Heidi von Palleske likes to switch between acting and writing. Although most memorable for her role in Dead Ringers, Heidi has since starred in many films, most recently My Animal. Her novel Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack was a Loan Star’s pick and was shortlisted for best literary novel for the Forward prize.
Aley Waterman is a writer of fiction, poetry, and music, from and living in Newfoundland. Her first novel, Mudflowers,was published by Rare Machines in 2023. She has had work appear in the Brooklyn Review, Bad Nudes magazine, Riddle Fence, a Trampoline Hall podcast, and elsewhere.
Zoe Whittall is a bestselling author of five novels, most recently The Fake. She also works as a TV writer. Her debut short story collection, Wild Failure, is forthcoming in 2024.
David Whitton is the author of Seven Down, a finalist for the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence for Best Crime First Novel. His short fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. David lives in Toronto.
Michael Winter has been writing down overheard erotic confessions for over thirty years. Some of these monologues have appeared in his two collections of short fiction and four novels. He lives in Toronto, where he likes to germinate delphiniums, raise a kid, and follow a dog through parks and laneways.