BIPOC Writers Connect: Facilitating Mentorship, Creating Community is a virtual conference for Black, Indigenous, and racialized emerging writers to connect with industry professionals, established authors, and fellow emerging writers — all in one place! Presented by The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) and the League of Canadian Poets (LCP). TWUC and LCP are committed to cultivating space where BIPOC writers can share tools, strategies, feedback, and knowledge.

This virtual one-day event includes:

  • one-on-one time for feedback with a professional writer who has reviewed your work in advance;
  • workshop on query letter-writing;
  • industry panel discussion;
  • networking opportunities.

Mentee applications for BIPOC Writers Connect 2025 are now open! Application Deadline: July 21, 2025, 11:59 pm PDT. Read on for full details and program guidelines. 

Eligibility

Open to Black, Indigenous, and racialized writers in Canada who have a minimum of one published piece of writing (e.g., an article or short story in an online newspaper, school paper, or magazine), and who currently have a work-in-progress (10-20 pages of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, YA, or children’s writing) to submit for manuscript evaluation. Writers who have one or more full-length published book (traditional or self-published) or contract offer, and staff of The Writers’ Union of Canada or the League of Canadian Poets are not eligible to apply. Previous BIPOC Writers Connect mentees are not eligible to reapply. Applicants must be 18 or older by the conference date.
APPLICATION FORM

Land Acknowledgement

BIPOC Writers Connect is hosted by TWUC and the LCP, whose staff are based in Tkaronto, a Mohawk word which translates to “Where The Trees Meet The Water,” or “The Gathering Place.” Tkaronto is bound by Dish With One Spoon, a treaty between the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee to share the territory, promote peace and protect the land. We acknowledge them and any other Nations who care for the land — recorded and unrecorded — and we pay our respects to Canada’s first storytellers.

Facilitating Mentorship, Creating Community

 

IMPORTANT DATES

Applications close: July 21, 2025, 11:59 pm PDT

Successful applicants notified: September 2025 

Virtual Conference: October 22, 2025

PROGRAM

Icebreakers

Mentees will convene for moderated icebreakers to freely share writing challenges, conference goals, and tips for success. 

Manuscript Evaluation & Mentorship

Each successful applicant will be paired with a professionally published Black, Indigenous, or racialized writer, who will have an opportunity to read 10-20 pages of their submitted work-in-progress in advance of the virtual conference. At BIPOC Writers Connect, writers take part in a one-on-one discussion with their mentor for feedback on their submitted work-in-progress.

Query Writing Intensive

In this workshop, attendees will be provided with tips and tricks for writing a compelling query letter to a publisher or literary agent.

Virtual Networking

Connect with writers and industry professionals from across the country during facilitated networking sessions throughout the conference. This is always a highlight for BIPOC Writers Connect participants!

Closing Panel with Industry Professionals

Join us for a closing panel, featuring literary industry professionals and a moderated discussion on some of the challenges, pressures, and opportunities that come with immersing oneself in the world of writing.

MENTORS

Photo of Vincent Anioke

Vincent Anioke is a Nigerian Canadian writer and software engineer. His short stories have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Rumpus, The Masters Review, and Passages North. He won the 2021 Austin Clarke Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize, the 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2024, his debut short story collection Perfect Little Angels was published by Arsenal Pulp Press. It was a finalist for the 2024 Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the 2024 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. He is currently working on a novel. Photo: Samuel Nwaokpani.

 

Photo of Denise Chong

Denise Chong’s prize-winning books portray the lives of ordinary people caught in the eye of history. Among her works are her family memoir, The Concubine’s Children and The Girl in the Picture, about the Vietnam War’s most famous casualty. Denise’s most recent book is Out of Darkness, about Rumana Monzur, who suffered a shocking domestic assault. The book, set in Bangladesh and Canada, goes behind the wall of Rumana’s marriage to expose the tyranny of domestic violence. Photo: Monique de St. Croix.

 

Photo of Kevin heronJones

Kevin heronJones is Brampton’s 2025 Writer in Residence. A storyteller in the tradition of the ancient African griots using literature to educate and entertain. He uses his arena to inspire and encourage creativity and a love of literature amongst our young people. Kevin grew up in Jane/Finch and Brampton. He has published three novels, three books of poetry, and has been featured on six spoken word poetry albums. Listen Fiction is his narrating platform.

 

Photo of C.E. Gatchalian

Born and raised on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tseil-Waututh peoples (colonially known as “Vancouver”), now based in Tkaronto (“Toronto”), C.E. Gatchalian (he/him/his) is a Filipino diasporic queer author, editor, playwright, dramaturge, teacher, and consultant. The author of six books and co-editor of three anthologies, he was the 2013 recipient of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize, is a two-time Jessie Richardson Theatre Award recipient, and is a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist. His plays have been produced nationally and internationally, as well as on radio and television. Formerly Artistic Producer of the frank theatre company in Vancouver, he is currently Community Engagement Producer for CultureBrew.Art, a digital database and community-building platform for Indigenous and racialized artists. His memoir, Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty and the Making of a Brown Queer Man, was published in 2019 by Arsenal Pulp Press, and he is co-editor of the recently published Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing, published by Cormorant Books. In 2022 he was one of the recipients of the one-time only Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia's Arts & Music Awards for his contribution to the arts in BC. Photo: Raymond Shum, Tempest Photo.

