Keith Oatley is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Toronto. His main research is on human emotions and the psychology of fiction. He is the originator, and now co-author, of the principal textbook on the psychology of emotions, Understanding Emotions (Wiley), now in its fourth edition. He is sole author of seven other books of psychology, most recently Our Minds, Our Selves (Princeton University Press) and three novels the first of which, The Case of Emily V., won a Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. He has also written a hybrid book, The Passionate Muse (Oxford University Press), a novella in seven parts each accompanied by a commentary on emotions that may be experienced while reading it. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

https://sites.google.com/site/keithoatleyhomesite

Shane Joseph is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. He is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories. Shane’s second novel, After the Flood, a dystopian novel of hope, released in 2009, won the Write CanadaAward for best novel in the futuristic/fantasy category.His short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in literary journals and anthologies all over the world. His blog at www.shanejoseph.com is widely syndicated, he has a monthly column in The Sri Lankan Anchormanjournal, and is the Book Reviews Editor for Devour Art & Lit Magazine.His most recent novel, Empire in the Sand,was released in September 2022.

Shane is the owner and publisher of Blue Denim Press (www.bluedenimpress.com), a literary press he founded in 2011. He is responsible for editing, formatting, cover design, production, distribution, and promotion at his press. To date, the press has published over 40titles (fiction and non-fiction) in paperback and e-book formats.  In particular, Shane loves editing to release the story from within the words.

More details on Shane’s work, blog and book reviews can be found on his website at www.shanejoseph.com.  He maintains an active presence on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Linked-In,Twitter and Goodreads. He has a growing collection of You Tube videos produced by him on book launches and author discussions.

 David William Warner

After a successful career in politics and teaching, David has become a writer and has recently been published.

Parliamentary Positions

      Elected as M. P. P. for Scarborough Ellesmere,1975-77, 1977-81, 1985-87, 1990-95

                  (elected by the House as Speaker of the Ontario Legislature – 1990 to 1995)

  Teacher

      Elementary School teacher in Scarborough, Ontario
            1964-75, 1981-85, 1987-90, 1995-99 [Chairperson from 1974 onward]

Select Positions with Boards and Associations

      Trustee, Forum for Young Canadians 1999 – 2017

      Chair, Board of Directors, InCharge Debt Solutions 2007 -13

      National Vice President, United Nations Association of Canada – 2002 – 2005

      Regional Vice President, (Ontario), United Nations Association of Canada – 2001 -2002

      President, United Nations Association Toronto Branch – 2000 to 2001

      President, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association(Ontario Branch)1990 to 1995

      Board of Directors, Scarborough Community Legal Services 1980 -90(Founding Chair of the Board, 1980 to 1985)

      President, Agincourt Community Services – 1972 to 1974

      Board of Directors, Youth Assisting Youth 1974 to 1985, 1987 to 1990

      Board of Directors, Canadian Cuban Friendship Association 1995 to 2004 (President 1998-2004)

      Board of Directors, Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary             Democracy 1995 to 1997

      President, Scarborough Ellesmere NDP Constituency Association 1995 to 1998, 2007 -2011

      Chair, Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians  2018 – 2021

Education

      1972 – Bachelor of Arts, Honours English, York University, Toronto, Ontario.

Antanas Sileika is a Canadian novelist and critic, after completing an English degree at the University of Toronto, he moved to Paris for two years and there married his wife, Snaige Sileika (nee Valiunas), an art student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  While in Paris,  he worked as part of the editorial collective of the expatriate literary journal, Paris Voices, run from the upstairs room of the bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.

Upon his return to Canada in 1979, Antanas began teaching at Humber College and working as a co-editor of the Canadian literary journal, Descant, where he remained until 1988.

He became involved through journalism  with Lithuania’s restitution of independence during the fall of The Soviet Union 1988-1991, and for this activity he received the Knight’s Cross medal from the Lithuanian government in 2004.

A past winner of a national magazine award, he retired in June of 2017 as the director for the Humber School for Writers in Toronto.

After writing for newspapers and magazines, Antanas published his first novel, Dinner at the End of the World (1994), a speculative story set in the aftermath of global warming.

His second book, a collection of linked short stories, Buying On Time (1997), was nominated for both the City of Toronto Book Award and the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, and was serialized on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers. In 2016, almost twenty years later, it was long-listed for Canada Reads and the translation was short-listed in Lithuania for Book of the Year. The book traces the lives of a family of immigrants to a Canadian suburb between the fifties and seventies. Some of these stories were anthologized in Dreaming Home, Canadian Short Stories, and the Penguin Anthology of Canadian Humour.

Antanas’s  memoir, The Barefoot Bingo Caller, was released in spring of 2017 by ECW. Author Miriam Toews called the memoir “Evocative, unfailingly honest, and dead-on funny.” The book received a starred review in Quill and Quire. The translation of this memoir, Basakojis Bingo Pranešėjas, went on to win book of the year for 2018 in Lithuania.

Provisionally Yours, a historical espionage novel set in Kaunas in the 1920’s , was published  by Biblioasis in March of 2019 . UK author Samantha Harvey said of the book, “I loved this novel.” Publishers Weekly called it “an urbane thriller.”  and the Toronto Star called it “a finely honed political thriller.” The Lithuanian translation, called Laikinai Jūsų, published by Baltos Lankos, was positively reviewed in that country. .

Farzana Doctor is a writer, activist, and psychotherapist. Her ancestry is Indian, and she was born in Zambia while her family was based there for five years, before immigrating to Canada in 1971.

She became interested in community organizing as a teen (primarily environmental issues, gender violence and LGBTTTIQ rights). From 2009-18, she curated the Brockton Writers Series and has been a volunteer with The Writers’ Union of Canada and the Writers’ Trust. She currently volunteers with WeSpeakOut, a global group that is working to ban female genital cutting in her Dawoodi Bohra community.

She studied social work in the early nineties and has been a social worker ever since. She worked in a variety of community agencies and a hospital before starting part-time private practice, where she sees individuals and couples.

She has been writing all of her life but it became a more regular practice around 2000, when she began writing her first novel, Stealing Nasreen, which was published by Inanna in 2007.  Her second novel, Six Metres of Pavement, won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award and was short-listed for the 2012 Toronto Book Award. In 2017 it was voted the One Book One Brampton 2017 winner. Her third novel, All Inclusive was a Kobo 2015 and National Post Best Book of the Year.

While all her books are distinct from one another, some common themes include loss, relationships, community, healing, racism, LGBT rights, diasporic identity and feminism. She seamlessly blends strong stories with social justice issues. Her genre so far has been contemporary literary fiction, but here is usually a hint of magic realism in her stories.

She’s just completed a novel, Seven (August 2020, Dundurn), and a poetry collection. You Still Look the Same. She is currently at work on a YA novel. Farzana was recently named one of CBC Books’ “100 Writers in Canada You Need To Know Now”.  She is represented by Rachel Letofsky of CookeMcDermid.

She’s an amateur Tarot card reader and has a love of spirituality, energy psychology, hypnosis and neuroscience.

She lives with her partner and dog near the lake in Etobicoke, the traditional territory of the Haudenosauneega, Anishinabek and Huron-Wendat peoples.