Nadine has been studying politics (the kind that aims toward social justice) as well as dance and music (classical piano); she's been wondering how social justice and community arts mesh together. She'll be talking about community arts and how it moves in and out of politics based on recent research. Nadine teaches in the Department of Politics at Trent University and has been living and dancing in Peterborough for three years.

Ken McGoogan is an historical biographer who survived a shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, erected a commemorative plaque in the High Arctic, and chased the ghost of Jane Lady Franklin across Tasmania. With his eighth book, Lady Franklin's Revenge, he won the Pierre Berton History Award and the UBC Medal for Canadian Biography. His book Fatal Passage, about Arctic explorer John Rae, won four awards and is now being turned into a documentary film. Ken recently conducted workshops in eight Canadian cities on Writing as a Profession. He lives in Toronto, has family in Peterborough, and will sail the Northwest Passage in August (www.kenmcgoogan.com).

Susan McMaster’s seventh poetry book, Until the Light Bends, with its accompanying CD, was shortlisted in 2005 for both the Ottawa Book Award and the Archibald Lampman Poetry Prize. She edits such volumes as Waging Peace: Poetry and Political Action and Siolence: Women, Violence, and Silence; organizes projects like "Convergence: Poems for Peace." She has recorded three CDs with Geode Music & Poetry, and performed and recorded with SugarBeat and First Draft.

Susan will be reading from Until the Light Bends and from her new manuscripts "Rushing Her Down" and "This Strike to Me Is Sky." A poem from the latter is currently on the short list for the Being at Work Poetry Challenge prize (results to be announced in 2007). She is also in the middle of writing a prose memoir of Ottawa.

For more on Susan McMaster and her work, check out web.ncf.ca/smcmaster/ (and the links listed there), poets.ca/linktext/direct/mcmaster.htm, library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/mcmaster/index.htm, and Wikepedia. Her books and CDs are available directly from Black Moss Press, Pendas Productions, the League of Canadian Poets, and her own website, as well as from literary bookstores across Canada.

Whether she's merging slam poetry with bluegrass sound, or bringing spirituality to her activism, this spoken word artist has a knack for blurring boundaries and forging connections. Her rhythmic, raunchy and reverent rhymes have helped to raise thousands of dollars to support migrant workers and non-status immigrants, and brought her to win the monthly Toronto poetry slam. A recovered Torontonian, Ziy is celebrating her seventh year of calling the P-dot home. Contact her at Ziysah at yahoo dot ca.