 

Photo of Jackie Khalilieh

Jackie Khalilieh is a Palestinian Canadian author who believes that young adult readers should have the option and freedom to read about evergreen issues facing teens in an authentic, positive way. Like many autistic women, she received her diagnosis as an adult. Something More, her debut YA novel, was shortlisted for the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award, as well as the Snow Willow Award and the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award, and was selected for several Best Books of 2023 lists, including the New York Public Library and Audible Canada, among others. She resides just outside Toronto, Canada, with her husband, two daughters, and Samoyed, Pearl. 

 

Photo of Jónína Kirton

Jónína Kirton, an Icelandic and Red River Métis poet, was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Treaty 1, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis. She currently lives in New Westminster, BC, the stolen land of the Hul’qumi’num speaking peoples. Jónína graduated from the SFU Writer's Studio in 2007 and since that time has published three books with Talonbooks. She was sixty-one when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category. Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was a finalist in the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her third book, Standing in a River of Time, released in 2022, merges poetry and lyrical memoir to take us on a journey exposing the intergenerational effects of colonization on her Métis family.

 

Photo of Rowan McCandless

A Governor General finalist in nonfiction, Rowan McCandless is the Black and biracial author of Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments (Dundurn Press, 2021). She writes from Winnipeg which is located on Treaty One territory. Her award-winning fiction and creative nonfiction appear in print and online journals. She is the creative nonfiction editor with The Fiddlehead and the First Vice-Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada.

 

Photo of Li Charmaine Anne

Li Charmaine Anne (she/they) grew up in the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations otherwise known as Vancouver, BC. Her first novel Crash Landing won the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature—Text. Recent works can be found in The Tyee and SAD Mag. Charmaine is currently spending the year in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung Peoples.

 

Photo of Padma Viswanathan

Padma Viswanathan is an award-winning writer and translator published in eight countries. Her short fiction, translations, and essays can be found in Granta, The Boston Review, BRICK, and elsewhere. Recent publications include Like Every Form of Love: A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime, and The Charterhouse of Padma, a novel. Padma is Professor of Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas—Fayetteville, and founder of the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Program.


Stay tuned! More mentors to be announced.

PRESENTERS, PANELISTS & MODERATORS

Photo of Nour Sallam

Nour Sallam is an associate literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency representing adult fiction and nonfiction. She has a BA in English Literature and Political Science from the University of British Columbia and studied publishing at Toronto Metropolitan University. As an Arab woman and an immigrant, she loves books that amplify joy and connection, and/or feature complex and nuanced histories, power dynamics, or underrepresented narratives. She represents upmarket and commercial fiction as well as select literary fiction. She also works on thrillers, mysteries, horror, and romance. In nonfiction, she is drawn to big-idea books and narratives on pop culture, art, and nature.
 

Stay tuned! More presenters, panelists, and moderators to be announced.

HOW TO APPLY

BIPOC Writers Connect is a free event, but advance application is required. Mentee applications must be submitted online through Submittable. Hard copies will not be considered. If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Program Manager, Kristina Cuenca at kcuenca@writersunion.ca.

Applications are open!
Deadline: July 21, 2025, 11:59 pm PDT.

ACCESSIBILITY & ACCOMODATIONS

This event was created in response to the unique barriers faced by Black, Indigenous, and racialized emerging writers navigating the literary industry. TWUC recognizes that various historic and structural inequities, due to discrimination based on age, class, cultural or linguistic background, disability, economic status, gender, gender identity, race, religion, and sexual orientation have created barriers to access and, consequently, equity measures are required to promote full participation in Canada’s literary industry. In doing so, we have the opportunity to create more space for Canadian writers and writing. TWUC continues to consult widely on equitable terminology. We continue to prioritize equitable and responsive programming for the writing community.

BIPOC Writers Connect is hosted on Zoom. The conference will be automatically live captioned, with live transcription enabled. The Union has set aside funding to accommodate tech rentals for participants who may require support. To encourage full participation, all attendees have been offered a tech subsidy upon request. ​Learn more about accessibility at the Union. 

CO-PRESENTERS

The Writers' Union of Canada logo

League of Canadian Poets logo

 

SPONSORS

Penguin Random House Canada logo

Writers' Trust of Canada logoKids Can Press logo

 

Historic Joy Kogawa House logo   UTSC logo

 

SUPPORTERS

BIPOC Writers Connect: Facilitating Mentorship, Creating Community is presented by The Writers’ Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets. This event is funded by Presenting Sponsor Penguin Random House Canada, as well as The Writers’ Trust of Canada, Kids Can Press, Historic Joy Kogawa House, and the Department of English at the University of Toronto Scarborough. We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Ontario. Our thanks to all the funders, sponsors, and donors who support our work on behalf of all writers.