Speakers
Patsy Aldana
Born and raised in Guatemala, Patsy Aldana came to Canada in 1971 after attending university in the United States. She is the founder of Groundwood Books, and is currently the President of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), and Canada’s representative to the Inter American Publishers Group. She was the founding president of the Canadian Coalition for School Libraries and the Organization of Ontario Publishers, was president of the Association of Canadian Publishers and on the founding board of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. She lives in Toronto.
Richard Anderson
Richard Anderson is professor of Education and Psychology and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A former teacher and school administrator, he was educated at Harvard University and has served as president of the American Educational Research Association. In 2008-2009, Anderson served as chair of the Reading and Literacy Working Group of the National Academy of Education. With colleagues, he has published 200 books and articles, notably Becoming a Nation of Readers, one of the most widely read books of all time in the field of literacy. Anderson’s research addresses learning to read different languages in different countries. He lives in Illinois.
Ingrid Bon
Ingrid Bon had 30 years experience as a librarian before becoming the Chair of the Children’s Libraries Section at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in the Netherlands. As a consultant for library services, she supports and promotes reading for children and young adults in projects like Easy to Read Squares, Bookstart, Fun with Books and the National Reading Aloud Contest. Bon is also the Vice-Chair of the National Council of Children’s Libraries and a member of the Committee of National Reading. She lives in Westervoort, in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands, where she is also a city council member.
Elisa Bonilla
Elisa Bonilla has a degree in Mathematics from UNAM and an MPhil in Education from Cambridge University. She has been a teacher, an educational researcher and a civil servant at the Mexican Ministry of Public Education. She led The National Literacy Program from 2001-2007 and was a propellant of school and classroom library development in Mexican public schools. Bonilla actively participates, nationally and internationally, in public policy for literacy and quality books diffusion. She belongs to several professional committees and academic boards, is a lecturer in Mexico and abroad, and has authored academic papers and books. Bonilla is currently the head of Fundación SM México, where she continues her efforts to promote literacy and books for children. She lives in Mexico City.
David Booth
The Chair of Literacy at Nipissing University, David Booth is also Professor Emeritus and Scholar in Residence at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Educated in Ontario, he completed his graduate work at Oxford University and Durham University in England. For over 40 years he has been involved in education as a teacher, language arts consultant, professor, international speaker and author. He has written many teacher reference books and textbooks in all areas of language development. He has also authored many picture books for children, including Dr. Knickerbocker, a Notable Book chosen by New Yorker magazine. Booth has won several awards for his contributions to teaching, reading and for his books for young people. He lives in Toronto.
Dionne Brand
Dionne Brand is a poet, novelist, and essayist. Her book Land to Light On won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Literature in 1997. thirsty was nominated for the Trillium Prize for Literature, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Toronto Book Award in 2003, and won the Pat Lowther Award for Poetry. She also has several novels and non-fiction titles that have been critically acclaimed, and in 1996 she received the Harbourfront Festival Award. Brand is a Professor at the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. She lives in Toronto and is currently poet laureate for the city.
Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer, activist, journalist and blogger, the co-editor of boingboing.net and the author of the bestselling Tor Teens/HarperCollins UK novel Little Brother. The book was nominated for the 2008 Hugo, Nebula, Sunburst and Locus Awards, and won the Ontario Library White Pine Award, the Prometheus Award as well as the Indienet Award for bestselling young adult novel in America’s top 1000 independent bookstores in 2008. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly called him, “The William Gibson of his generation.” Born in Toronto, he now lives in London, England.
Camilla Gibb
Camilla Gibb completed a Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of four novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-So’s Life, Sweetness in the Belly and the forthcoming Beauty of Humanity Movement. She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for Short Fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages. She has served as writer-in-residence at the universities of Toronto and Alberta, and is currently an adjunct faculty member with the M.A. program in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto.
