Attending Panelists
Julie Czerneda
Award-winning author and editor Julie E. Czerneda is a member of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. She has twenty-five science fiction and fantasy novels published by DAW Books, as well as numerous short stories and anthologies. Julie’s works combine her training and love of biology with a boundless curiosity and optimism. Out now: Imaginings, Julie’s first short story collection, and standalone science fiction novel To Each This World, as well as the fourth installment in her beloved Night’s Edge fantasy series, A Shift of Time. Julie is represented by Sara Megibow of Megibow Literary Agency.
Diane L Walton
Starting in 1989 and ending with its final issue in 2025, Diane was the managing editor of On Spec, Canada’s long running journal of the Fantastic. Diane was also instrumental in ventures such as Edmonton’s NonCon and Pure Speculation SFF conventions, and currently serves as President of the Sunburst Award Society. She is one of the 2025 inductees into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) Hall of Fame.
Megan M. Davies-Ostrom
Megan M. Davies-Ostrom is a Canadian author of dark fantasy and horror. Her short stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies such as Fantasy Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, The Horror that Represents You, and Bodies Full of Burning. Her debut novel, RISE FROM THESE DARK WATERS, is coming out with Bad Hand Press in October 2026. She lives in Ontario with her husband and two (strange) cats,
Rich Larson
Rich Larson was born in Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is now based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Ymir and Annex, as well as 250+ short stories, some of the best of which can be found in his collections: Changelog, The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches, and Tomorrow Factory. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages and adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS.
E. L. Chen
E. L. Chen is the author of adult horror titles Sweetside Motel, Slasher Summer, and One of Us Is Already Dead. Her YA fantasy Summerwood/Winterwood was longlisted for the Sunburst and recommended as a Best Book for Kids and Teens by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, and her short fiction has appeared in venues such as Strange Horizons, On Spec, and The Dark. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her son and a towering TBR pile.
Erin Rockfort
Erin Rockfort is an Ottawa-based author, blogger, and therapist. Their work has been published in Baffling Magazine, Translunar Travelers Lounge, and the anthology Nothing Without Us Too. They’re also a programming lead and organizer for Can*Con, and in their free time like to deep dive into fandom anthropology.
David Demchuk
Born and raised in Winnipeg, David Demchuk has been writing for print, stage, digital and other media for more than 40 years. A Sunburst Award winner and Giller Prize, Shirley Jackson Award and Aurora Award nominee, he is best known for his novels The Bone Mother, RED X, and The Butcher’s Daughter (co-written with debut author Corinne Leigh Clark). His short fiction and essays have appeared in Toronto Life, Hazlitt, Unfortunately, JAKE, Gayly Dreadful, Weird Horror and Andrei Codrescu’s Exquisite Corpse. After many years in Toronto, David lives with his husband in an old house by the sea in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Charlotte Ashley
Charlotte Ashley is a writer, book historian, and the owner of Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has been nominated for both the Aurora and the Sunburst awards, and is the former administrator of the Friends of the Merrill Short Story Prize.
Isaac Fellman
Isaac Fellman is a writer and archivist from San Francisco. He is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of NOTES FROM A REGICIDE, as well as DEAD COLLECTIONS, THE TWO DOCTORS GÓRSKI, and THE BREATH OF THE SUN.
Toril Orlesky
Toril Orlesky graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2013. She lives in California. Her first comic Hotblood! was serialized online as a biweekly webcomic on Tumblr from 2013 through 2015. The first edition was printed with the help of 1,626 Kickstarter backers in 2016. The sequel, Zarco, was Kickstarted successfully in 2018 and the series was acquired for publication by Mad Cave Studios in 2023.
Jennifer Giesbrecht
Jennifer Giesbrecht is a Shirley Jackson Award nominated fantasy author based in Atlantic Canada. Her first novel is The Monster of Elendhaven. She has publications with Apex, Nightmare Magazine, and Tor (dot) Com, and was the primary writer of The Homestuck Epilogues.
Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Vanessa is the first self-published author to win a Nebula Award. If she’s not hibernating, she can be found in her butterfly garden, achieving her final form as a garden witch. She lives in Waterloo (no, the other one) with her spouse, daughter and very good dogs. Her self-published books are available everywhere except Amazon.
Joanne Merriam
Joanne Merriam is a writer and poet and the publisher at Upper Rubber Boot Books, best known for releasing the first English-language anthology of solarpunk, ‘Sunvault’. Her novel Aether and Ego will be released in autumn 2026 by Inanna.
