Judy Fong Bates came to Canada from China as a young child and grew up in several small Ontario towns. A writer, storyteller and teacher, she is the author of Midnight at the Dragon Café and China Dog and other Stories. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and published in literary journals and anthologies. Midnight at the Dragon Café won an Alex Award from the American Library Association, was named a Notable Book for 2006 by the ALA, and was short listed by the Ontario Library Association for its inaugural Evergreen award in 2005. Midnight at the Dragon Café was the featured book in February, 2007 for the One Community Reads Program in Portland, Oregon. She lives in Campbellford, Ontario where she is working on another book. Judy is a new Instructor in the Certificate Program in Creative Writing.

Michelle Berry is the author of two collections of short stories, How to Get There From Here and Margaret Lives in the Basement, a collaborative art/fiction book called Postcard Fictions and two novels, What We All Want and Blur. Michelle has been an instructor at Ryerson University and was on the board of PEN Canada. She is also a book reviewer for the Globe and Mail. Her latest novel, Blind Crescent, was released in May 2005. Michelle Berry teaches in the Certificate Program in Creative Writing and also works one-on-one with students in the Mentorship Program.

Christine's muse found voice in 2005. Her first book of Poetry was published in 2006 by Palabras Press. Guest speaking engagements include the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto and Café Merea near Ottawa. Christine holds a BA in History from Brock University and is currently enrolled in the Creative Writing Program at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario.

John is fascinated by the form of the short story. For this aspiring writer life revolves around reading, writing and riding. A retired elementary school teacher of thirty-two years John lives with Janette, his wife and several cats, dogs and horses on a farm in Colborne. He writes in the morning and rides in the afternoon. His major influences are Conrad, Orwell and Chekhov.
John's first published story, "Mrs. Bladic's Mare", will appear in "Canadian Stories" magazine this summer

Julie Johnston was born in Smiths Falls, Ontario, and graduated from the University of Toronto and Trent University. Two of her Young Adult novels, Hero of Lesser Causes and Adam and Eve and Pinch-me won Governor General’s Awards, and two others have been short- listed for that award. In addition, she has edited a book of the e- mails, letters and diaries of a teenager whose life was cut tragically short. Julie’s book of historical fiction about Susanna Moodie was published in 2004. Her latest book for young people is A Very Fine Line, published in the fall of 2006. She has also written a novel for adults, As If By Accident published in 2005. She lives in Peterborough, Ontario. Julie is a Mentor in the Certificate Program in Creative Writing.

Karen Lander has written fiction in spare moments of her life since university. The Trent Oral Narrative course sparked her interest in storytelling and return to fiction writing after years in association management. Presently a freelance copy editor and pianist, Karen draws from musical, oral and literary narrative traditions in her writing.

I am a documentary filmmaker by profession. Writing had been an occasional hobby so far, but since moving to Canada it has become a compulsive daily ritual.

I worked as a freelance reporter for two years for Hindustan Times, a popular Indian daily and for three years for Sahara Samay, a 24 hour national news channel in India.

I intend to make creative non-fiction writing my full time occupation.

Laura won first prize for her story The Winnings in Trent University’s Literary Short Fiction Contest 2006.

Cheryl Runke moved to Peterborough two and a half years ago. She started writing sometime after that. Now she has this obsessive fantasy of becoming a professional writer. This is her first public reading.