Authors Index

Bill Gaston is the author of seven novels and eight collections of short fiction, including Sex is Red and Mount Appetite, as well as a book of poems and two memoirs, most recently Just Let Me Look at You. His work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Giller Prize, among many other awards, and has won the Victoria/Butler Book Prize, the Writers’ Trust Timothy Findley Award (for a body of work, mid-career), the Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction, and the National Post Book of the Year. He lives on Gabriola island Island with his wife, the author Dede Crane.

Connie Gault is the recipient of the 2025 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence. Her most recent novel, The Rasmussen Papers, was short-listed for the 2024 Toronto Book Award. Previous fiction has won several Saskatchewan awards and has been short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Novel of Canada and the Caribbean and long-listed for the Giller Prize. After living most of her life in Saskatchewan, Connie now resides in London, Ontario.

Don Gayton is the author of three books of non-fiction (The Wheatgrass Mechanism, Landscapes of the Interior, Kokanee) and numerous technical articles. He was a range ecologist with the BC Ministry of Forests for 10 years, and has worked as an extension specialist in forage and range with the Saskatchewan Department of Agriculture.

Music-lover, cello player, ESL teacher, and writer Emily Givner was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. She died July 5th, 2004 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, of an allergic reaction, aged 38. From birth Emily’s life had been complicated and restricted by asthma and allergy problems though she refused to let her aliments interfere with her life of travel, music and writing. She was mentored by the acclaimed novelist and neuroradiologist, Aryeh Lev Stollman, whose work she loved. On her death she left a considerable amount of writing — files of letters home recording her experiences in different countries, essays on writing process and a substantial collection of unpublished stories and novellas

Joan Givner has written a dozen books of biography and fiction. She is also recognized for her series of books for young adults that include the Ellen Fremedon Series and A Girl Called Tennyson trilogy. Givner currently resides in a small seaside town north of Victoria, BC. Although she is retired from teaching, she still continues to write fiction, as well as review books for BC Bookworld, the Toronto Star, and other publications.

Lee Gowan grew up on a farm near Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and studied at the University of British Columbia, where he earned an MFA in creative writing. He is the author of three previous novels: Confession, The Last Cowboy, and Make Believe Love, which was shortlisted for the Trillium Award for Best Book in Ontario. He is also an award-winning screenwriter, and was nominated for a Gemini Award for his screenplay Paris or Somewhere. He is currently Program Director, Creative Writing and Business Communications, at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.