Ann Y. K. Choi

Ann is my instructor at the U of T novel-writing course. Ann's debut novel, Kay's Lucky Coin Variety, was a Toronto Book Awards finalist and one of CBC Books 12 Best Canadian Debut Novels. Ann is a great author and a wonderful teacher. She loves teaching - attend her class and you'll see why that's obvious! My favourite part of her class is hearing from the guest speakers she brings in. I've met some amazing authors, editors, and others in her class.

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Dennis Bock​

Dennis is my instructor at the U of T short story writing course. His many books have been shortlisted for or have won some of Canada's most prestigious awards, including the Giller Prize. Dennis is the reason my short story was published in the Saints & Sinners Fiction 2024 anthology in the U.S. When I review my drafts, I still hear Dennis's voice: "What is the character feeling?"

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Natasha Deen

Natasha is a renowned writer (seriously, check out the awards she has won to date). Natasha was also my classmate in my novel writing course! Despite her accolades, she's humble and down-to-earth. The lesson I learned from Natasha - you can always learn more.​​​​​

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​Jenilee Austria-Bonifacio​

Jenilee was one of the guest speakers at Ann's class. Her debut novel, Reuniting with Strangers, was named one of CBC's Best Books of 2023 and longlisted for Canada Reads. In addition to being a fantastic author, she is a community worker and youth mentor. Jenilee taught me about the benefits of working on multiple projects - it helps you to keep going when your primary project isn't going well.

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Saad Omar Khan

Saad was another guest speaker at Ann's class. Saad's debut novel, Drinking the Ocean, will be published in 2025. The story of his literary journey is inspiring - be patient, be persistent, and one day, your dreams may just come true!

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Amie Evans​

​Amie is an author of too many short stories to count, and is the co-editor of my short story in the Saints & Sinners Fiction 2024 anthology. I met Amie at the Saints & Sinners literary festival in New Orleans. The one thing I remember most about her were her many fabulous dresses she had for the three-day festival.​

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Paul Willis

Paul is the Executive Director of the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. My first contact with Paul will always have a special place in my heart - it was an email congratulating me for being a finalist in the Saints & Sinners writing contest - thank you, Paul, for the unbridled joy you gave me that day! Paul is the other co-editor of the anthology.

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Trebor Healey

Trebor is the recipient of a Lambda Literary Award and two Publishing Triangle Awards. He was the judge for the 2024 Saints & Sinners writing competition. Together with Amie and Paul, he made my dreams of getting published come true. 

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Beth Marshea

Beth is the owner of Ladderbird Literary Agency. I met Beth at a workshop at the Saints & Sinners literary festival. She spoke about how authors and agents work as a team to shape a career. Beth is the first literary agent I've met. Before her, literary agents existed as spooky enigmatic people in my mind. Beth changed all that.

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Jessica Westhead

I met Jessica at GritLit, a literary festiva in Hamilton. We exchanged the usual pleasantries as people typically do with acquaintances. A few weeks later, I completed my manuscript and was looking for an editor. That was when I found out what an impressive writer and instructor Jessica is (check out her website). Needless to say, I reached out to Jessica, hoping that she'd agree to review my manuscript. Great news - she did!

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Paige Maylott

I met Paige at GritLit. On a hunch, I picked up her memoir, My Body is Distant. I was glad I did. Her story about her yearning to live as her authentic self, counteracted by her fears of hurting those around her... resonated with me.

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Danila Botha

I met Danila at the Humber School for Writers summer retreat. She is a critically acclaimed author of five books and winner of the Trillium Award (among many other awards). As amazing as Danila is as an author, she is even more amazing as a person. Everyone who knows her loves how she is always so encouraging and helpful to her students and other writers. 

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David Bezmozgis

David is the director of the Humber School for Writers summer program. He is friendly and humble - I didn't know that he is an award-winning author and filmmaker, and was named in The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 list, which celebrates the twenty most promising fiction writers under the age of forty. That was in 2010. I did a quick calculation and estimated that we're about the same age. That's when Olivia Rodrigo's song, Jealousy, started playing in my mind...

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Colin McAdams

Colin is my sessional instructor at the Humber School for Writers summer retreat. When we were providing background on our work, Colin would pick on certain things we said and ask: "Why did you write that? What's the purpose of doing that?" His questions made me realize Part 2 of my manuscript was weaker than the other six Parts. Instead of focusing on telling a story, I used Part 2 as a bridge to introduce the characters for the other Parts. The insights I gained from Colin's session helped me to rewriter Part 2 into something I'm very proud of.

