BIPOC Writers Connect

Maya Ameyaw is a Toronto-based author whose young adult novels focus on mental health, identity, and the healing power of art. A former bookseller, she now works as a community arts writing instructor. Her first two novels, When It All Syncs Up and Under All the Lights were published with Annick Press and Penguin Random House Audio. Her third novel Spiralling Out will be published by Annick Press in 2027.

Kirti Bhadresa lives in Calgary, Alberta on Treaty 7 territory. Her first book, a short story collection entitled An Astonishment of Stars was published in October 2024 by ECW Press. An Astonishment of Stars was on the CBC Most Anticipated list and went on to become an indie bestseller. It was a 2025 Writers’ Guild of Alberta Fiction Finalist, was longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize, and won the 2026 Alberta Short Story Collection prize.

Melissa Blair (she/her/kwe) is an Anishinaabe-kwe of mixed ancestry living in Turtle Island. She splits her time between Treaty 9 in Northern Ontario and the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Canada. She has a graduate degree in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, loves movies, and hates spoons. Melissa has a BookTok account where she discusses her favourite kinds of books including Indigenous and queer fiction, feminist literature, and nonfiction. A Broken Blade is her first novel. Photo: Lindsey Gibeau.

Morgan Campbell is an award-winning sports writer, and the author the acclaimed memoir of My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and the Battles That Made Us. The book details his experience growing up Black and American, in Canada, in a family whose two halves are locked in a bitter, generations-long conflict. My Fighting Family is a finalist for several major awards, including the Trillium Book Award, and it earned Campbell a nomination for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. It was also named a National Association of Black Journalists Outstanding Book of 2025.

Ann Y.K. Choi is a Toronto-based author and educator. Her debut novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Ann serves on the program advisory committee for gritLIT, Hamilton’s literary festival, mentors emerging writers in a group she founded called Writers in Trees, and teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies. Her new novel, All Things Under the Moon, was released in September 2025.

Kawika Guillermo (they/he) is an award-winning author and third generation Filipinx American whose family is primarily from Hawai’i and Texas. Their debut novel, Stamped: an anti-travel novel, won the 2020 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Creative Prose, and in 2023 was adapted into a free-to-play video game, Stamped: an anti-travel game. Their follow-up speculative fiction novel, All Flowers Bloom, won the 2021 Reviewers Choice Gold Award for Best General Fiction/Novel. Their first prose-poetry book, Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir, was published in 2023 by Duke University Press, and was a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. Their most recent book is Of Floating Isles: on growing pains and video games. Kawika has lived in Portland, Las Vegas, Seattle, Gimhae South Korea, Nanjing China, Hong Kong, and currently resides in Vancouver, Canada, where they work as an Associate Professor of Social Justice at the University of British Columbia.

Andrea Gunraj is an essayist and author of The Lost Sister (Vagrant Press) and The Sudden Disappearance of Seetha (Knopf Canada). She lives in Toronto and loves to write about underseen stories and connections. She is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada.

David Ly is the author of Mythical Man (Anstruther Books, 2020) and Dream of Me as Water (Anstruther Books, 2022), both shortlisted for ReLit Poetry Awards, and the fantasy novel Not All Dragons (Poplar Press, 2026). He is co-editor, with Daniel Zomparelli, of Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022). David is Poetry Editor at This Magazine and serves on the editorial board of Poplar Press, the speculative fiction imprint of Wolsak & Wynn.

Rajinderpal S. Pal is a writer and performer based in Toronto. He has published two collections of poetry, pappaji wrote poetry in a language i cannot read (TSAR, 1998), and pulse (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002). Pal returned to writing after a twelve-year hiatus to complete his debut novel. The novel, However Far Away, was published by House of Anansi in August 2024 and was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2025. Pal has performed his work across Canada and internationally.

Jinwoo Park is a Korean-Canadian writer and literary translator based in Montreal. Born in Seoul, he has lived across North America and the U.K. since age eleven. He earned his master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford in 2015. He won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award in 2021 and the Emerging Translator Award from LTI Korea in 2023. His debut novel, Oxford Soju Club, was longlisted for Canada Reads 2026.

Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author and a Canada Scholar. His memoir Crooked Teeth is critically acclaimed, and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the BC and Yukon Book Prize, and the City of Vancouver Book Award. He is also the author of the novels The Foghorn Echoes and The Clothesline Swing, along with the award-winning Salma children’s series. His books have won the Lambda Literary Award, the Publishing Triangle Award, and the Independent Publisher Book Award, and they’ve been translated into multiple languages. Since arriving in Canada, Danny has raised over $300,000 to support queer and trans refugees. When not writing, he can be found playing video games. Photo: Amanda Palmer.