Shannon Fay
Shannon Fay is the author of two historical fantasy novels, Innate Magic and its sequel, External Forces, both out from 47North. She is the winner of the 2013 James White Award, and has had short stories published in a variety of publications including Flame Tree Press, Interzone, and Daily Science Fiction.
Mark Leslie
Mark Lefebvre has spent three decades immersed in the world of books as a bookseller, bookstore manager, and publishing industry professional who helps authors navigate the evolving landscape of traditional and independent publishing. As a writer, he loves to explore the shadows. Under the name Mark Leslie, he has written numerous horror novels, thrillers, and his humorous urban fantasy Canadian Werewolf adventures.
Tiffany Morris
Tiffany Morris is an L’nu’skw (Mi’kmaw) writer from Nova Scotia. She is the author of the ecohorror novella Green Fuse Burning and the horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars. Her work has appeared in Never Whistle At Night, as well as in Nightmare, Uncanny, and Apex, among others.
Nicole Northwood
Nicole Northwood writes whimsical fairytales and fantasy romance novels known for their lyrical prose and not-at-all historically accurate settings. By day, Nicole works as a project manager in medical / information technology; by starlight, she conjures worlds filled with enchantment and wonder. She also writes nostalgic contemporary novels under the name Nicole Bea, exploring themes of memory, vulnerability, and emotional healing.
Joe Mahoney
Joe Mahoney is an author/publisher/broadcaster, recently retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where, for over more than three decades, he worked in several roles including recording engineer, producer, and several operational management roles. He currently runs Donovan Street Press Inc., an indie press based in Riverview, New Brunswick. Joe is the author of the SF novel A Time and a Place, the memoir Adventures in the Radio Trade, and the short story collection Other Times and Places, all available from Donovan Street Press Inc. He’s written and produced several radio shows on science fiction for CBC Radio, and has worked as a story editor on multiple radio, television and film projects including CBC Radio’s Steve the First and Steve the Second, both seasons of Canadia: 2056, and more. Joe is co-host of the podcast Re-Creative with Mark A. Rayner, a podcast about art and creativity.
Susan Forest
Susan Forest is the author of Aurora Award-winners Bursts of Fire (2019) and Flights of Marigold (2020), as well as over 25 internationally-published short stories. She also edits an award-winning anthology series for Laksa Media Groups. In 2021, she was Editor Guest of Honor at Keycon. Susan loves travel and has been known to dictate novels from the back of her husband’s motorcycle.
Jonathan Olfert
Jonathan Olfert’s tales have thundered in the beams of forty worthy halls — among them Lightspeed, Analog, On Spec, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies — and he has been summoned by Rhysling but not yet chosen. Twice have his works been chronicled by Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction. Hark, the thunder of his novelettes on the horizon: Fletcher’s Flights and Under White Air. Conjuror of charts and many whispers, wanderer upon strange roads, sworn ritualist of tyrants but no longer, he bears silver of his own hammering and walks with oak of his own cutting. He hails from golden prairie beneath great mountains’ haven; he dwells with alchemists above an iron sea.
Lydia M. Hawke
Lydia M. Hawke is the author of bold urban fantasy for women who know their power. When worlds collide or apocalyptic disaster strikes, Lydia’s mature, magical heroines are more than capable of saving themselves–and the world. Her paranormal women’s fiction novel Becoming Crone has won multiple awards and was featured on Felicia Day’s Felicitations! Book Club Show.
Lydia makes her home in Canada where she spends her free time drinking what some would argue is too much coffee, thoroughly enjoying the grandparenting stage of life, caring for her collection of pets, and tending to her ever-evolving garden.
Her self-appointed mission in life is to reclaim the title of “crone” as a positive thing on behalf of all women of a certain age.
Rachel A. Rosen
Rachel A. Rosen (she/her) is an activist, graphic designer, and for her sins, a high school teacher. She is the author of Cascade, the first book in The Sleep of Reason trilogy and its sequel, Blight. With Zilla Novikov, she is the co-author of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don’t Die. She has also been published in Trollbreath, the Toronto Star, and speculative fiction anthologies including Anarchist Fictions, The Antifa Lit Journal Vol. 1: What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht, Instant Classic (That No One Will Read), and Beyond Human: Tales Of the New Us.
Rachel co-hosts the Wizards & Spaceships podcast with David L. Clink, and designs book covers in her theoretical spare time. She lives in Tkaronto (Toronto), where she is the harried personal assistant to two cats.