John Honderich
John Honderich received an Honours degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Toronto. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Laws degree, and wrote Arctic Imperative while studying at the London School of Economics. He was Publisher of the Toronto Star for almost 10 years, and a director on several boards before his retirement. Honderich was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004 and a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2006. Most recently he has been Special Ambassador to the Mayor of Toronto, then Special Advisor to the Premier of Ontario and this year was appointed Chair of the Board of Torstar Corporation. He lives in Toronto.
Anosh Irani
Novelist and playwright Anosh Irani was born and raised in Bombay, India, and moved to Vancouver in 1998 to pursue writing. Irani’s debut novel, 2004’s The Cripple and His Talismans was released to critical acclaim, while his second book The Song of Kahunsha was chosen as a CBC Book Club Pick, was nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and was a 2007 Canada Reads finalist. His most recent play, Bombay Black, won four Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding New Play in 2006, and his anthology The Bombay Plays was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for Drama in 2007. He lives in Vancouver.
Annie Kidder
Annie Kidder is the Executive Director and founder of People for Education, an organization dedicated to the idea of a publicly-funded system that guarantees every student access to the education that meets his or her needs. People for Education promotes greater civic engagement in the public education system, conducts research into the effects of policy and funding changes on schools, coordinates a comprehensive communications strategy focused on education issues and brings an independent voice to government policy tables. Kidder is the recipient of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation Public Education Advocacy Award. She has spoken at conferences across the country and is regularly quoted in the media as an expert on education issues. She lives in Toronto.
Thomas King
Thomas King is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter, photographer and noted performer. A Professor of English at the University of Guelph, he holds a Ph.D. in English/American Studies from the University of Utah. His first novel, Medicine River, won the Alberta Novel Award, the Josephine Miles Award/Oakland PEN Award and was runner-up for the 1991 Commonwealth Writers Prize. A Coyote Columbus Story, a picture book for children, was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award in1993. He has since published two other picture books for children. King is a recipient of the Western American Literary Association Lifetime Achievement Award Winner and a Member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Guelph.
Ana Maria Machado
The novelist, essayist and children’s author Ana Maria Machado is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and is considered by the critics as one of the most complete and versatile Brazilian contemporary writers. In 2000, she won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the most important international award given to a living children’s books author for her body of work. In 2001, she was the recipient of the Machado de Assis prize — Brazil’s most prestigious National Award in Literature. Machado’s books have sold more than 18.5 million copies. She lives in Rio de Janeiro.
Raymond Mar
Raymond Mar is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at York University. His research explores the relation between story-processing and social-processing using the methods of neuroscience, personality psychology, social psychology, and developmental psychology. His work has been published in the Journal of Research in Personality, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Neuropsychologia, and Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. He is also a co-editor of www.onfiction.ca, an online magazine on the psychology of fiction. He lives in Toronto.
Carol McDougall
Carol McDougall is the Founding Director of Read to Me! a hospital-based early literacy program which provides free books and literacy resources to every baby born in Nova Scotia. After a decade in Children’s and Young Adult services at the Toronto Public Library she was appointed librarian for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre where she administered a national collection of children’s literature. She is past chair of the CLA’s Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award, sat on the Children’s Fiction jury for the 2006 Governor General’s Literary Awards, and is past chair of the Halifax Word on the Street Literary Festival. She sits on the editorial board of Canadian Children’s Book News and has worked as creative writing instructor and editor. In 2005 she was awarded the Mayor’s Award for Cultural Achievement for her contributions to literacy and literature. She lives in Halifax.
Minister Diane McGifford
Diane McGifford is the Minister of Advanced Education and Literacy for the province of Manitoba. She was first elected in 1995 and was re-elected in 1999, 2003, and 2007. She has served Cabinet in a number of capacities: as Minister of Culture, Heritage, and Tourism; Minister Responsible for the Status of Women; Minister Responsible for Seniors; Minister Responsible for the Liquor Control Act; and Minister Responsible for the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation. Since 2001, she has been a member of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada, and was named Manitoba’s first Minister of Advanced Education and Training. In this role, she is a strong advocate for Aboriginal education and helped found the University College of the North in 2004. Minister McGifford assumed the position of Chair of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada in September 2009.