Patria Rivera’s first poetry collection, Puti/White, (Frontenac House, 2005), was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. She has also published The Bride Anthology (Frontenac House, 2008), BE (Signature Editions, 2011), The Time Between (Signature Editions, 2017), and co-edited Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books, 2024). Rivera has received fellowships from the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Hawthornden Castle Writers’ Residency in Scotland, and the Nieman Center for Journalism at Harvard University. She was also a recipient of the Global Filipino Literary Award for Poetry. Rivera’s debut novel, The Disappearance of the Rose, selected for the Philippine Writers Series 2025, by the LIKHAAN Institute of Creative Writing, University of the Philippines-Diliman, will be published by the University of the Philippines Press.

Chyana Marie Sage is a Cree and Métis memoirist, journalist, essayist, poet, model, screenwriter, and public speaker from amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Her debut essay, “Soar,” won first place in the Edna Staebler Essay Contest and earned a Silver Medal at the National Magazine Awards. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University, where she was the first Indigenous graduate, and later taught as an adjunct professor. Her work has appeared in HuffPost, The Toronto Star, Electric Lit, and Matriarch Movement. Her debut memoir, Soft as Bones (House of Anansi, 2025), became an instant national bestseller.

Kim Spencer is an award-winning, bestselling author. Her debut novel, Weird Rules to Follow, won multiple awards, including a 2024 Pacific Northwest Book Award, a 2023 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and a 2023 Jean Little First-Novel Award. The book was named to both the USBBY Outstanding International Books list and the IBBY Honour List, received a Kirkus starred review, and was a finalist for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award. Kim’s recent books include the award-nominated sequel, I Won’t Feel This Way Forever (2025) and her picture book, Springtime in Kitkatla (2026). Kim is a proud member of the Gitxaala Nation and lives in Northwest BC.

Anuja Varghese is an award-winning writer of literary fiction, fantasy, and erotica/romance where women of colour get leading roles! She is the author of the short story collection Chrysalis, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, among other recognition. Her debut novel, A Kiss of Crimson Ash, the first in a new medieval India-inspired romantasy trilogy, released in May 2026.

Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho is a Taiwanese Canadian writer whose award-winning short stories and personal essays have been published in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her first book The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street: A Memoir (April 2026) is enjoying multiple months on the BC Bestsellers List. A champion of writing communities, Wiley cofounded the Diasporic Writers Salon in Vancouver and is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. 

Fareh Malik is an author from the Greater Toronto Area who is also an experienced spoken word poet. He has been named the 2023 winner of the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence, the 2022 PEN Canada New Voices Award winner, and his debut book Streams that Lead Somewhere was the winner of the Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry, and longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Fareh has been included in Best of the Net, Best Canadian Poetry, Poems in Passage, and more.

Ayla Vejdani (she/her) is a storyteller, holder of space, and curator of experience. Raised and educated all over the world, she has a master’s in human rights and is an inclusive leadership consultant. She speaks four languages and laughs in all. Ayla is a queer Iranian-Canadian from Tkaronto/Toronto living in Tiohtia:ke/Montréal. Her debut novel YOU x ME is a series of queer, BIPOC love stories. These modern entanglements are the kind of romances that make us lose sleep, love letters to the friendships we can’t live without, and a celebration of our endless journeys of self-discovery. Photo: Amber Ellis.

Maria Vicente is a Senior Literary Agent and Senior Advisor at P.S. Literary Agency representing creators of innovative and beautiful books for readers of all ages. With over a decade of experience in the publishing industry, Maria has played a key role in launching the careers of many bestselling, award-winning, and critically acclaimed authors and illustrators. From collaborating on manuscript drafts and proposals, negotiating book deals, and exploring adaptation opportunities, she is a dedicated advocate for her clients during every stage of the publishing process. Maria serves on the Board of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) and is also a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents (PACLA). She lives in New Brunswick, Canada, reading and selling books from the Atlantic Ocean shore.

Kern Carter is a Toronto-based novelist known for his compelling storytelling in books like And Then There Was Us and Boys and Girls Screaming, which delve into themes of family, friendship, and relational conflict. Beyond his novels, Kern has cultivated a dedicated following for his insightful writing on the historical and contemporary connections between literature and popular culture. An experienced educator, Kern teaches professional writing at the college level, where he has designed courses on storytelling and narrative, as well as the business of writing. He also leads workshops on craft and storytelling and is a sought-after public speaker recognized for his expertise in creative culture.

Naseem Hrab has worked in children’s publishing for nearly twenty years. She’s the Publisher at Kids Can Press, a former librarian of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, and a Governor General’s Literary Award-winning children’s book author.

Nour Sallam is a literary agent at Helm Literary, 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 works on a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, and is drawn to compelling and accessible stories that give her what she calls “brain butterflies.” Nour is a member of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) and sits on the advisory committee of BIPOC of Publishing in Canada.

Janie Yoon is Editorial Director of the Bond Street Books imprint at Doubleday Canada, which publishes the best in Canadian and international fiction and nonfiction. Previously, she was Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada, where she launched the Scribner Canada literary imprint. Prior to her time at Simon & Schuster Canada, she was Associate Publisher at House of Anansi Press, where she worked with many award-winning and bestselling authors and for a decade was the editor of the prestigious CBC Massey Lectures.