Kari Maaren
Kari Maaren is a Canadian writer, cartoonist, musician, and academic. Her first novel, Weave a Circle Round (Tor Books, 2017), won the Copper Cylinder Award and was a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award and the Sunburst Award. She has an ongoing webcomic, the award-winning It Never Rains, and a completed one, West of Bathurst. Her short fiction has appeared in The Orange & Bee and the anthologies Figments and Fragments and Tales From the Silence. She lives in Toronto, surrounded by books.
Terese Mason Pierre
Terese Mason Pierre (she/her) is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Walrus, ROOM, Brick, Quill & Quire, Uncanny, and The Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, among others. Her work has been nominated for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, Best of the Net, the Aurora Award, and the Ignyte Award. She is one of ten winners of the Writers’ Trust Journey Prize, and was named a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. Terese is an editor at Augur Magazine, a Canadian speculative literature journal, and co-Director of AugurCon, Augur‘s biennial speculative literature conference. She has co-hosted poetry reading series, spoken at conferences, organized literary events, judged writing contests, facilitated creative writing workshops, and mentored emerging writers. Myth is her debut poetry collection, from House of Anansi Press, and she is the editor of As The Earth Dreams, an anthology of Black Canadian speculative short fiction. Terese has completed residencies at Island Scribe and the Banff Centre for the Art, holds an MFA from University of Guelph, and lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
N. E. White
N. E. White is a fantasy and science fiction author from Northern California. She’s been writing since 2005, but only recently self-published her first trilogy, The Mapmaker Trilogy. She is working on a second, The Draghi Chronicles, starting with The Legend of Damndrake. In another life, she creates geospatial models and maps to support environmental management decisions. When she is not mapping or writing, she’s probably out on a hike, trying to reach the sky.
K.V. Johansen
K.V. Johansen writes, gardens, and plays classical and rock guitar (doggedly and determinedly, if not well), in New Brunswick. She is the author of a high fantasy duology beginning with The Wolf and the Wild King as well as the five-book epic fantasy series Gods of the Caravan Road, the first of which, Blackdog, was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunburst Award. She has also written a number of (occasionally award-winning) books for children and teens and two works on the history of children’s fantasy literature. She has an M.A. from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, a second M.A. in English Literature at McMaster University, and is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. Various of her books have been translated into French, Macedonian, and Danish. As Kris Jamison, she is the author of the novel Love/Rock/Compost. Her most recent work is Breath and Bone, out in May 2026 from Candlemark and Gleam.
Brandon Crilly
Brandon Crilly’s IPPY Award-winning fantasy novel Catalyst was published in 2022, with its sequel Castoff completing the Aspects of Aelda duology in 2025. He has more than 50 published short works to date, and freelances for games publishers such as Kobold Press and Gallant Knight Games. Brandon is also an organizer for Can*Con in Ottawa, an occasional reviewer, a frequent speaker at conferences and festivals and, yes, clearly wears too many hats.
Hayden Trenholm
Hayden Trenholm is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He has also been a public servant, an actor, a bartender, a freelance researcher and consultant, and a telemarketer for Alberta Ballet. His short fiction has appeared in many magazines, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and anthologies such as The Sum of Us and Strangers Among Us, and on CBC radio. His first novel, A Circle of Birds, won the 3-Day Novel Writing competition in 1993; it was later translated and published in French. His trilogy, The Steele Chronicles, were each nominated for an Aurora Award. Stealing Home, the third book, was a finalist for the Sunburst Award. His fifth novel, The Passion of Ivan Rodriguez was published by Tyche Books in 2023. Hayden has won five Aurora Awards – three times for short fiction and twice for editing anthologies. He purchased Bundoran Press in 2012 and was its managing editor until the press closed in 2020. He lives with his wife and fellow writer, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, in Ottawa, having retired in 2017 after 15 years as a policy adviser to the Senator for the Northwest Territories. In 2022, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association Hall of Fame. See more: www.haydentrenholm.com
Didi Chanoch
Didi Chanoch is a translator and former purchasing and translation editor who has been involved in science fiction and fantasy for thirty years. They are an immigrant to Canada, having left Israel in 2025, and are currently working on opening a queer sff bookstore in Winnipeg.
In addition to their work in sff, Chanoch is a former tech journalist. Their journalism career included several years writing a popular column on crowdfunding at Haaretz and several years as the editor of the tech section at Walla, one of Israel’s most popular websites.
Liz Westbrook-Trenholm
Liz Westbrook-Trenholm is a retired artist/educator and federal public servant who has published or aired non-fiction and mainstream and speculative short fiction on radio, in magazines and in anthologies, most recently in Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Volume One, Revue Solaris (translation), Starship Librarians (Tyche Books) and On Spec. She won the Prix Aurora Award for short fiction in 2018 and has had stories nominated three times since. She lives in Ottawa with her husband, retired policy advisor, writer and editor Hayden Trenholm.
