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Sharon Thesen
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Sharon Thesen is a poet, editor, and writer who has recently moved to Kelowna after many years in the Vancouver writing scene. Two of her eight books of poetry--Confabulations and The Beginning of the Long Dash--were nominated for the Governor General's Award, and A Pair of Scissors won the prestigious Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her publishing credits also include an award-winning edition of Phyllis Webb's poetry, two editions of The New Long Poem Anthology, and several years at the helm of The Capelano Review. Her new collection, The Good Bacteria (Anansi), "sparkles with her usual flair for locating the unexpected humor, the surreal in the everyday" (The Globe and Mail). |
Madeleine Thien
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Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver in 1974, the year her parents immigrated to Canada from Tawau, East Malaysia. Her work has appeared in the Journey Prize Anthology and Best Canadian Stories. Her first book of fiction, Simple Recipes, won four awards in Canada, was a finalist for a regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and was named a notable book by the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize. Alice Munro has remarked on "the clarity and ease of the writing, and a kind of emotional purity," and Thien's debut novel, Certainty (McClelland and Stewart), more than confirms that praise. Thien lives in Quebec City. |
Diane Tullson
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Diane Tullson has written four novels for young adult readers, including Saving Jasey and Blue Highway, and all of them have been warmly received by both readers and critics. Her newest book, Red Sea (Orca), a contemporary, true-to-life adventure of piracy in the Red Sea, has been named an American Library Association Best Book and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and been nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award and the ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers. Resource Links says: "This is a book that needs to be in every library for readers grade seven and up." Tullson lives in Delta BC. |
Katherena Vermette
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Born and raised in, and now hopelessly addicted to, Winnipeg, Katherena Vermette is a product of our multi-racial country, with roots in the Aboriginal as well as Mennonite communities. An often poet and sometimes fiction writer, her poetry has appeared in Prairie Fire and Juice, as well as in Bone Memory, a compilation of work published by the Aboriginal Writers Collective. She is a recent participant in the Sheldon Oberman Mentorship program at the Manitoba Writers' Guild, and is currently attempting to navigate the unpredictable torrents of fiction--which is to say, working on her first novel. Vermette lives in Winnipeg. |
Rachel Vigier
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Rachel Vigier's work has appeared in journals in Canada and the US, and she has published a book of non-fiction, Gestures of Genius: Women, Dance, and the Body, and two poetry collections. Her poetry and comments were featured on "Loss and Legacy," a CBC Radio special commemorating the events of September 11, and she appears in the anthology, September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond. Her new release, The Book of Skeletons (Pedlar Press), is a delicate and affecting consideration of the human devastation of 9/11. She was raised on a farm in Manitoba and now lives with her family in New York City. |
Richard Wagamese
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Richard Wagamese, an Ojibway from the Wabasseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario who now lives outside Kamloops BC, made an audience for himself with his popular and award-winning column in The Calgary Herald. Two novels, Keeper'n Me and A Quality of Light, appeared to critical acclaim in the 1990s, and were followed by a memoir, For Joshua. Wagamese's respect for traditional native culture, his willingness to explore his own difficult life in his writing, and his warmth and humor are unmistakably present in his new novel, Dream Wheels (Random House)--along with a passion for the rodeo! |
Fred Wah
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Fred Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and raised in the interior of British Columbia. He has been involved internationally in writing and publishing since the 1960s, and has spent his adult life exploring and teaching poetry and poetics. His many titles include poetry collections, Waiting for Saskatchewan, winner of the Governor General's Award, and So Far, which won the Stephanson Prize for Poetry, and a collection of essays called Faking It. A work of bio-fiction, Diamond Grill, which won the 1996 Howard O'Hagan Prize, has just been re-released by NeWest Press. Wah lives now in Vancouver. |
Jess Walter
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Jess Walter first made his mark as an investigative journalist with the acclaimed Every Knee Shall Bow, which was made into a CBS mini-series. His novels have consistently garnered rave reviews from critics and readers alike: Over Tumbled Graves was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Citizen Vince won the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was named one of the Washington Post's top picks. His new book, The Zero (HarperCollins), is a stunning novel set in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Kirkus Reviews calls it a "brilliant tour-de-force that's as heartrending as it is harrowing." Walter lives in Spokane, WA, with his family. |
Gene Walz
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Gene Walz is a writer, filmmaker, professor of Film Studies and erstwhile administrator at the University of Manitoba. He has published books on Françcois Truffaut and Charlie Thorson--the latter won Best Illustrated Book and Best Popular History awards--and edited several books on Canadian film. His film scripts include The Washing Machine (based on a short story by David Arnason) and Birding for Kids, produced for PBS-Television. His essay, "Moviemaking in Manitoba: The World War Two Era," appears in The Winnipeg Connection: Writing Lives at Mid-Century (Prairie Fire Press), a new literary-cultural history edited by Birk Sproxton. Walz lives in Winnipeg. |
Tricia Wasney
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Tricia Wasney has a background in film, literature, visual art, and landscape architecture, and has recently developed Winnipeg's new public art policy and program through the Winnipeg Arts Council. Several years ago she mentored with Di Brandt through the Manitoba Writers' Guild and has presented her work at conferences, in publications, and at art events. She is interested notions of home, how human experience becomes embedded in landscape, and loss. Her essay, "Making Way: Loss and Transformation in Winnipeg's Urban Landscape--A Miscellaneous Photo Album," appears in The Winnipeg Connection: Writing Lives at Mid-Century (Prairie Fire Press), a new literary-cultural history edited by Birk Sproxton. Wasney lives in Winnipeg. |
Armin Wiebe
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Armin Wiebe was in attendance at Victor Enns' farm on the day the Manitoba Writers' Guild was founded in 1981 and has served on the boards of the Manitoba Writers' Guild, Prairie Fire, and the Mennonite Literary Society. He established himself with his wildly popular comic Gutenthal novels, The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, Murder in Gutenthal, and The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst. His most recent novel, Tatsea (Turnstone Press), an adventure story set in Canada's Subarctic in the 1760s, won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. Wiebe teaches in the Creative Communications program at Red River College in Winnipeg. |
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