Jennifer Hollett
Executive Director, The Walrus

Jennifer has worked as the head of news and government at Twitter Canada and is the co-founder of the fact-checking Super PAC App, which debuted at number one in the App Store. As an award-winning host, reporter, and producer, she’s covered stories across Canada and around the world with CBC News, CTV News, and MuchMusic. Jennifer has a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School and a BA with a specialization in journalism and communications from Concordia University. Fun fact: her first job after Concordia involved answering emails for Céline Dion.

Aysanabee

Aysanabee is an Oji-Cree multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer-songwriter, currently based in Toronto. His sound ranges from Lofi-R&B with layered electronica and looped instruments to Indie-pop backed by session musicians.

He was featured in the Indigenous Music Awards Emerging Artists Series and was in the running for the IMA’s music video competition for his song “The Dawn.”

Canisia Lubrin

Canisia Lubrin is an acclaimed poet, editor, and writer. Her books include The Dyzgraphxst (M&S, 2020) and her debut, Voodoo Hypothesis (Wolsak & Wynn, 2017), named a CBC Best Book and listed for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and the Raymond Souster Award. Lubrin’s honours include the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for a body of work, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Derek Walcott Prize, Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer Prize for literary achievement, and finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Anthologies that include her fiction were finalists for the Toronto Book Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. Lubrin was longlisted twice for the Journey Prize. She is a 2022 Civitella Ranieri Fellow, and her residencies include the Banff Centre, Queen’s University, an inaugural appointment as 2021 Shaftesbury Writer-in-Residence at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and a 2022 Literature Haus LCB residency in Berlin. In 2021, the Globe and Mail named Lubrin Poetry Ambassador of the Year. She was a member of the Canadian Guest of Honour delegate to the Frankfurt Book Fair. Lubrin completed her MFA at the University of Guelph, where she now teaches and is coordinator of the MFA in Creative Writing in the School of English and Theatre Studies.