Jane Urquhart, LL.D is a Canadian novelist and poet. She is the internationally acclaimed author of seven award-winning novels, three books of poetry and numerous short stories. As a novelist, Urquhart is well known for her evocative style which blends history with the present day. Her first novel, The Whirlpool, gained her international recognition when she became the first Canadian to win France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger. Her subsequent novels were even more successful. Away, published in 1993, won the Trillium Award and was a national bestseller. In 1997, her fourth novel, The Underpainter, won the Governor General's Literary Award.
The Giller Prize is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries. The prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a former literary editor at the Toronto Star, and is awarded in November of each year along with a cash reward with the winner being presented by the previous year's winning author.
Thomas King is an American-born Canadian writer and broadcast presenter who most often writes about First Nations.
Lawrence Hill is a Canadian novelist, essayist, and memoirist. He is known for his 2007 novel The Book of Negroes, inspired by the Black Loyalists given freedom and resettled in Nova Scotia by the British after the American Revolutionary War, and his 2001 memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. The Book of Negroes was adapted for a TV mini-series produced in 2015. He was selected in 2013 for the Massey Lectures: he drew from his non-fiction book Blood: The Stuff of Life, published that year. His ten books include other non-fiction and fictional works, and some have been translated into other languages and published in numerous other countries.
Cassie DawinCampbell-Pascall is a former Canadian ice hockey player and a broadcaster for ESPN/ABC, and formerly Sportsnet. Born in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Campbell grew up in Brampton, Ontario, playing for the Brampton Canadettes. She was the captain of the Canadian women's ice hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics and led the team to a gold medal. The left winger took on the role of captain again in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and again successfully led her team to a gold medal with a 4 – 1 win over Sweden.
Love You Forever is a 1986 children's picture book written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw. The story centers on a mother who sings a lullaby to her son at each stage of his life. During his childhood, she becomes frustrated with his rebellious nature, yet always sings to him after he falls asleep. The mother and son grow older, with the former becoming sick due to old age, and one day unable to sing the lullaby. The son sings the song for her, then sings it to his newborn daughter.
Royal City was a Canadian indie rock band from Guelph.
Brian O'Dea is a Canadian businessman, author, television personality, and former drug smuggler. He is best-known for a large marijuana smuggling enterprise he masterminded in the mid-1980s. Set up to move marijuana in bulk from Southeast Asia to the Pacific Northwest and California, between 1986 and 1988, O'Dea's organization successfully smuggled 76 tons of marijuana worth about $300 million into Washington, transported it to California, and distributed it throughout the United States.
Eric Robert Walters, is a Canadian author of young adult fiction and picture books. As of 2020, Eric Walters has written over 100 books.
David Charles Onley was a Canadian broadcaster and writer who served as the 28th lieutenant governor of Ontario from 2007 until 2014.
Geoff Pevere is a Canadian lecturer, author, broadcaster, teacher, arts and media critic, currently the program director of the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival in Toronto. He is a former film critic, book columnist and cultural journalist for the Toronto Star, where he worked from 1998 to 2011. His writing has appeared in several newspapers, magazines and arts journals, and he has worked as a broadcaster for both radio and television. He has lectured widely on cultural and media topics, and taught courses at several Canadian universities and colleges. In 2012, he contributed weekly pop culture columns to CBC Radio Syndication, which were heard in nearly twenty markets across Canada. He has also been a movie columnist and regular freelance contributor with The Globe and Mail.
Bruce Meyer is a Canadian poet, broadcaster, and educator. He has authored more than 64 books of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and literary journalism. He is a professor of Writing and Communications at Georgian College in Barrie and a Visiting Associate at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, where he has taught Poetry, Non-Fiction, and Comparative Literature.
Michael Martchenko is a Canadian illustrator best known for illustrating many of the stories of Robert Munsch.
The Paper Bag Princess is a children's book written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko. It was first published in 1980 by Annick Press and launched Munsch's career to the forefront of a new wave of Canadian children’s authors. The story reverses the princess and dragon stereotype. As a result, it has won critical acclaim from feminists, including an endorsement from the National Organization for Women, which sells the book on its website. Since it was first published in 1980 it has sold more than seven million copies worldwide.
Annick Press is a Canadian book publishing company that was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1975 by Anne Millyard and Rick Wilks. Rick Wilks became the sole owner in 2000. A second editorial office was opened in Vancouver by Colleen MacMillan in 1999. Annick Press publishes approximately thirty books of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults per year.
Mike Schreiner is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Green Party of Ontario since 2009. Schreiner sits as a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), representing Guelph; his 2018 election made him the first Green Party member elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Nicholas Ruddock is a Canadian writer. He is the author of two novels, The Parabolist and Night Ambulance, and a collection of short stories, How Loveta Got Her Baby. In 2016, he was shortlisted for the richest story prize in the world, the EFG Short Story Award, for his story "The Phosphorescence."
Jesse Thistle is a Métis-Cree author and assistant professor in the department of humanities at York University in Toronto. He is the author of the internationally best-selling memoir, From the Ashes.From the Ashes is considered one of the "most notable" 100 books Simon and Schuster U.S and all its 31 international imprints has published between 1924-2024, and the only Canadian book to make the list over the publisher's history. Thistle is also a PhD candidate in the history program at York University, where he is working on theories of intergenerational, historic trauma, and survivance of road allowance Métis people. This work, which involves reflections on his own previous struggles with addiction and homelessness, has been recognized as having wide impact on both the scholarly community and the greater public.
Syrus Marcus Ware is a Canadian artist, activist and scholar. He lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is an assistant professor in the school of the arts at McMaster University. He has worked since 2014 as faculty and as a designer for The Banff Centre. Ware is the inaugural artist-in-residence for Daniels Spectrum, a cultural centre in Toronto, and a founding member of Black Lives Matter Toronto. For 13 years, he was the coordinator of the Art Gallery of Ontario's youth program. During that time Ware oversaw the creation of the Free After Three program and the expansion of the youth program into a multi pronged offering.
From the Ashes is a 2019 memoir by Métis-Cree academic and writer Jesse Thistle.
