Who’s Who

Ahmad Saber

A is for Ahmad
A medical doctor specializing in rheumatology and internal medicine, Ahmad Saber, whose debut novel, Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions (Atheneum Books $30.99), explores the difficult struggle of a gay Muslim teen reconciling his faith with his sexuality. The story, based in part on author’s own lived experience, follows Pakistani Canadian Ramin, a senior at a top-ranked Muslim high school, who believes being gay is haram (forbidden) and dreams of moving to New York City. The pressure mounts when Ramin is forced to join the soccer team, training one-on-one with “Captain Handsome,” all while being blackmailed by a bully. A new friend introduces Ramin to a kinder concept of Allah, forcing him to decide which Allah lives in the little mosque in his heart. Saber grew up on an all-girls college campus next to a massive fort in Pakistan, moving to Canada in high school.  9781665960694

Sara Blaydes

B is for Blaydes
Author of The Last Secret of Lily Adams (Lake Union, 2024), Sara Blaydes returns with The Restoration Garden (Lake Union $25.99), a novel that intertwines love, memory and the haunting beauty of an English manor’s forgotten grounds. Blaydes has been passionate about books since she was four years old, when she insisted her parents teach her to read so she could steal her brother’s comic books. Now based in British Columbia, she lives with her husband, two children and an anxious Boston terrier. She believes books are magic, summer is the best season and parsley is never optional. 9781662533198

Joanna Cheek

C is for Cheek
Joanna Cheek, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist, psychotherapist and clinical professor at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. Drawing on decades of clinical practice, research and meditation training, Cheek explores mental health beyond the individual, arguing that symptoms such as anxiety, depression and stress are often alarms signaling wider systemic imbalances rather than personal failings. In It’s Not You, It’s the World (HarperCollins $34.99), she provides readers with practical guidance for understanding these signals, caring for themselves and advocating for healthier collective systems. With a foreword by Gabor Maté, the book serves as both a survival guide and a call to transform how society addresses mental health. Cheek is also the co-creator of the national-award-winning MindSpace Collective, which has provided mental health workshops to tens of thousands of community members and physicians. Her work emphasizes compassion, connection and empowerment in navigating a world increasingly fraught with stress and disorder. 9781443474412

Giana Darling

D is for Darling
“I’m drawn to telling complicated love stories because I believe life is incredibly complex”, says Giana Darling, bestselling Canadian romance author takes readers back to Tuscany in the final chapter of her mafia duet, My Dark Ever After (Montlake $25.99), where Guinevere’s search for truth collides with Raffaele Romano’s dangerous world of power and passion. Known for writing forbidden and angsty romances with morally complex heroes and strong heroines, Darling has become a USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon Top 40 bestselling writer. She lives on an island in British Columbia with her husband and their golden retriever, Romeo, where she balances writing with baking pies and  spends time riding on the back of her husband’s bike. 9781662527593

Emma Cleary

E is for Emma
Liverpool-born, Vancouver-based writer Emma Cleary makes her debut with Afterbirth (HarperCollins $24.99), a haunting literary horror novel exploring sisterhood, motherhood and the body’s terrifying transformations. Set in a decaying Vancouver apartment stalked by a mysterious figure known as Medusa, the novel follows two estranged sisters whose reunion spirals into obsession and the supernatural. Cleary’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Best British Short Stories, James Baldwin Review and Canadian Literature. She holds a PhD in literature and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and currently serves as editor-in-chief of Geist magazine. 9781443474276 9781771872812

Rob Fillo

F is for Fillo
Amid the solitude of Vancouver Island’s forests during the pandemic, singer-songwriter Rob Fillo found his voice in a new form — prose. His debut memoir, Singing with the Trees (self-published $19.99), chronicles a creative and spiritual awakening inspired by isolation, music and the natural world. With humour, lyrical insight and emotional honesty, Fillo reflects on grief, resilience and rediscovering purpose through art. A Victoria-based musician and multimedia artist, his performances blend folk, blues and orchestral pop, transforming stages into spaces of shared healing. 9798306571607

Stefanie Giddens

G is for Giddens
Kelowna-based writer Stefanie Giddens made her literary debut with If I Were to Say Something About It: Even in the darkness, there’s the light to keep going (TL Birch Publishing Inc $19.95). This poetry collection explores womanhood, resilience, self-worth and the pursuit of love and healing. With raw honesty and heartfelt intensity, Giddens honours the strength required to navigate life’s struggles while offering readers a reminder to keep moving forward. Raised in Kamloops and born in Vancouver in 1972, Giddens has spent her life in British Columbia. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Thompson Rivers University and has worked in media, real estate development, healthcare and health technology. 9781068911002

