Deb Loughead, a Toronto author, poet and workshop leader, started writing as soon as she learned how to read. She has published more than 40 books for children and young adults. In 1977 she completed her B.A. in English at U of T, then worked as a copy editor until she decided to stay home to raise her three sons, and try to squeeze in a little creative writing on the side.

From 1980 – 1995 she was an associate editor for Spires Magazine in Etobicoke, writing short stories, poetry, puzzles and articles for the children’s pages. And once upon a time when her sons were in elementary school, she wrote and directed children’s plays for the drama club. One was eventually produced by an elementary school in Sudbury. Deb also had an opportunity to coach a group of drama students in Happy Valley / Goose Bay, Labrador. During the 1990s before her first book of poems, All I Need, was published, she worked as a storyteller, visiting schools around the Toronto area with her Circletime Tales.

Having written extensively for the educational market over the years, her rhyming stories and plays, as well as middle grade novels, are used in classrooms across North America, as well as the UK and Australia. Many of Deb’s novels written for a European book club, have been translated into seven languages.

Deb has conducted workshops and held readings for children and adults at schools, festival and conferences across the country, such as the Montreal Young Authors Conference, the Labrador Creative Arts Festival, Sudbury’s Rainbow Schools Authors Week, Eastern Townships Language Arts Festival, the POW Poetry Festival in Coburg, the Eden Mills Writers Festival, and the Young Adult Stratford Writers Festival. She has also taught creative writing classes for adults in Toronto. Her award-winning adult fiction and poetry have appeared in a variety of Canadian publications. Deb is a Past President of CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society for Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers.

Deb doesn’t write as much now—her brain is tired! But never say never!

Shane Joseph is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto, Canada. He began writing as a teenager living in Sri Lanka and has never stopped. Redemption in Paradise, his first novel, was published in 2004 and his first short story collection, Fringe Dwellers, in 2008. His novel, After the Flood, a dystopian epic set in the aftermath of global warming, was released in November 2009, and won the Canadian Christian Writers award for best Futuristic/Fantasy novel in 2010. Shane’s last collection of short stories, Crossing Limbo, was published in 2017. His latest novel, released in 2022, is Empire in the Sand, a tale of pharmaceutical scandals, robocalls electioneering, and family breakdown. His short stories and articles have appeared in several Canadian anthologies and in literary journals around the world.

His career stints include: stage and radio actor, pop musician, encyclopedia salesman, lathe machine operator, airline executive, travel agency manager, vice president of a global financial services company, software services salesperson, publishing editor, project manager and management consultant.

Self-taught, with four degrees under his belt obtained through distance education, Shane is an avid traveller and has visited one country for every year of his life and lived in four of them. He fondly recalls incidents during his travels as real lessons he could never have learned in school: husky riding in Finland with no training, trekking the Inca Trail in Peru through an unending rainstorm, hitch-hiking in Australia without a map, escaping a wild elephant in Zambia, and being stranded without money in Denmark, are some of his memories.

After immigrating (twice), raising a family, building a career, and experiencing life’s many highs and lows, Shane has carved out a niche in Cobourg, Ontario with his wife Sarah, where he continues to work, write, and play his guitar.

Shane Joseph, believes in the gift of second chances. He feels that he has lived many lives in just a single lifetime, always starting from scratch with only the lessons from the past to draw upon. His novels and stories reflect the redemptive power of acceptance and forgiveness.

Anthony De Sa writer, teacher (b at Toronto, Ont). Anthony De Sa grew up in the Portugese community of Toronto, Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto and later completed post-graduate work at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
Anthony De Sa, writer, teacher (b at Toronto, Ont). Anthony De Sa grew up in the Portugese community of Toronto, Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto and later completed post-graduate work at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. A high school teacher by trade, De Sa attended the Humber School for Writers on a part-time basis during a sabbatical year. It was during his time at Humber that De Sa first began to submit his work to journals, and was eventually published in the Danforth Review. De Sa continued writing and a series of short stories was accepted and published by Doubleday Canada in 2008 as Barnacle Love.

De Sa's Barnacle Love was received extremely well in Canadian literary circles. A series of inter-linked stories, Barnacle Love explores the immigrant experience in Toronto. The collection is divided into two parts: the first focuses on Manuel, a Portuguese immigrant to Canada, and the second on his son Antonio as he grows up in Toronto's Portuguese community and finds himself torn between the traditions and expectations of the new and old worlds. Varied in style, Barnacle Love oscillates between folk tale, myth and narrative. It carefully and beautifully examines the divide that can occur in immigrant families when the dreams of those who first came are neither realized nor desired by the generation that follows. Acclaimed for its descriptive power and insight into the immigrant experience in Canada, Barnacle Love stands out as a great achievement for a debut collection.

Anthony De Sa was named as a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2008) and the Toronto Book Award (2009) for Barnacle Love. The debut collection also won him Portugal's Premios de Talento Award for Literature (2009).

Calogero (Charly) Chiarelli was born in Racalmuto, Sicily and raised in Hamilton, Canada. He's proud to cite his first vocational achievements of selling newspapers in downtown streets and setting up pins in local bowling alleys. He was elected President of the Westdale High School Student Council,1965-66. He went on to acquire a four year BA in Psychology at McMaster University, a certificate in Applied Linguistics and Teaching from the University of Toronto and an MSW at Carlton University in Ottawa.
Concurrent with being a psychology professor and mental health consultant, Charly was/is a showbiz devotee. In the past 20 years he has applied his expansive talents to acting, writing (screenplays, stageplays, librettos, novels, children's stories and music). He is also a virtuoso musician - harmonica & vocals - and storyteller. All have received, awards, international acclaim and rave reviews. 
- Re CHARLY'S HIT MOVIE: He is cowriter of the screenplay, has 2 starring roles & 2 supporting roles - and Charly and the film have been cited for 12 prestigious awards... and "Won 7", including the Taormina Film Festival🏆

Access Movie for FREE by going to tubiTV and search for:
🍋 Road To The Lemon Grove 🍋

Terry Fallis is the award-winning author of eight national bestsellers, including his latest, Operation Angus, all published by McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House). His debut novel, The Best Laid Plans, won the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and was crowned the 2011 winner of CBC Canada Reads as the “essential Canadian novel of the decade.” In January 2014, CBC aired a six-part television miniseries based on The Best Laid Plans earning very positive reviews. In September 2015, it debuted as a stage musical in Vancouver. The High Road was published in September 2010 and was a finalist for the 2011 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Terry’s third novel, Up and Down, was released in September 2012. It debuted on the Globe and Mail bestsellers list, was a finalist for the 2013 Leacock Medal, and won the 2013 Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. In June 2013, the Canadian Booksellers Association presented Terry with the Libris Award for Author of the Year. Terry’s fourth novel, No Relation, hit bookstores in May 2014, opened on the Globe and Mail bestsellers list, and won the 2015 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Poles Apart was released in October 2015, immediately hit the Globe and Mail bestsellers list, and was a finalist for the 2016 Leacock Medal. One Brother Shy (2017), Albatross (2019), and Operation Angus (2021) were all instant bestsellers upon publication.
Terry Fallis earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McMaster University and then spent several years working in federal and Ontario politics. In 1995, he co-founded Thornley Fallis, a full service communications and digital agency with offices in Toronto and Ottawa. He blogs at www.terryfallis.com and his twitter handle is @TerryFallis.