BookFest / Festival du Livre 2021

Upcoming Events

October 16 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Online – Zoom ⋅ Price includes all Festival presentations

Franco Cortese, Lip (Penteract Press) bill bissett, illustrator of Lip (Penteract Press) Ariel Gordon, TreeTalk, illustrated by Natalie...

Candid Conversations

October 16 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Online – Zoom ⋅ Price includes all Festival presentations

Marcello Di Cintio, Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers, Hollay Ghadery, Fuse (Guernica Editions.) Nathaniel G. Moore, Honorarium (Palimpsest...

Portraits in Poetry

October 16 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Online – Zoom ⋅ Price includes all Festival presentations

Vanessa Shields, Thimbles (Palimpsest Press.) Marty Gervais, A New Dress Every Day: Poems in My Mother’s Voice and Nothing More Perfect (both...

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Our 20th Anniversary edition! With safety protocols in place, we plan to hold all of our events online this year.

Bilingual / en français

Author Submissions

Author Line Up 2021

Bookfest Authors 2021

Aladejebi, Funké

A scholar of the twentieth century with a specialization in Black Canadian history. Her research and teaching interests…
Baird, Natalie

Natalie Baird is a visual artist, filmmaker, and community-based researcher based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Natalie completed a bachelor…
Barwin, Gary

A writer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist and the author of twenty-three books of poetry, fiction and books for…
Bennett, Roxanna

The disabled poem-making entity known as Roxanna Bennett gratefully resides on aboriginal land. They are the author of The…
bissett, bill

originalee from lunaria still hopeing 2 undrstand erthling wayze love sound n vizual poetree n all approaches 2…
Christakos, Margaret

Margaret Christakos is a widely published award-winning poet, fiction author, critic, and creative writing instructor. Her work has…
Cortese, Franco

Franco Cortese is an experimental poet living in Thorold, Ontario. His poetry won the 2020 UNESCO Sustainability Poetry Prize, was longlisted for the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize and has appeared…
Di Cintio, Marcello

Marcello Di Cintio is the author of five books. Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa won the Henry Kriesel Award for…
Donaldson, Jesse

Jesse Donaldson is an author and journalist whose work has appeared in VICE, The Tyee, The Calgary Herald,…
Dyck, Erika

A Professor and a Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice at the University…
Fogarty, Catherine

Catherine Fogarty is a storyteller. She is the founder and president of Big Coat Media, with offices in Toronto,…
Fox, Bevann

Bevann Fox is a member of Pasqua First Nation, originally from Piapot First Nation. In 2012 she received…
Frechette, Biz

Écrivain et rappeur, Biz est membre du groupe Loco Locass. Le trio a fait paraître quatre albums [Manifestif…
Gervais, Marty

Canadian poet, photographer, journalist, and teacher. Gervais has also published plays, children’s books, non-fiction, and a book of…
Ghadery, Hollay

Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Her fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and reviews have been published in various…
Gordon, Ariel

A Winnipeg-based author of two collections of urban-nature poetry, both of which won the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry….
Grisenthwaite, G. A.

G. A. Grisenthwaite is Nłeʔkepmx, member of the Lytton First Nation. His stories and poems have appeared in The…
Howard, Liz

Liz Howard’s debut collection Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent won the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize, was shortlisted for the…
Jacobs, Dale

Dale Jacobs is the author of Graphic Encounters: Comics and the Sponsorship of Multimodal Literacy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). He is the…
Jacobs, Heidi LM

Heidi LM Jacobs’ novel Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear (NeWest Press, 2019) won the…
Laforme, Chief R. Stacey

R. Stacey Laforme is the elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN). Born and raised…
Laframboise, Michèle

Michèle Laframboise saupoudre des grains de café sur ses plantes, court de longues distances en plus d’écrire à…
Lau, Grace

Grace Lau is a Hong-Kong-born, Chinese Canadian writer raised in Vancouver and currently living in Toronto. She enjoys…
Leary, Ron

Singer songwriter, folklorist Ron Leary’s smokey, rye-soaked voice is legendary throughout the Windsor and Southwestern Ontario region. Whether his songs…
McDonald, John

John McDonald is a multi-disciplinary writer and artist originally from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. A sixth-generation direct descendant of Chief…
Moore, Nathaniel G.

Nathaniel G. Moore was born in Toronto in 1974. He has lived and worked as a writer and…
Oloruntoba, Tolu

Tolu Oloruntoba is the author of the Anstruther Press chapbook Manubrium. His poetry has appeared in Pleiades, Columbia Journal, Entropy,…
Osson, Gabriel

Gabriel Osson est poète, romancier et artiste-peintre. Né à Port-au-Prince (Haïti), il vit à Toronto. Retraité du ministère…
Oukerfellah, Naïma

Naïma Oukerfellah est auteure de littérature pour enfants. ‘’L’enfance de Naïma, native d’Algérie, a été bercée par les…
Richardson, Jael

Jael Richardson is the executive director of the FOLD literary festival, the books columnist on CBC Radio’s q…
Riley, Rochelle

Rochelle Riley ended a nearly 20-year career as an award-winning Detroit columnist in 2019 to become the City…
Shields, Vanessa

Vanessa Shields is the owner of Gertrude’s Writing Room—A Gathering Place for Writers. She is the author of Laughing…
Sookfong Lee, Jen

Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side, and she now lives with her son in…
Thompson, Cheryl

An Assistant Professor at Ryerson University in the School of Creative Industries. She is author of Beauty in a…
Toffan, Will

A retired history teacher and veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, William Toffan lives in Windsor, Ontario, with his…
Walschots, Natalie Zina

A writer and game designer whose work includes LARP scripts, heavy metal music journalism, video game lore, and…
Watada, Terry

Terry Watada is the author of two previous novels, The Three Pleasures and The Blood of Foxes, a collection of short…