Eudora Alice Welty was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer, who wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi, has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.
Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italian.
Sheree Fitch is a Canadian author and literacy advocate. Known primarily for her children's books, she has also published poetry and fiction for adults.
The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self-published in the previous year. The silver medal, designed by sculptor Emanuel Hahn, is a tribute to well-known Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) and is accompanied by a cash prize of $15,000 (CAD). It is presented in the late spring or early summer each year, during a banquet ceremony in or near Leacock’s hometown of Orillia, Ontario.
William Stener Ferguson is a Canadian travel writer and novelist who won the Scotiabank Giller Pize for his novel 419.
Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including A Complicated Kindness (2004), All My Puny Sorrows (2014), and Women Talking (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for body of work. Toews is also a two-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
William Joel MacDonald Plaskett is a Canadian rock musician and songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was a member of Halifax alternative rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s. Plaskett performs in a number of genres, from blues and folk to hard rock, country, and pop.
Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars (1992), Taft (1994), The Magician's Assistant (1997), Run (2007), State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), and The Dutch House (2019). The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Silver Donald Cameron was a Canadian journalist, author, playwright, and university teacher whose writing focused on social justice, nature, and the environment. His 15 books of non-fiction dealt with everything from history and politics to education and community development.
Susan (Sue) Goyette is a Canadian poet and novelist.
Terry Fallis is a Canadian writer and public relations consultant. He is a two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, winning in 2008 for his debut novel The Best Laid Plans and in 2015 for No Relation.
Danila Botha is a South African-Canadian novelist and author of two short story collections.
Sarah Walker is an Australian author, screenwriter and script producer. She has written for several serial dramas, including Home and Away, Neighbours, and All Saints. She co-created the comedy drama Wonderland with Jo Porter in 2013. Walker has also written novels and worked as a journalist and actor, appearing in Man of Flowers (1983).
Louise O'Neill is an Irish author who writes primarily for young adults. She was born in 1985 and grew up in Clonakilty, in West Cork, Ireland.
Viet Thanh Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American novelist. He is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.
Sarah Pinsker is an American science fiction and fantasy author. A nine-time finalist for the Nebula Award, Pinsker's debut novel A Song for a New Day won the 2019 Nebula for Best Novel while her story Our Lady of the Open Road won 2016 award for Best Novelette. Her fiction has also won the Philip K. Dick Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Tiptree Awards.
Amy Jones is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel We're All in This Together was a shortlisted finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2017.
Ali Bryan is a Canadian novelist, and personal trainer. Her second novel, "The Figgs", was shortlisted for the 2019 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
Anne Emery is a Canadian writer of murder mystery novels. Emery has been awarded the 2019 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel, silver medal in the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the 2007 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.
Amy Spurway is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel Crow was published in 2019. The novel, a black comedy about a woman returning home to Cape Breton Island to reunite with her estranged family after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, was a shortlisted finalist for the 2020 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and the 2020 ReLit Award for fiction.