Tara Hungerford

H is for Hungerford
Tara Hungerford is a Vancouver-based television writer and director who, with her husband Eric Hogan, created the award-winning children’s media brand, The Gumboot Kids. The success of the TV show is the inspiration for a new series of books. The two latest entries in the series are The Case of the Tagalong Twin : A Gumboot Kids Nature Mystery (Firefly $6.95) and The Case of the Buried Treasure : A Gumboot Kids Nature Mystery (Firefly $6.95). In Tagalong Twin, felted mouse Daisy is followed by a mysterious twin until she and Scout uncover the science of shadows. In Buried Treasure, Scout’s missing bulbs lead to a spring surprise and a lesson on plant life cycles. Hogan and Hungerford co-write the series with Cathy Moss and aim to use the books as a “bridge from the living room to the outdoors” to inspire kids to observe nature and be present.  9780228105701 & 9780228105688

Anosh Irani

I is for Irani
In Behind the Moon (Talonbooks $21.95), award-winning playwright, Anosh Irani, explores the character of Ayub, a man haunted by his past and isolated in a cold, unfamiliar Toronto. Ayub works in a Mughlai restaurant, where his routine is disrupted by a late-night visit from a mysterious stranger, forcing him to confront the family he left behind and the dreams he abandoned. Through this lens, Irani delves into themes of love, loss, brotherhood and the complexities of starting anew. The play reflects Ayub’s emotional struggles, intensified by the harsh winter, as Irani examines the inner lives of his characters, embracing their strangeness and woundedness to uncover deeper truths about identity and resilience. 9781772016383

Jacqueline Bell

J is for Jacqueline
Jacqueline Bell has won the 2025 Raven Chapbooks Poetry Contest for her deeply-felt collection, Summoning (Raven Chapbooks $22.95), described by judges John Barton and Arlene Pare as “elegiac, yes, familial, inconsolable.” There’s death of family, a lost lover and sadness about nature. There’s also an elegy to lost childhood that reflects on the memory of two sunburnt children on a beach and “that huge / mint-green anemone / remember / how its tentacles cleaved to / your finger / then / one by / one they / let / go.” 9781778160387

Kamila Sediego

K is for Kamila
Haunted by questions of inheritance and the lingering ache of intergenerational trauma, Kamila Sediego explores the ways displacement and memory shape identity in Homecoming (Playwright Canada Press $18.95). The playwright and dramaturg examines how migration fractures—and sometimes mends—the ties between three generations of Filipina women separated by continents and silence. Moving between the Philippines and Canada, Homecoming weaves together humour, grief and cultural memory in a story that asks whether love can survive distance and time. A Filipinx settler based in Vancouver, Sediego’s ancestral roots trace back to Iloilo, Cebu and Manila and her work—including the ongoing project Engkanto—draws deeply from Filipinx folklore and spiritual safety. 9780369105790

Angélique Lalonde

L is for Lalonde
From the Giller-shortlisted author of Glorious Frazzled Beings (Astoria, 2021) comes Angélique Lalonde’s beguiling debut novel, Variations on a Dream (McClelland & Stewart $26.95), humming with sensuality intelligence and a tinge of the absurd. The novel explores the collapse of a marriage after years of shouldering childcare and career struggles. Sarah, the wife, is burned out and manages by crafting an imaginary version of her husband, while her husband Trevor is caught in a downward spiral of sexual frustration and fear of artistic mediocrity. When both secretly stumble on an auteur porn film based on the Greek myth of Ariadne and Dionysus, they are sucked into a dizzying maze of obsession betrayal and duplicate selves. Lalonde’s work, which has been featured in PRISM International, The Journey Prize Stories and The Malahat Review, received the 2019 Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. 9780771012600

Marcus Kliewer

M is for Marcus
Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake in the new supernatural horror novel, The Caretaker: A Novel (Emily Bestler Books / Atria Books $26.99), from Vancouver-based writer and stop-motion animator Marcus Kliewer. The story follows Macy Mullins, a debt-saddled college grad who accepts a sinister caretaking job found on Craigslist to provide for her younger sister. Kliewer, whom the author Erin A. Craig calls a “titan of the macabre and unsettling,” quickly reveals that Macy’s responsibilities involve dangerous consequences, warning readers to “Follow the Rites… Follow the Rites…”. Kliewer’s debut novel, We Used to Live Here (Emily Bestler Books / Atria Books, 2024), gained viral attention after starting as a serialized short story on Reddit, with film rights quickly snapped up by Netflix before the book was even completed. 9781668228944

