Stephen Stamp grew up in Peterborough. He moved to the west coast to pursue a dream of making the Olympics in rowing. While that never quite happened, he did have many wonderful adventures along the way, including earning bachelors and masters degrees in writing. His poetry has been published in a number of journals and he is currently preparing a book-length manuscript, so if you're a publisher, here's your chance to snatch him up for your catalogue before your competitors do.
Stephen is widely considered the tallest poet in Canada.

Allan Briesmaster is a poet and freelance editor specializing in poetry and non-fiction. He lives in Thornhill, Ontario with his wife Holly, a visual artist. Several recent books developed as a creative collaboration with Holly, through which her collages and pen-and-ink drawings engage in dialogues with his poems. An account of their working method for their 2006 book Galactic Music was included in the anthology Imagination in Action, published in 2007 by The Mercury Press. Allan’s latest book of poetry is Interstellar (Quattro Books, 2007).

Allan was one of the chief organizers of the weekly Art Bar Poetry Reading Series from its beginnings in 1991 until 2002: playing a central role as it grew into the largest series of its kind in Canada. In 2006 he co-founded the popular monthly reading series, Toronto WordStage. Since 2000, he has been the main literary editor for Seraphim Editions: instrumental in the production some 30 books in various genres. He started his own micro press, Aeolus House, in 2003.

Allan has read his work in venues throughout Ontario over the past 20 years, and more recently from Halifax to Victoria. He has also continuously promoted and encouraged fellow writers, especially at the “grass roots,” and organized and emceed numerous launches and readings for them. He is an active member of The League of Canadian Poets (serving as Treasurer in 2004-06), The Ontario Poetry Society, and The Toronto Renaissance Conspiracy poetry group.

www.aeolushouse.com - www.quattroboooks.ca - www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/briesmas.htm

Susan Dyment is a writer and illustrator. She has studied Fine Art at Concordia University and writing at The Kootenay School of Writing, The Victoria School of Writing and Trent University. She writes plays, two of which have appeared on the stage at Buddies in Bad Times, but most of which live in her accordian-like file boxes and antique valises waiting to break free. She has written three nice, tight, novel-length manuscripts, the most racy of which is now under the enthusiastic editorship of award-winning author Ursula Pflug. Susan is a Graduate of the Hailburton Expressive Arts Programme, where she led a songwriting workshop and later rebelled by painting giant murals soon to be seen everywhere.

www.susandyment.ca

John Miller’s first novel, The Featherbed, received stellar reviews and earned a devoted readership upon its release in 2002. Set in the early 1900s in Manhattan’s Lower-east Side and in Toronto, The Featherbed is the story of a woman whose unlikely friendship with a pregnant prostitute begets several tightly held family secrets. His second novel, A Sharp Intake of Breath is the story of Toshy Wolfman, born in 1916 with a cleft lip and palate. Toshy is imprisoned after being caught stealing a valuable and famous diamond, the Orange Sunset. But Toshy’s story is not his alone – it is shared with his two sisters: Lil, a radical and devotee of anarchist Emma Goldman; and Bessie, who goes to work for one of Goldman’s enemies, the owners of the Orange Sunset.

John Miller grew up in Toronto and holds a B.A. from McGill University and an M.A. in International Development from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He began his career in social services, rising quickly to become an Executive Director of a palliative care hospice at the age of twenty-six. In his late twenties, he began to focus on his true passion, fiction writing. Besides novels, John has written on culture and politics and is currently a consultant with local and international not-for-profits working with children affected by HIV/AIDS. His consulting work has taken him to Europe, Asia, Central America and Africa, but responsibilities to a chocolate Labrador retriever ensure that he maintains a home base in Toronto.

www.johnmiller.ca