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Sam Hiyate

Sam is the instructor of the Literary Agent's Guide to Getting Published at U of T. Sam is very knowledgeable about the publishing business. An unique aspect about his agency, The Rights Factory, is that it has as many editors as some publishers!

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Nina Dunic

Nina is the author of The Clarion, winner of the 2024 Trillium Award and longlisted for the Giller Prize Award. I met Nina at the Humber summer retreat. I learned a lot about the craft of writing from reading her novel. It's written from two characters' POVs. She doesn't even put their names on the chapter - you just "automatically know" whose POV it is. The Clarion is an amazing novel both in its story-telling and writing craft!

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Marina Endicott

I have had the privilege of attending Marina's class during the U of T summer writing workshop. Marina is a renowned author whose novels have won (or longlisted or shortlisted for) some of the most prestigious literary awards in Canada. From her, I learned a new word - proprioception - which is the body's ability to sense movement, action, and location. In the context of creative writing, it's abut seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching all the things your character senses. A great advice for learning how to "live in your story" through your characters.

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Anuja Varghese

I officially "met" Anuja during the U of T summer writing workshop, but I've already heard a lot about her before that. Apart from Stephen King, Anuja might just be the only author I've heard about before I know about her book, which happens to be amazing! Her short stories, Chrysalis, won the Writers Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the Governor General's literary award for fiction. In her collection are stories that move you, that frighten you, and that make you laugh out loud (my fav is the beautifully deranged retelling of Cinderella).

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Kate Gies

Kate is my classmate at the U of T summer writing retreat. She has a memoir, It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished, coming in 2025. She’s a great writer and I’m looking forward to her book launch.

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Angel Di Zhang

I was selected as one of the mentees for The Writers’ Union of Canada 2024 BIPOC Connect. I feel so lucky that Angel was assigned as my mentor - not only did she provide me with insightful comments on my writing, she generously shared with me her experiences in querying and selecting an agent. What's even more amazing was that our relationship continued after the conference. She graciously invited me to her Angel Reading Series and indirectly through her, I've been invited to do readings of my manuscript at the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto!

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Nour Sallam

I met Nour at the Writers’ Union of Canada 2024 BIPOC Connect. She gave a presentation on writing query letters and I thought her comments on how literary agents use comps were particularly insightful (to help gauge market demand). Although the sample size is small, bur so far, 3 out of 3 literary agents I’ve met are helpful, friendly, and approachable :-)

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Sheung-King

On Nov 19, 2024, I cheered for Sheung-King at the Writers' Trust Award ceremony when his novel, Batshit Seven, won the Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize. I didn't get a chance to talk to him that evening, though. Lo and behold, on Nov 20, I saw Sheung-King at Toronto Pearson Airport, waiting to board the same flight as me! I'm so happy to get a chance to talk to an amazing award-winning author while waiting in line and of course, it was the best flight ever!!

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Kateri Lanthier

Kateri was my Intro to Poetry instructor at the U of T School for Continuing Studies. Although I still don't know exactly what poetry is (can someone come up with a succinct definition?), her course was very helpful to my manuscript. She provided really great feedback on taking certain words or sentences out, that somehow made the remaining words more "powerful." After her course, I went through each sentence in my manuscript and revised it using the test "what would Kateri take out"?

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ClariSsa Trinidad Gonzalez

I met Clarissa at the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA). Her writing is disturbing - and I mean that as the greatest compliment! In her gothic horror novel, Celestina's House, Clarissa masterfully created a monster that is “beautiful and radiant. Blessed in every way…” In addition to being a fantastic author, Clarissa is wonderful at supporting other emerging writers. She attended one of my readings on a cold, wet, winter night. When I thanked her, she simply said, "We authors must support each other." I'm so glad to have met Clarissa - a great writer and an even greater person!

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JULIA KIM

I met Julia at the Writers Trust Awards Ceremony in November 2024, but I've heard about her much earlier than that. Julia is a literary agent from The Rights Factory. I was in Sam Hiyate's U of T class when Sam was telling us about this fantastic new agent at TRF, so it was amazing that I had the opportunity to meet her in person. She seems as fantastic as Sam said!