📍 Archives room, basement level
Writers, bring your pitch and get ready to present it to a range of local publishers. Introduce yourselves, and then you’ll have three minutes to tell your publisher “date” what your book is all about. Don’t forget to leave time for questions or a little discussion. When the bell dings, move to the next available seat and do it again. Whether you find a home for your manuscript or not, you’ll make contacts and gather information that may serve you now and in the future.
Note that authors will be asked to sign up at the welcome table on Sunday in order to participate.
With:
Yashaswi Kesanakurthy, Simon & Schuster Canada
Firoze Manji, Daraja Press
Leila Marshy, Baraka Books
Curtis McRae, Véhicule Press
Shannae Nitti, Crackboom! Books
Moderated by Lori Schubert, Quebec Writers’ Federation
𝐘𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐰𝐢 𝐊𝐞𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲 [yush-us-we kay-sah-nah-koor-thi] is the Children’s Editor at Simon & Schuster Canada. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s MA program in Children’s Literature and Toronto Metropolitan University’s publishing program. Her publishing career began as Publishing Assistant at Tundra Books, PRHC. She then joined HarperCollins Canada as Associate Editor where she developed a vibrant list including The Garden of Lost Socks by Esi Edugyan and Amélie Dubois, The Hockey Skates by Karl Subban and Maggie Zeng, and Mortified by Kristy Jackson and Rhael McGregor. At Simon & Schuster Canada, she remains focused on publishing marginalized, Canadian voices that tell entertaining and transformative stories. Yash lives in Toronto with a magical, if unruly, library that just keeps growing.
𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐳𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐣𝐢, PhD, is a Kenyan / Canadian, resident in Québec. He has spent more than 50 years in international development, health, human rights and political activism. He is the publisher of Daraja Press and is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa. He is the recipient of the 2021 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Lifetime Achievement Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.
𝐋𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐲 is the author of The Philistine (LLP, 2018) and My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books, 2025), and is editor of the anthology Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada (Baraka Books, 2025). Daughter of a Palestinian refugee, Marshy lived in Cairo during the First Intifada and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a community and political organizer, including founding a dialogue group with the Hasidic community in her local neighbourhood, helping elect the first Hasidic woman to public office in the world. Marshy is editor at Baraka Books and lives in Montreal.
𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐌𝐜𝐑𝐚𝐞 is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press and the Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief of yolk literary journal. He is the author of Quietly, Loving Everyone (Vehicule Press, 2025). His fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, and others. He won the 2021/22 David McKeen Award, was longlisted for the 2025 DISQUIET Literary Fiction Contest, received an honourable mention in the 2024 Peter Hinchcliffe award, and was a finalist in the 2019 Quebec Writers’ Federation contest for emerging young writers. Curtis teaches English literature at John Abbott College and formerly served as a board member for the Quebec Writers’ Federation.
𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐢 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 is the executive director of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, where she has worked since 2003. From 1998 to 2017 she was also a member and general manager of VivaVoce, a professional chamber choir. Prior to her work in arts management, Lori was a singer and corporate communications trainer in the New York metropolitan area. She has taught written and oral communication at Columbia, McGill and Concordia Universities. She was instrumental in the founding of Quebec’s English-language Arts Network (ELAN) and has served two terms on its board of directors. Through QWF, Lori co-founded the National Juries and Awards Working Group in 2021. She has also served in an advisory capacity for YES Montreal, the Blue Metropolis Foundation and the Atwater Writers’ Exhibition, and currently chairs the Education and Skills Development Table for the Working Group on Arts and Culture.
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