Shani Mootoo, writer, visual artist and video maker, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1957 to Trinidadian parents. She grew up in Trinidad and relocated at the age of 19 to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Aren X. Tulchinsky, formerly known as Karen X. Tulchinsky, is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, anthologist and screenwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Anne Fleming is a Canadian fiction writer. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Fleming attended the University of Waterloo, enrolling in a geography program then moving to English studies. In 1991, she moved to British Columbia. She teaches at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus in Kelowna. She formerly taught at the Victoria School of Writing.
C.E. "Chris" Gatchalian is a Canadian author who writes in multiple genres. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia to Filipino parents, he holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre from the University of British Columbia. His play Motifs & Repetitions aired on Bravo! (Canada) in 1997 and on the Knowledge in 1998. His other produced plays include Claire, Crossing, Broken and People Like Vince, a play for young audiences about mental health. His latest play, Falling in Time, had its world premiere in Vancouver in November 2011 and was published by Scirocco Drama in 2012. In 2013, he won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize, a prize presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an openly LGBT writer. In 2019, his memoir Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man was published by Arsenal Pulp Press.
Michael V. Smith is a Canadian novelist, poet and filmmaker, originally from Cornwall, Ontario and now living in Kelowna, British Columbia. His debut novel, Cumberland, was nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2002. He has also been a nominee for the Journey Prize and the inaugural winner of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize, and has published two books of poetry, What You Can't Have and Body of Text, and a memoir, My Body Is Yours.
Brett Josef Grubisic is a Canadian author, editor, and sessional lecturer of the English language at the University of British Columbia.
Zoe Whittall is a Canadian poet, novelist and TV writer. She has published five novels and three poetry collections to date.
Vivek Shraya is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the University of Calgary. As a trans femme of colour, Shraya often incorporates her identity in her music, writing, visual art, theatrical work, and films. She is a seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, and considered a Great Canadian Filmmaker of the Future by CBC Arts.
Trish Salah is an Arab Canadian poet, activist, and academic. She is the author of the poetry collections, Wanting in Arabic, published in 2002 by TSAR Publications and Lyric Sexology Vol. 1, published by Roof Books in 2014. An expanded Canadian edition of Lyric Sexology, Vol. 1 was published by Metonymy Press in 2017.
Although same-sex sexual activity was illegal in Canada up to 1969, gay and lesbian themes appear in Canadian literature throughout the 20th century. Canada is now regarded as one of the most advanced countries in legal recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights.
Suzette Mayr is a Canadian novelist who has written five critically acclaimed novels. Currently a professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Arts, Mayr's works have both won and been nominated for several literary awards.
The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging Canadian writer who is part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer community. Originally presented as a general career achievement award for emerging writers that considered their overall body of work, since 2022 it has been presented to honor debut books.
Amber Dawn is a Canadian writer, who won the 2012 Dayne Ogilvie Prize, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer.
Nancy Jo Cullen is a Canadian poet and fiction writer, who won the 2010 Dayne Ogilvie Prize from the Writers' Trust of Canada for an emerging lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender writer. The jury, consisting of writers Brian Francis, Don Hannah and Suzette Mayr, described Cullen in the award citation as a writer "who feels like a friend", and who "tackles dark corners without false dramatics or pretensions. There is a genuine realness in her language."
Maureen Hynes is a Canadian poet and author. Her debut collection of poetry, Rough Skin, won the League of Canadian Poets' Gerald Lampert Award for best first book of poetry by a Canadian in 1996.
Tamai Kobayashi is a Canadian writer, who won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers in 2014.
Anand Mahadevan is an Indian-Canadian writer, who was awarded an Honour of Distinction from the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers in 2013.
Matthew J. Trafford is a Canadian writer, who was awarded an Honour of Distinction from the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers in 2011.
Leah Horlick is a Canadian poet, who won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writers in 2016.
Jillian Christmas is a Canadian poet from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work focuses on anti-colonial narratives, family, heritage, and identity. She is most noted as the 2021 winner of the League of Canadian Poets' Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for spoken word poetry. Furthermore, she has represented both Vancouver and Toronto at 11 national poetry events and was the first Canadian to make the final stage at the Women of the World Poetry Slam.
