Ronnie R. Brown is an Ottawa writer whose work has appeared in over 100 magazines and anthologies in Canada and beyond. The winner of the Sandburg-Livesay Anthology Prize, and, most recently of the national Acorn-Plantos People's Poetry Award--for her 4th collection, States of Matter (Black Moss Press 2005)-- Brown has also participated in the wilder and crazier side of poetry as a Poet Laurette for Peter Gzowski, one of Ottawa's original "Random Acts" poets and with a staged production of her work, On Falling Bodies (presented at the Atelier of Ottawa's NAC).

Ellen S. Jaffe grew up in New York City and moved to Canada in 1979; she became a dual-citizen in 1993. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario and in 2002, she co-organized Hamilton's first "Celebration of Jewish Writers and Writing" with her colleague Lil Blume. Her published books include Writing Your Way: Creating a Personal Journal; Water Children (a poetry collection), and Feast of Lights (a novel for young adults). In addition, Ellen has adapted Margaret Laurence's children's novel Jason's Quest into a play, performed in 2001 by Adventures in Children's Theatre. She works with Learning Through the Arts (a program run by the Royal Conservatory of Music), teaching writing in schools and other settings, and has received grants for both writing and "artists in education" from the Ontario Arts Council.

Gil McElroy is the author three books of poetry: Dream Pool Essays (Talonbooks, 2001), NonZero Definitions (Talonbooks, 2004), and Last Scattering Surfaces (Talonbooks, 2007). Gil McElroy has curated exhibitions for art galleries and museums in Canada, and written for art magazines in Canada, the United States and Australia. A selection of his essays, articles and reviews was published as Gravity & Grace: Selected Writing on Contemporary Canadian Art (Gaspereau Press, 2001), and in the anthology CRAFT Perception and Practice: A Canadian Discourse (Ronsdale Press, 2002). His visual art has been exhibited in public galleries and artist-run centres across Canada. He currently lives in Colborne, Ontario

Gil McElroy will bring both poetry and his critical writing to the Cooked and Eaten audience inviting them to think of words and images.