Theresa Meuse was raised in L’sitkuk (Bear River) First Nation, a Mi’kmaw community where she would later have the privilege of serving for two years as Chief. She has been employed with several Mi’kmaq organizations including, the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq, The Atlantic Policy Congress, and the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre.

Theresa has spent many years working as an Indigenous educator and advisor, and continues to be a “Knowledge Sharer.” She presently operates an online craft business called “Mi’kma’ki Craft Supplies” and is the author of four published children’s books. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dalhousie University.

Theresa is currently a Special Advisor on Indigenous Affairs at MSVU and works in partnership with Indigenous communities and in support of Indigenous learners.

Dr. Afua Cooper is a multidisciplinary scholar, author, and artist. Her 13 books range across such genres as history, poetry, fiction, and children’s literature.

Dr. Cooper has put Black Studies on the map in Canada by ensuring the infrastructural development of Black studies by founding and launching the Black Canadian Studies Association. She founded and co-ordinated the Black Studies program at Dalhousie University. Afua’s engagement with Black studies, anti-racism, EDI, and epistemic disruptions in the Canadian academy has made her not only a national figure but an international one as well.

In  2020 Afua was Awarded the Portia White Prize, Nova Scotia’s highest recognition for the arts, and was nominated for the Premier of Ontario’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Dr. Cooper served as Halifax’s (Canada) seventh Poet Laureate, a celebrated poet. She is the author of six books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed Copper Woman and Other Poems and the award-winning Black Matters. She has also produced two digital poetry recordings. Her poetry has a strong sense of memory, history, place, and spirituality.

Andre Fenton is an award-winning African Nova Scotian writer, performer, and arts educator who has represented Halifax at seven national spoken word festivals across Canada. He had founded The Ink Collective in 2025, a program series to help Black writers find their path in the publishing industry. He is the 2023 recipient of the Portia White Protege Award and a 2022 recipient of an Emerging Artist Recognition Award from Creative NS Awards.

Andre is the author of three young adult fiction novels, Worthy of Love. ANNAKA, which was the 2022 recipient of The Community & Place Award from Digitally Lit, and The Summer Between Us, which won Gold in The Coast’s 2022 Best Of Awards. Andre has facilitated writing and performance workshops in over 100 classrooms across Nova Scotia.

He is currently screenwriting the film adaptation of his novel, ANNAKA that is being produced by Fine Devils Films. Andre is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Katherine Knight is recognized for her landscape based photographic works and documentary films on art and culture.

In 2000, Knight received the Duke and Duchess of York Prize from the Canada Council recognizing excellence in Photography. In 2006, Knight founded Site Media Inc, to create films on artists and creative process in relation to experiences of place. Site Media’s award winning films have played worldwide through festivals, television broadcast and post secondary distribution. Knight’s photographic works are held in many public and corporate collections including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Museum London, Department of Foreign Affairs, Banff Centre for the Arts and The Canada Council Art Bank.

In conjunction with her art practice, Knight has held administrative posts as the Visual Arts Award Officer at the Canada Council from 1989-91 and as Dean of Fine Arts at Ontario College of Art and Design 1996-2000. Since 2000, Knight has taught in the Visual Art Department at York University where she is recognized for her innovative approach to blended learning.

James grew up in Moncton and has called Halifax home for twenty years since arriving to study law at Dalhousie University. He also holds a Bachelor of Civil Law from Oxford University (St. Hugh’s College) and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College. A backpacker at heart who has visited over sixty countries, James works as a regulatory lawyer in Atlantic Canada’s electricity and natural resources sector, where you can find him dreaming up elaborate new family travel plans,.

Mirriam was born in Livingstone, Zambia and grew up in the small village of Batoka. She earned a degree in Travel and Tourism from Damelin College in Johannesburg, South Africa and has worked as a restaurant hostess for the Kove Collection in Cape Town and on the MSC cruise ship Sinfonia based in Venice, Italy. Her other professional interests are in the health sector. Prior to starting a family, she worked part-time for NS Health administering covid tests during her first few months in Canada, and is excited to be back in school full-time studying massage therapy.

James and Mirriam live in Cole Harbour with their sons, Anderson Arthur and Jack Benjamin. The Illogical Adventure is their first book.

Wayne Johnston was born and raised in Goulds, Newfoundland.

Widely acclaimed for his magical weaving of fact and fiction, his masterful plotting and his gift for both description and character, his #1 nationally bestselling novels include First Snow, Last Light; The Custodian of Paradise; The Navigator of New York; and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. Baltimore’s Mansion, a memoir about his father and grandfather, won the inaugural Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, published in 1998, was nominated for sixteen national and international awards including the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction.

