Brian Joseph Davis is an artist and writer based in Toronto. He is the author of Portable Altamont (Coach House Books), the novel I, Tania (ECW Press), and the upcoming short fiction collection, Ronald Reagan, My Father. L.A. Weekly recently declared, “Davis has an amazing head for aural experiments—creating expansive compositions out of found sounds and computer manipulations—that are smart on paper and fascinating in execution.” Slate.com called I, Tania, “The book of your fever dreams.” He is the co-founder of Joyland.ca.

Carl Wilson's recent book about Celine Dion and mass culture, Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste (Continuum Books, 33 1/3 Series), has been praised by the London Telegraph, Bookforum, New York Magazine, The New Yorker's Alex Ross, The Washington Post and The Onion, among many others. His work appears regularly in The Globe and Mail and on his own site Zoilus.com, among many other publications, including The New York Times, Slate and Blender. He contributed to the State of the Arts edition of Coach House Books' uTOpia series. Carl also helps run Trampoline Hall, the monthly non-expert lecture series at Sneaky Dee's, and recently co-curated two concerts of music in tribute to Toronto's concrete architecture with the Music Gallery.

Claudia Dey is a novelist, playwright and columnist. She writes the weekly ‘Group Therapy’ column for the Globe and Mail. Her plays have been translated into French and German and produced internationally. They include Beaver, Trout Stanley and The Gwendolyn Poems, which was nominated for the Governor General’s Award and the Trillium Award. Her debut novel, Stunt, has been praised by — among others — the Globe and Mail, Quill and Quire and Time Out Chicago, which called it ‘deeply weird and totally beautiful.’

Emily Holton is the author of Little Lessons in Safety (Conundrum Books), which the Globe and Mail called “Beautiful and clever.” It was nominated for a Doug Wright Award. Most recently she released the illustrated book Dear Canada Council/Our Starland. Her drawings and writing have been published in Brick, Matrix, Geist, Broken Pencil, and most recently, Miranda July’s new book, Learning to Love You More.

Emily Schultz was born in 1974. Her first collection of short stories, Black Coffee Night, was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award for Best First Fiction in Canada, and for the ReLit Award. A story from that collection was adapted for television, airing across Canada and the United States. At the time, the Globe and Mail included her in a “Tomorrow's Ondaatjes and Munros” round-up, calling her one of the country’s most prominent writers under 30. Schultz followed up with a novel, Joyland, and a collection of poetry, Songs for the Dancing Chicken, which was named a finalist for the 2008 Trillium Prize. Her newest novel, Heaven Is Small, will release from House of Anansi Press in 2009.

Her writings have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Eye Weekly, the Walrus, Geist, Descant, and several anthologies. She has held the position of editor at two national magazines, run an experimental art space from her home (with artist/writer Brian Joseph Davis), and currently teaches story writing at George Brown College in Toronto.

Faye Guenther is a poet and writer living in Toronto, currently pursuing her Ph.D. at York University. She has written for Broken Pencil and the Danforth Review, and currently works as Joyland.ca’s editorial assistant.

Kevin Connolly is a Toronto poet, editor, and arts journalist. His most recent collection, Revolver (House of Anansi Press), was nominated for the prestigious Griffin Prize for Poetry, and is up for a Trillium Book Award. His previous collection, drift, won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry.

Rebecca Rosenblum’s short stories have been published, or soon will be, in Exile, Danforth Review, echolocation, The New Quarterly, Journey Prize Stories 19, Coming Attractions, Maisonneuve and Best Canadian Stories 08, among others. Her first collection of short fiction, Once, won the Metcalf/Rooke Award and was published by Biblioasis in September 2008. Rebecca lives, works, and writes in Toronto.

Stacey May Fowles currently lives in Toronto and is the publisher of Shameless Magazine. Her first novel, Be Good, was published by Tightrope Books in 2007. This Magazine called it “probably the most finely realized small press novel to come out of Canada in the last year.” In fall 2008 she released an illustrated novel, Fear of Fighting, and staged a theatrical adaptation of it with Nightwood Theatre.

Zoe Whittall is the author of the novel, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, which will release from House of Anansi Press in fall 2009. She is the author of a novel called Bottle Rocket Hearts, named one of top 100 books of 2007 in the Globe and Mail and top 15 books in Quill & Quire magazine. She won emerging author of the year in Now Magazine, and the Dayne Ogilvie Award for Best Emerging Gay Writer in Canada. Her poetry books include The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life (McGilligan) and The Emily Valentine Poems (Snare Books) and Precordial Thump (Exile Editions).