Speakers

Donna Sharkey

Originally from Montreal, in early adulthood Donna Sharkey moved down the road to Ottawa, where she currently lives.

A nonfiction writer, Donna Sharkey has published five books as well as essays, book chapters, and numerous academic articles. Her most recent titles include A Death in the Family: Stories Obituaries Tell (Demeter Press, 2023); Don’t Tell: Family Secrets, co-edited with Arleen Paré (Demeter Press, 2023); Falling Together: A Family’s Story of Mental Illness and Grief (Demeter Press, 2021); and Always With Me: Parents Talk About the Death of a Child (Demeter Press, 2018). She holds a PhD in International Education from the University of Ottawa and has served as a judge for the City of Ottawa Book Prize in nonfiction. Formerly a professor at the State University of New York, her research focused on girls and young women in war and post-war settings. Earlier in her career, she worked for the federal government in the then newly conceived Women’s Program.

Donna holds a second-degree black belt in Karate. She was a Karate instructor and she established a Karate class specifically for women. Her two daughters were born in Brazil. Alessandra has sadly died, and Donna’s younger daughter, Renata, lives nearby in Gatineau. Her sister, Arleen, who, like Donna, is queer, is a known Canadian poet. Donna adores doing improv and is looking forward to trying stand-up comedy. Walking with her Eurasier dog Mabel is also fun for her.

Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch is a mixed-Arab writer and translator living in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal).

Their book, knot body, was published by Metatron Press in 2020. Their second book, The Good Arabs, which was published by Metonymy Press in 2022, received an honorary mention for poetry from the Arab American Book Awards, also received a Khayrallah Prize honorary mention, and won the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Their translation of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay’s La fille d’elle-même from the French, Dandelion Daughter, was published in Spring 2023 and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. With co-editor Samia Marshy, they edited El Ghourabaa, an anthology of queer and trans writing by Arab and Arabophone writers, published by Metonymy Press in June 2024. They were the writer-in-residence at the Arab American National Museum from October to November 2024.

H. Nigel Thomas

H. Nigel Thomas immigrated to Canada from St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1968 and now lives in the Montreal suburb of Greenfield Park.

He is a retired professor of United States literature and a former teacher of English and French at the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, as well as the author of dozens of essays, seven novels (including A Different Hurricane, 2025), three collections of short fiction, two collections of poems, and two academic books.

His novels Spirits in the Dark (1993) and No Safeguards (2015) were shortlisted for the Hugh MacLennan Fiction Award. The French translation of Lives: Whole and Otherwise—Des vies cassées—was a finalist for the Carbet des lycéens Award. He is the founder and English-language coordinator of Lectures Logos Readings. He is the recipient of many awards, including Laureate Black History Month (2024), the Canada Council John Molson Prize for the Arts (2022), the Quebec Writers’ Federation Judy Mappin Community Award (2021), the Black Theatre Workshop’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award (2020), Laval University’s Homage aux createurs (2013), and the Montreal Association of Business Persons and Professionals Jackie Robinson Professional of the Year Award (2000).

John Barton

John Barton is a poet, essayist, editor, and writing mentor.

His collections and chapbooks of poetry include Hymn, For the Boy with the Eyes of the Virgin: Selected Poems, Polari, Lost Family: A Memoir, which was nominated for the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, Stopwatch, and Compulsory Figures.

His other books include Seminal: The Anthology of Canada’s Gay-Male Poets, The Malahat Review at Fifty, We Are Not Avatars: Essays, Memoirs, Manifestos, and The Essential Douglas LePan, which won a 2020 eLit Award, The Essential Derk Wynand, and Best Canadian Poetry 2023. Sonnets from Lost Family have been set to music and performed as Coda for the Victims at VerseFest in Ottawa, with the support of Qu’Art, in March 2023, and as Chosen Family by the Chronos Vocal Ensemble in Edmonton to settings composed by Stuart Beatch in January 2024.

The recipient of three Archibald Lampman Awards, a CBC Literary Award, and a National Magazine Award, he was made a life member of the League of Canadian Poets in 2021. Co-editor of Ottawa’s Arc Poetry Magazine for thirteen years and editor of The Malahat Review for fourteen years, he sits on Grain’s advisory board and was a member of Plenitude’s inaugural advisory board. Since 1978, his poems and essays have appeared in magazines and anthologies in Australia, Canada, China, India, Romania, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

He served as writer in residence for the Saskatoon Public Library, the University of New Brunswick, and Memorial University of Newfoundland; has taught at the University of Victoria; and has given workshops for the Al Purdy A-frame Association, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Creative Nonfiction Coalition, the New Brunswick Writers Federation, the Ottawa Public Library, Ottawa’s Tree Reading Series, Saskatchewan’s Sage Hill Writing Experience, and the Victoria Festival of Authors.

Born in Edmonton and raised in Calgary, he lives in Victoria, where, from 2019 to 2022, he was the city’s first male and first queer poet laureate.