Soloway JCC Jewish Book Festival

ILAN STAVANS is a Mexican-born Jewish-American writer and academic. A professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College He writes and speaks on American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures. Ilan is the publisher of Restless Books, the cofounder and academic director of Great Books Summer Program, and a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. His work, translated into two dozen languages, has been adapted into film, TV, theater, and radio.  

TAMARA LEVINE is an adult educator and literacy activist who worked with unions and employers on workplace literacy and clear language initiatives across Canada. Her first book But Hope is Longer: Navigating the Country of Breast Cancer was published in 2012. The Warmest Blanket in the World is her first book for children. es, has been adapted into film, TV, theater, and radio.  

ANGELA MACKAY was born and raised in London, educated at the University of Wales and emigrated to Canada – temporarily – in 1978. She is still there. Her professional life has focused primarily on education and training after first launching as a volunteer high school teacher in Botswana in 1970. Now in retirement mode, she spends far more time reading and writing than clamouring for travel in increasingly conflicted and insecure environments. She writes, teaches yoga and relishes being ‘home’ close to family – but with fuel left in the tank if the right adventure comes her way. 

ERIK H. MARKS is an author, teacher and child advocate. He has spent the past 30 years working with vulnerable children, youth and families living in the most challenging of circumstances, both in Canada and abroad. Domestically, Erik has helped on the frontline of crisis intervention in the child and adolescent psychiatric units of hospitals and inside of group homes in Québec and Ontario, as well as having directed summer camps in central Canada and the Maritime provinces. He is currently a manager in the child welfare sector and a university lecturer. When Erik is not writing, he enjoys boating, scuba diving and spending time with his two daughters. He has been published in several academic journals on child protection topics, but Rescuing Ethan and Gabe is his first work of fiction. 

BARBARA FRADKIN is a retired child psychologist with a fascination for why we turn bad. She has published at least thirty short stories and sixteen novels, as well as four Rapid Reads short novels. Many of her works have been shortlisted or won Awards of Excellence from Crime Writers of Canada. She is the author of three mystery series but is probably best known for her gritty, psychological mysteries featuring quixotic, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green. The gritty, character-driven series has earned her two Best Novel Awards of Excellence, as well as two additional nominations.  

SHEILA BASLAW began writing children’s stories after a career in social work. Intrigued by the stories her parents told about growing up in a shtetl, she based Shmuel on her father’s life as a Jewish child in Russia in the early 1900s. Sheila, now in her 90s, lives in Ottawa and enjoys walking with friends and belongs to study, writing, and poetry groups.  

ANNA SOLOMON is the author of three novels – The Book of V., Leaving Lucy Pear, and The Little Bride – and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, One Story, Ploughshares, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. Co-editor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers, Anna has been editing and coaching writers for two decades and teaches in the MFA programs at Warren Wilson and Brooklyn College. 

DAVID BEZMOZGIS is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. He is the author of the story collections, Immigrant City and Natasha and Other Stories, and the novels, The Betrayers and The Free World. His books have been nominated for the Scotiabank/Giller Prize, The Governor-General’s Award, the Trillium Prize and won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the National Jewish Book Award. Born in Riga, Latvia, David lives in Toronto and teaches screenwriting at Humber Polytechnic.