Nicholas Coghlan

N is for Nicholas
Nicholas Coghlan is a BC-based cruiser, diplomat and author whose adventures with his wife, Jenny, form the basis of his guide, Under Wide and Starry Skies – Fifty Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled (Bloomsburry Publishing $42.30). As the title suggests, the book offers fifty out-of-the-way destinations for sailboat owners, encouraging either a full-time departure or a temporary escape and includes practical tips on formalities prevailing weather and GPS positions. Coghlan is also the author of Winter in Fireland (University of Alberta Press, 2011) and is a frequent contributor to Sailing Today magazine. 9781399413756

Elizabeth Oldham

O is for Oldham
In her second novel Shadows on the Heart (Doppia Press $17), Elizabeth Oldham explores what happens when life forces you into roles you never expected. This character-driven story follows three generations of women as they navigate love, memory and the long reach of grief. Oldham’s storytelling is gentle, offering a compassionate look at family bonds and personal transformation. Through shifting perspectives, the novel highlights how connection can grow in even the most complicated circumstances. Shadows on the Heart is a testament to resilience and the ways we carry both pain and hope across generations. 9781738822638

Allana Polo

P is for Polo
The complex question of why we eat is the focus of the Amazon Canada #1 Bestseller, The Hunger Code: A New Way to Understand Why We Eat (DAZL press $34.99), by Naturopathic Physician Dr. Allana Polo. The book is not a diet guide, but a compassionate exploration of the six distinct types of hunger that drive eating behaviors, from Dr. Polo’s realization that most people struggle with the reason they are hungry, not willpower. These types are identified as Healthy Hunger, Head Hunger, Heart Hunger, Habit Hunger, Hormone Hunger and Hypersensitivity Hunger. As the founder of Polo Health + Longevity Centre, she specializes in weight management hormone health and longevity medicine in British Columbia. 9781069533500

Christine Quintana

Q is for Quintana
Set in a Mexican resort, the lives of Sarah, a cynical Canadian wedding guest, and Adriana, a perfectionist hotel floor manager, intersect in unexpected ways in Christine Quintana’s latest play, Espejos: Clean (Playwrights Canada Press $19.99). Sarah’s pessimism and Adriana’s quest for order mask deeper anxieties, which come to light as their parallel realities collide. Through poignant and often humorous monologues, the bilingual play delves into themes of female strength, solidarity, and the struggles each woman faces in navigating her world. Speaking directly to the audience, their stories reveal both contrasts and commonalities, magnifying their shared pain and resilience. The play was adapted and translated into Spanish by Paula Zelaya-Cervantes. 9780369104588

Robert Moor. Photo: Donna Svennevik

R is for Robert
The essential question of how to grow wise is explored in In Trees: An Exploration (Simon & Schuster Canada $39.99), the newest book from journalist and New York Times bestselling author Robert Moor. Moor, hailed as a “philosopher on foot,” chronicles his decade-long, globe-spanning adventure in pursuit of the wisdom of trees, which takes him from climbing a giant sequoia to sleeping in a chimpanzee nest. The book encourages readers to embrace “tree-thinking” to address humanity’s gnarled past and ever-branching future of the oldest question: “What is the secret to truly growing old?” A graduate of Brown University and NYU, Moor is a frequent contributor to major publications like The New Yorker and Harper’s and his prior book, On Trails (‎Simon & Schuster, 2016), won the Saroyan Prize. 9781668222607

Celeste Snowber

S is for Snowber
A universal invitation to reclaim our human birthright of creativity is offered by Celeste Nazeli Snowber, PhD, a dancer, poet, writer and award-winning educator who serves as a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her new poetry collection, Creating in Dangerous Times (Harp Publishing $24.95), described as a necessary guide and empathetic approach to healing, the book explores themes of presence and the healing arts. Snowber uses each poem as a timely “prescription” designed to gently nudge us to reawaken reflect upon and reconnect with our latent creativity. She has published and performed widely with books including Embodied Inquiry: Writing, Living, and Being through the Body (Brill, 2016), Dance, Place and Poetics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) and three collections of poetry. Snowber has performed and spoken internationally in concert venues galleries museums conferences and various outdoor spaces. 9781990137730

Léa Taranto

T is for Taranto
A disabled Chinese Jewish Canadian writer and alumna of the University of British Columbia’s MFA program, Léa Taranto is an author whose work explores mental health and neurodivergence. Her debut YA novel, A Drop in the Ocean (Arsenal Pulp Press $19.95), is a finalist for the Governor General’s Young People’s Literature – Text Award and addresses the dehumanizing stigma around mental illness. The novel follows sixteen-year-old Mira Durand, who is checked into a treatment centre for obsessive compulsive and comorbid disorders after years of worsening OCD and anorexia. Mira’s brutal religious compulsions, which she believes keep her mother safe, lead to her only friend being her journal. Taranto writes the literature she yearned for during her adolescence, which she spent certified in various inpatient facilities for life-threatening OCD, creating stories where neurodivergent and Mad readers can see themselves reflected. 9781551529813

