Judy Batalion

Judy Batalion is the author of the forthcoming The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos to be published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020, and which was optioned by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners. Her first book White Walls: A Memoir about Motherhood, Daughterhood and the Mess in Between was optioned by Warner Brothers for whom Judy is currently developing the TV show "Cluttered." This book was also shortlisted for the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature in 2017. Judy's essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vogue, the Forward and many other publications. Born and raised in Montreal, Judy now lives in New York City with her husband and three children.

Photo: Beowulf Sheehan.

Allan Levine

Allan Levine has written fourteen books including Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience (2018), Toronto: Biography of a City (2014) and King: William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny (2011), which won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. His book Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba (2009) won the McNally-Robinson Book of the Year and the Best History Book Award at the Canadian Jewish Book Awards in 2010, and was the co-winner of the J.I. Segal Prize in Canadian Jewish History. His next book, Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Society Murder, will be published in August 2020.

Photo: Mia Shaffer.

Shani Mootoo

Shani Mootoo was born in Ireland, grew up in Trinidad, and lives in Canada. She holds an MA in English from the University of Guelph, writes fiction and poetry, and is a visual artist whose work has been exhibited locally and internationally. Mootoo’s critically acclaimed novels include Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, Valmiki’s Daughter, He Drown She in the Sea, and Cereus Blooms at Night. She is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award, a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and the James Duggins Mid-Career Novelist Award from the Lambda Literary Awards. Her work has been long- and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the International Dublin Literary Award, and the Booker Prize. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Photo: Ramesh Pooran.