Jon Tattrie
Jon Tattrie is the author of nine books, including To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, The Man Who Rewrote Fantasy, the best-seller Peace by Chocolate, as well as The Hermit of Africville, Redemption Songs, Daniel Paul: Mi’kmaw Elder, and Cornwallis: The Violent Birth of Halifax. After working as a journalist for more than 20 years, he now operates Write Now! with Jon Tattrie to help other people write their books. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his wife Giselle, son Xavier and daughter Roslyn.
Madona Skaff-Koren
Madona Skaff-Koren’s novel Shifting Trust, is a science fiction thriller set in the near future. When a Canadian scientist is kidnapped in England, Tyler Demir ignores military orders and sets out on his own to rescue him. She also writes the Naya Investigates series about a young woman disabled by multiple sclerosis, who turns sleuth to solve crimes.
She’s published both science fiction and mystery short stories, including The Bell Tolls Once Again which appears in the anthology The 13th Letter. It’s the third installment of the continuing adventures of ex-conman, Lennie, who solves murders…with the help of the victim.
Her life long dream to publish in the Star Trek universe was finally realized with her essay, Number One: Enduring Across Time, in Women Take The Conn, essays by women writing about the women of Trek. She also has a story in the Deep Space 9, 30th anniversary collection, Outside In: Can Live With It.
Diana Dima
Diana Dima writes speculative fiction and the occasional poem. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, and elsewhere. She grew up in Romania, spent many years in Wales, and now lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Rebecca Bennett
Rebecca (she/her) writes rural fabulism from Ottawa, Ontario. Her short stories and poetry have been published in Augur Magazine, Bourbon Penn, Translunar Traveller’s Lounge and other literary locations. She is Managing Editor at Heartlines Spec and previously was a many-headed hydra at Apparition Lit. You can follow her infrequent posts at @rebecca-b.bsky.social
Andrew Leon Hudson
Andrew Leon Hudson is a technical writer by day, and is technically a writer by night as well. His genre fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, most recently Motives Unknown from Dead Ink Books. He lives in Barcelona, Spain, and for five years and counting has been the editor of Mythaxis Magazine. Anything else you’ve heard is speculation at best.
Phoebe Barton
Phoebe Barton is a queer trans science fiction writer who has never before been to Nova Scotia. Her short fiction has appeared in venues such as Analog, Lightspeed, and F&SF, and she is an Aurora Award and Nebula Award winner. She lives with her family and at least eight typewriters in the shadow of rusty death clouds in Hamilton, Ontario. Find her online at www.phoebebartonsf.com or on Bluesky at @phoebebarton.bsky.social.
Robert Dawson
Robert Dawson teaches mathematics at Saint Mary’s University. He has been writing and publishing speculative fiction for about fifteen years, and is an alumnus of the Sage Hill and Viable Paradise writing workshops. His work has appeared in Nature Futures, On Spec, Tesseracts 20, Neo-Opsis, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He is a member of SFWA and SF Canada. He believes that the world needs more bicycles.
Ariel Marken Jack
Ariel Marken Jack haunts a crooked house in the mouth of a river in rural Nova Scotia alongside one spouse, three harps, and a trio of shadow fiends in feline form. Their fiction, essays, reviews, and interviews with other artists have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bikes in Space, Canthius, Fictionable, Fusion Fragment, Heartlines Spec, Interzone Digital, The Lunenburg Barnacle, The New Quarterly, NonBinary Review, Prairie Fire, PseudoPod, Psychopomp.com, Strange Horizons, Uncharted Magazine, The Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, and more. Their literary work has been supported by generous grants from Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts. When not writing, reading, snuggling shadow fiends, or making the strangest sounds they can coax from the hundred-plus assorted musical instruments furnishing their home, Ariel plays with sourdough and scythes, makes pictures and prints, and visits the ocean as often as possible to commune with their seaweed kin.
Cat Rector
Cat Rector grew up in a small Nova Scotian town and could often be found simultaneously reading a book and fighting off muskrats while walking home from school. She devours stories in all their forms, loves messy, morally grey characters, and writes about the horrors that we inflict on each other. After spending nearly a decade living abroad, she returned to Canada to resume her war against the muskrats. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing video games, spending time with loved ones, or staring at her To Be Read pile like it’s going to read itself.