Wayne’s latest book, a memoir Jennie’s Boy, was a national bestseller, named Best Book of the Year by the CBC, winner of the 2023 Leacock Medal for Humour and Shortlisted for Canada Reads 2025 

Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Cree, Metis and mixed settler descent woman from Prophet River First Nations living in Northeastern British Columbia. She is the author of the Nationally best-selling book, In My Own Moccasins, which was a longlisted for an RBC Taylor award. Her second book, Becoming a Matriarch, reached #1 selling status on the Toronto Star best sellers list, was named one of the top 10 books for 2023 by Indigo Canada, won the George Ryga Award, received the Jim Deva Award from the BC Yukon Book Prizes, was a finalist for a 2024 Governor Generals Award in Non-Fiction, and longlisted for Canada Reads 2025.

Helen holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Masters in First Nations Studies. She has worked in advocacy, wellness, and education within Indigenous communities for over a decade at regional and provincial levels. She is a mediocre beader and an expert berry picker who enjoys holding babies and filling rooms with loud auntie laughter.

After growing up the sleepy town of Lunenburg, Bryn Pottie moved to bustling Toronto in his late teens and joined the local sketch comedy community. He wrote and performed for sold out crowds in the 6ix (then known as T Dot), travelled across North America, appearing in festivals such as Austin Sketchfest, Toronto Fringe and Just For Laughs.

He wrote on the TV series Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for two seasons, directed several plays and wrote and starred in a number of experimental web series, short films and the occasional commercial. In the mid 2020s, Bryn returned to Nova Scotia’s South Shore, where he still resides. The Great Lunenburglary is Bryn’s debut novel, and a love letter to his home.

Jan Fancy Hull is the author of twelve books, including one of nonfiction, two of short stories, the ongoing Tim Brown Mystery series, and prize-winning poetry. She launched her ninth mystery novel in September 2025.

Her stories are set mostly along Nova Scotia’s South Shore, where she lives beside a small lake in Lunenburg County. In summers, when not editing, she writes poetry inspired by the lake. In winters, she writes those novels, sitting by the fire. She admits her life is charmed.

N.L. Blandford is the author of five published novels. Three dark psychological thrillers that captivate readers and play on their emotions (The Perilous Road To Her (2021), The Perilous Road To Freedom (2021), The Perilous Road To Him (2022). The Great Bloody North (2023) is a light-hearted comedy thriller inspired by the iconic Canadian characters, Bob & Doug McKenzie.

Her newest release, Escaping Victoria (2025), takes readers on a hair-raising journey through the underworld of the idyllic province of Nova Scotia, exposing us to the intrigues, infighting and ever-changing loyalties of the crime syndicate known as The Family.

N.L. Blandford is the Canadian Ambassador for The Alliance of Independent Authors, where she advocates to dismantle the stigma of indie publishing. She is also a member of the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia, Crime Writers of Canada and Sisters of Crime.

Her drabble title “Love of a Lifetime” won the Arlene Duane Hemingway Unconditional Love Contest.

N.L. Blandford moved from Alberta in April 2023 and resides outside Lunenburg, where she is building a life of dream exploration with her husband, mild mannered dog, Watson, and two mischievous cats Loki and Lulu.

Charlie Angus is a nationally recognized politician, author, and musician. He has published nine books and is the recipient of numerous writing awards, including the Trillium Book Award finalist Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower.

Angus has served in the Canadian Parliament for twenty years. He has earned a national reputation as a fierce fighter for social justice and Indigenous rights.

Angus was the founding member of Toronto punk band L’etranger. He is the leader of the roots band Grievous Angels; their ninth album is Last Call for Cinderella.

Angus lives in Cobalt, Ontario, with his wife, author Brit Griffin. They have three daughters.

He’s a born storyteller with a background in theatre and narration. Born in Truro, N.S., Jeff Douglas has travelled the country, tackling projects as disparate as mushing dogs in Yukon to jumping out of planes with search-and-rescue personnel from the 442nd Squadron.

He was the host of the award-winning unscripted series Ancestors in the Attic, Working Over Time, and Things That Move. Jeff’s received three Gemini nominations, and a Kari Award for his popular commercial work — which includes playing Joe Canadian in the now-legendary “I Am Canadian” campaign.

Jeff was co-host of As It Happens since 2010. He’s also the voice of CBC TV’s The Stats of Life.

He returned to his home province in June 2019 to host Mainland Nova Scotia’s afternoon show, Mainstreet, on CBC Radio One.

Jeff joined us to host the Lit Fest’s Maude Lewis event in 2023.