ME… A PODCAST STAR !

Tara McGowan-Ross

Tara McGowan-Ross’s début work of prose, the memoir Nothing Will Be Different, was a finalist for the 2022 Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust award for nonfiction. She is also the author of the poetry collections Girth and Scorpion Season. She hosts Drawn & Quarterly’s Indigenous Literatures book club, and is a theatre critic with Broadwayworld. Find her at @girthg

Monique Polak

Monique Polak is the author of 33 books for young people. Her most recent book is Open Science: Knowledge for Everyone (Orca). Monique is a three-time winner of the Quebec Writers’ Federation Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (formerly the QWF Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature). Monique taught at Marianopolis College for 35 years. She is also a freelance journalist whose stories have appeared in the Montreal Gazette and in Postmedia publications across the country. Monique’s next book Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory will be published in fall 2024 by Orca Books. 

Raquel Rivera

Raquel Rivera is the author of fiction and creative non-fiction books for children and young adults.Her books have won the QWF Prize for Children’s and YA Literature, twice; they’ve been nominated for the Red Cedar Book Award, Silver Birch, Forest of Reading awards and the Rocky Mountain Book Award, and were selected for CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens (starred selection), USBBY Outstanding International Books (Grades 3-5), Quill & Quire’s “Best of 2007” (Children’s), and more.
Raquel has lived and worked in Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Barcelona and Toronto (where she was born and raised as a first-generation Canadian). These experiences, along with her own mixed heritage, give her a thirst for new ways of thinking and dreaming, with a deep interest in history, culture, social roles and norms. Cultures in cooperation is the theme that runs through her writing.
Based in Montreal since 1999, Raquel works as a writer, teaching-artist, and performer, while leading workshops and mentorships for children, youth and adults. For news, pictures and more, visit her website: www.raquelriverawashere.com

Stéphane Despatie

Stéphane Despatie has been a fixture of the literary scene since the late 1980s. While still a student, he published in a number of collections with well-known publishers, and was co-editor of the university magazine Nouvelles fraîches. Formerly general director of Écrits des Forges and Arion Orchestre Baroque, he was first editor of the performing arts magazine Entracte, for which he wrote articles on music. He then appeared in La Presse and Voir, writing about literature and theater, and in KMag and Journal Métro, writing about running or triathlons. He has also written several collections of poetry, including Engoulevents and Paroles biologiques, as well as a story, Réservé aux chiens. His books have been translated into several languages.

Tristan Malavoy

Writer, screenwriter and musician Tristan Malavoy was born in Sherbrooke in 1973 and now lives in Montreal. His published works include the novels Le nid de pierres and L’œil de Jupiter (Prix France-Québec 2021), the book/record L’école des vertiges (2018) and the story collection Un endroit familier (2022). For several years, he was director of the arts and books section of Voir newspaper, and hosted a books and visual arts program on Télé-Québec. He directs the Quai no 5 collection at Éditions XYZ. He holds a master’s degree in literature from the Université de Montréal, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in research-creation at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC).

Myriam Vincent

Myriam Vincent holds a Master’s degree in French Literature from McGill University. Her first book, Furie (2020), won the Prix des Rendez-vous du premier roman, and her second, À la maison (2022), was a finalist for the Prix des libraires. Her third novel, Avide, will be published in May 2024. Myriam Vincent is also editor at Poètes de brousse, where she is in charge of the Prose collection.