Uma Krishnaswami

U is for Uma
In Uma Krishnaswami’s final instalment of the Book Uncle trilogy—the middle grade novels set in India about the power of grassroots activism and how kids can make a difference—The Sunshine Project (Groundwood $11.99), the karate-loving Anil and his friends have been championing a solar energy project. Anil doesn’t like speaking up, for, as his karate sensei says, “best fight, no fight.” But when he learns that the new solar panel factory the city is planning will threaten plant and animal species, Anil takes action with help from Yasmin and Reeni (the main protagonists, respectively, of the first two titles). Just how loudly will he have to speak up? Illustrations by Julianna Swaney. 9781779460530

Vince Beiser

V is for Vince
When Vince Beiser rode with first responders into disaster zones and trained alongside US Army soldiers, he was honing the grit that now fuels his writing. In his latest book, Power Metal: The Race for Resources that Will Shape the Future (Riverhead Books $32), the Vancouver-based journalist examines the paradox at the core of our technological age: the same lithium, cobalt and copper that enable the internet and renewable energy are driving environmental havoc, political unrest and human suffering. From Nigerian e-waste salvagers risking their lives to billionaires eyeing the ocean floor, Beiser crisscrosses the globe to expose the hidden costs of the green transition and the scramble for critical minerals. Power Metal, one of the 2025 Balsillie Prize Finalists, reveals the underbelly of progress while daring readers to ask how we can do better. 9780593541708

Katie Welch

W is for Welch
When a massive earthquake devastates the Pacific coast in 2045, Del Samara flees into isolation—abandoning her family, her ruined home and her spiralling addiction. Three years later, grief over her dog’s death compels her to re-emerge into a world that has dramatically changed. Ladder to Heaven (Wolsak & Wynn $26.00), by Katie Welch, follows Del’s perilous journey across a fractured landscape—where animals now communicate telepathically and technology has collapsed—as she seeks redemption and a reunion with her daughters. Along the way, she meets a sailor who shares her sense of loss and opens a path toward healing, even as the truth of Del’s past slowly begins to surface. Welch’s debut novel Mad Honey (Buckrider Books, 2022) was nominated for the 2023 OLA Evergreen Prize and she was shortlisted for the 2023 CBC Short Story Contest. 9781998408276

Mary Fox

X is for Fox
Renowned potter Mary Fox shares her knowledge of glazing in Developing Glazes: Low-Fire Reduction and Oxidation (Harbour Publishing $44.95), a guide that encourages ceramic artists to experiment with confidence. Rather than relying on ready-made glazes, Fox invites potters to explore the use of minerals and clay slips, offering step-by-step instructions and techniques for low-temperature firing. All royalties are donated to the endowment fund for the Legacy Project, which supports the careers of emerging potters through apprenticeships, residencies, studio space and a library of instructional videos. A self-taught exploratory potter, Fox moved with her family to British Columbia in 1966. She has worked exclusively as an artist since then, developing an international reputation for her sculptural ceramic vessels. In Developing Glazes, she extends this mentorship to readers, blending her creative philosophy with practical techniques to help others discover joy and freedom in the glazing process. 9781998526253

Yong Nan Kim

Y is for Yong
In Off the Map: Vancouver Writers with Lived Experience of Mental Health Issues (Bell Press Books $22), edited by Betsy Warland, Seema Shah and Kate Bird, Yong Nan Kim’s poetry “Dreaming with Ghosts” brings the otherworldly close to home. A standout moment comes in her piece where ancestral memory collides with loss: “days before grandmother passed away / i dream with my grandmother / her face glows like the full moon / she says i’m not dead yet!” These lines echo through Kim’s broader body of work—poetry and ghost stories inspired by her Korean heritage and childhood in Paraguay and Brazil. When she’s not writing, she hikes, snowshoes, or learns new dance moves. 9781738716791

Ziyad Saadi

Z is for Ziyad
Set over a single, chaotic day in Detroit, this debut novel follows queer Palestinian refugee Firas Dareer as he plans to come out to his family at an elaborately staged birthday dinner, only to find his orchestrated reveal thrown into disarray by a chain of escalating crises. Three Parties (Hamish Hamilton $34.95) explores Palestinian diasporic life, generational trauma and the pressure of queer self-revelation with humour and emotional depth. It’s a story of self-presentation, fractured families and the quiet dignity of choosing to be known on one’s own terms. Ziyad Saadi is a Palestinian Canadian writer and filmmaker based in Vancouver. A Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist and winner of the MPAC Hollywood Bureau pilot writing competition, his writing has appeared in Indiewire, The Independent and The Gay & Lesbian Review. His short story “The Third or Fourth Casualty” appears in the speculative fiction anthology Thyme Travellers (Fernwood, 2024). 9780735250963