Carol Off
Journalist Carol Off has extensive experience in both Canadian and international current affairs, and an award-winning career in documentaries, books, television, and radio. She was the CBC Ottawa correspondent for Sunday Morning in the late 1980s covering the Canada/USA Free Trade Agreement, the Meech Lake Accord, the founding of the Reform Party and the re-election of Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives. She then became CBC Radio’s National Reporter for the Province of Quebec where she covered among other stories the Bloc Quebecois, the Montreal massacre, the Oka crisis and several election campaigns. Off’s book The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada’s Secret War, won the prestigious Dafoe Foundation Award in 2005. She is currently the co-host of CBC Radio One’s As It Happens with Barbara Budd, and lives in Toronto.
Charles Pascal
Charles Pascal is the Special Advisor to the Premier of Ontario on Early Learning and served as the Chair of the Education Quality and Accountability Office from 2005-2008. He is also Executive Director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, which promotes social and economic justice. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a PhD in psychology and joined the psychology faculty at McGill University in Montreal. While at McGill, Pascal was a founder of The Centre for Learning and Development, and the McGill Community Family Centre, a full-service child-care centre that was the first of its kind in Canadian universities. He lives in Toronto.
Leeanna Pendergast
Leeanna Pendergast is the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education, and was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2007. Born and raised in Kitchener, she has worked at numerous high schools in the region, serving as the vice-principal of four schools and as an education consultant for the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. Pendergast has helped develop various programs for youth in Kitchener, including the Safe Schools Initiative and the Breakfast Program for Needy Students. She has also chaired the Education Foundation golf classic, raising money for literacy and numeracy initiatives.
Daniel Poliquin
Daniel Poliquin is the author of many short-story books and novels, most of which have been translated into English. His novel The Straw Man won the Trillium Book Award in 1998 and A Secret Between Us was short-listed for the 2007 Giller Prize. Also a literary translator, he has translated books by Jack Kerouac, Mordecai Richler, Douglas Glover and Matt Cohen. As an essayist, his book on Quebec nationalism, In the Name of the Father, earned him the 2002 Shaugnessy Cohen Award for best political writing in Canada. His latest is a biographical essay on René Lévesque for Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series. Poliquin is a member of the Order of Canada. Originally from Ottawa, he now lives in Nova Scotia.
Jane Pyper
As the City Librarian for the world’s busiest urban public library system, Jane Pyper has witnessed firsthand the power of public libraries to change lives. Throughout her 25 year career in public service, she has been committed to fostering libraries as creative public spaces and promoting the job and value of reading. Pyper holds a Masters in Library Science from the University of Western Ontario, and a Diploma in Public Administration. She is a member of the Freedom of Expression Committee for the Book and Periodical Council, the Copyright Working Group of the Canadian Library Association and numerous library organizations. Pyper has worked for Toronto, North York and New York Public Libraries. She lives in Toronto.
Bill Richardson
Writer and broadcaster Bill Richardson has had a long affiliation with CBC Radio 1 and 2 as the host of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and Sunday Afternoon in Concert. He received a Masters in Library Science at the University of British Columbia, and had been trained as a children’s librarian. His books include After Hamelin, a novel for children, and, with Cynthia Nugent, the picture book The Aunts Come Marching, a recipient of the province of British Columbia’s Early Literacy Award. Richardson’s book Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour in 1994. He lives in Vancouver.
Chris Spence
Born in England and raised in Canada since he was three, Chris Spence is an educator, author and former Canadian football player. After an injury that ended his football career in 1988, Spence earned his Bachelor of Education from York University, a Master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and a doctorate from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. A former Director of Education of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, he has recently become the Director of Education for the Toronto District School Board. Spence is the author of the book Skin I’m In: Racism, Sports, and Education, has been recognized with numerous awards and by the City of Toronto for Best Practices in Education. He lives in Toronto.