Marie Bilodeau
Marie Bilodeau is an Ottawa-based author, TTRPG game writer, media tie-in writer, and storyteller. Her speculative fiction has won several awards and has been translated into French (Les Éditions Alire) and Chinese (SF World). Her short stories have also appeared in various anthologies and magazines like Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Amazing Stories. In a past life not-so-long ago, she was Deputy Publisher for The Ed Greenwood Group (TEGG).
Marie is also a storyteller and has told stories across Canada in theatres, tea shops, at festivals and under disco balls. She’s won story slams with personal stories, has participated in epic tellings at the National Arts Centre, and has adapted classical material.
She’s also the chair of Ottawa’s speculative fiction literary con, Can*Con.
Monique Cuillerier
Monique Cuillerier is a science fiction and horror writer living in Ottawa (Canada) with her cat Janeway and a few too many houseplants. She’s also a first reader for Diabolical Plots and Small Wonders, is on the organizing team of Rainbow Space Magic (a virtual queer speculative fiction con) & is the volunteer coordinator and virtual lead for Can*Con. The parent of two grown children, she spends her non-writing time running, reading, and finding new things she can take classes about. In between, she works as a consultant in the non-profit sector. Links to her writing and social media accounts (where she spends too much time) can be found at notwhereilive.ca
Claire Humphrey
Claire Humphrey’s first novel, Spells of Blood and Kin, won the 2017 Sunburst Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Crossed Genres, Fantasy Magazine, and Podcastle. Her short story ”Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot” appeared in the Lambda Award-nominated collection Beyond Binary, and her short story “The Witch Of Tarup” was published in the critically acclaimed anthology Long Hidden. She is represented by Laurie McLean of Fuse Literary.
Gillian Clinton
Gillian Clinton started out as an aerospace engineer working in the Canadian aviation industry and graduated to running her own information research company. Her adventures as an Information Researcher included earning a Masters degree in Information Studies and the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects for lots of interesting and sometimes strange clients. Fun projects have included green roofs, violent crime statistics, the G7, transmission of microplastics in our freshwater systems (okay, that one was scary), helping update science databases, and teaching information literacy.
As an interdisciplinary engineer, information researcher, reference librarian and amateur astronomer, she is able to assimilate information and share it effectively with others. Resistance is futile!
She has been attending cons since her high school science fiction club dragged her to the first Toronto Star Trek convention held many, many years ago and really appreciates her partner, Eric Choi, expanding her horizons to include WorldCons. One day she hopes to have time to actually read all the books she has collected and maybe, just maybe, she’ll get a chance to look through her telescope on a clear night.
Ashley Hisson
Ashley Hisson is the managing editor of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers in Hamilton, Ontario, and one of the co-editors of Poplar Press, Wolsak and Wynn’s new speculative fiction imprint. With over fifteen years in the industry she has freelance editing experience with several companies including Chromatic Press, Dundurn Press and Harlequin.
Eric Choi
Eric Choi is a Hong Kong born writer, editor, and aerospace engineer in Toronto. He was the first recipient of the Isaac Asimov Award (now the Must Read Books Award) for his novelette “Dedication” which was published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. He has twice won the Aurora Award for his short story “Crimson Sky” and the Chinese-themed speculative fiction anthology The Dragon and the Stars (DAW) co-edited with Derwin Mak. With the late Ben Bova, he co-edited the hard SF anthology Carbide Tipped Pens (Tor). His short fiction collection Just Like Being There (Springer) includes the Sidewise Award winning alternate history novelette “A Sky and a Heaven”. In 2009, he was one of the Top 40 finalists (out of 5,351 applicants) in the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut recruitment campaign. His latest short story “The Observer Affected” will appear in the upcoming speculative fiction anthology Unréal (Flame Arrow).
Deanna Foster
Deanna Foster is a Nova Scotian author who writes cross-genre novels. Often gothic, her fast-paced novels are heavily character based, and involve elements of several genres, including romance, the paranormal, and the macabre. Hailing from Nova Scotia, she earned a BA in History and English from Dalhousie University and has built a diverse writing career with multiple novels published. Her most recent paranormal works include Post Mortem Management and Shadow’s Grace, and her Havelock City series includes Fortunes of Madness and A Pocket Full of Blood. A prolific writer, Foster releases at least one book each year.
Alongside novels, Foster’s work has appeared in Canadian media outlets in the form of poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews. She’s an active member of Nova Scotia’s literary community, frequently participating in local readings and festivals alongside fellow authors. Foster loves to travel, listen to epic music, and embrace her fascination with all things gothic. .
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All attendees will be given the opportunity to help build and deliver the conference’s programming. If you have a great idea for a panel, tell us about it!