Helen Humphreys' latest novel, Coventry (HarperCollins, 2008), was a national bestseller, chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail. Her most recent poetry collection, Anthem (1999), won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award. Her four other novels garnered various honours including the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and a nomination for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Afterimage (HarperCollins, 2000) which was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Humphreys' work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (McClelland & Stewart, 2007), was a national bestseller.
Jeffery Donaldson is the author of the poetry collections Once out of Nature (McClelland & Stewart, 1991), Waterglass (McGill-Queen's, 1999) and Palilalia (McGill-Queen's, 2008). He was born in Toronto and educated at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He teaches poetry, poetic theory, and American literature in the English Department at McMaster University, where he is involved in the Collected Works of Northrop Frye project, as the editor of Frye's Twentieth Century essays, and co-editor of Frye and the Word: Religious Contexts in the Writings of Northrop Frye (U of T Press, 2003).
Gerry Shikatani's first book of poems was A Sparrow's Food (Coach House, 1984). His other poetry collections include AQUEDUCT, released in 1996 as three books in one volume, co-published by The Mercury Press, Underwich Editions and Wolsak and Wynn. His LAKE and other stories was also published in 1996 by The Mercury Press. Three Gardens of Andalucia, a collection of texts, photos and collages, appeared as a special double issue of the Capilano Review (2:39-40) in 2003. Also a food critic, his interviews with Canada's leading chefs were published in A Passion for Food (The Mercury Press, 1999). With David Aylward, he edited Paper Doors (Coach House, 1981), a pioneering anthology of Asian-Canadian literature.
Check out the essay on Shikatani by Rachel Zolf at http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/zolf/zolf4-16.pdf
Shani Mootoo's acclaimed first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night (McClelland & Stewart, 1998) was published in fourteen countries, and was a finalist for the Giller Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Chapters / Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her second novel, He Drown She in the Sea (McClelland & Stewart, 2005) was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her latest book is Valmiki's Daughter (Anansi, 2008). Mootoo is also an accomplished visual and video artist.
Austin Clarke's most recent book is the novel More (Thomas Allen, 2008). His previous novel, The Polished Hoe (Thomas Allen, 2002), won the Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He has published nine other novels, six short-story collections, and three memoirs in the United States, England, Canada, Australia, and Holland since 1964. His work has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Award twice (Storm of Fortune, Little Brown, 1973 and The Question, McClelland & Stewart, 1999). He has received numerous other honours including four honorary doctorates; he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.
Fred Wah was one of the founding editors of the poetry newsletter TISH. He has published seventeen books of poetry. His prose-poems, Waiting For Saskatchewan (Turnstone, 1985) received the Governor-General's Award in 1986 and So Far (Talonbooks, 1991) was awarded the Stephanson Award for Poetry. Diamond Grill (NeWest, 1996) won the Howard O'Hagan Award for Short Fiction. A collection of critical writing, Faking It: Poetics and Hybridity (NeWest, 2001) was awarded the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Writing on Canadian literature. His recent book, Sentenced to Light (Talonbooks, 2008), is described as a "series of unique collaborative image-text projects". His most recent book, is a door (Talonbooks, 2009), makes use of the poem's ability for "suddenness" to subvert closure. is a door is described by the Montreal Gazette as "...the realization of our shared, not individual, life."
Mary Swan's novel The Boys in the Trees (Henry Holt / H. B. Fenn, 2008) was a finalist for the Giller Prize. Her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and journals in Canada and the US, including Harper's. Her novella, "The Deep", first appeared in the Malahat Review in 2000, won the 2001 O. Henry Award for short fiction, and later appeared in The Deep and Other Stories (Random House, 2003). Her work has also appeared in several anthologies such as Emergent Voices (Goose Lane, 1990), Coming Attractions (Oberon, 1999), and Best Canadian Stories 92 (Oberon, 1992).
Patricia Young is the author of eight books and her poetry has appeared in every important literary magazine and journal in Canada. She is a two-time Governor General's Award-nominee, in 2000 for her book Ruin & Beauty and in 1993 for her book More Watery Still (both published by Anansi). She has won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, the CBC Literary Competition, the British Columbia Book Prize for Poetry, and the League of Canadian Poets' National Poetry Competition. Her most recent poetry collection is Here Come the Moonbathers (biblioasis, 2008). She has also written a book of short fiction, Airstream (biblioasis, 2006).
