P.K. Page
BC Bookworld calls Page "one of Canada’s most prolific and celebrated writers." Her publications include a Governor General’s Award winning poetry collection, The Metal and the Flower (McClelland & Stewart, 1954). The title poem from Page’s latest book, Planet Earth: Poems Selected and New (Porcupine’s Quill, 2002), was read atop Mt. Everest, at Antarctica’s Casey Station and at space station Alpha, as part of the United Nations’ Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations celebrations.

Dennis Bock
Bock’s novel, The Ash Garden (Harper Collins, 2001, Knopf, 2002), on The Globe and Mail’s bestseller list for four months, dares to ask those big questions for which there are no ready answers. "From its achingly sad opening to its haunting conclusion," writes Barbara Love in the Library Journal, "this riveting novel explores the moral ambiguities of war while illuminating a shameful moment in our collective history."

David Bouchard
The author of 17 books, Bouchard is also a popular motivational speaker on literacy. Saskatchewan-born Bouchard brings poetry and art into children’s lives through his writing and collaborations. Bouchard’s list of awards includes the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for Voices From the Wild (Raincoast, 1996) and the Red Cedar Award for The Great Race (Raincoast, 1997).

Chris Czajkowski
Czajkowski brings the mountains to her readers. Since 1980 she has published six books about her pioneering adventures in British Columbia’s coast mountains. Her latest edition of Cabin at Singing River (Raincoast, 2002) is described in The Globe and Mail as, "A celebration of the natural world and a story of perseverance, independence, courage and imagination."

Marq de Villiers
De Villiers began as a reporter for the Toronto Telegram and editor for Reuters in London. He spent two years as a Moscow correspondent, was a contributing editor for Weekend Magazine in Montreal and publisher of Toronto Life Magazine. De Villiers’ research has taken him from the deserts of Africa to the Volga River in Russia, from ancient empires to modern tribal groups.

Bill Gaston
Gaston, as described by Giller jury members, is "a writer of great empathy." His Bella Combe Journal (Cormorant, 1996), was short-listed for the Seal Books First Novel Award and his last novel, The Good Buddy (Cormorant, 2000), received critical acclaim in both Canada and the US. "Poignant and bittersweet," said a Denver Post review, "... a testament to his skill as a storyteller."

Genni Gunn
Gunn’s critically acclaimed short story collection, Hungers (Raincoast Books, 2002), is described by the Vancouver magazine, Uptown, as an example of "craftsmanship and control." The book is just one of Gunn’s many literary successes which began with winning the 1984 Bankson Long Fiction Award for her first novel, Scissors (Microform, UBC Press).

Aislinn Hunter
Hunter is receiving high praise for her first novel, Stay (Polestar, 2002). The Globe and Mail reviewer Michelle Berry writes, "For all the complexity in Hunter’s rich book - the compounding of character, narrative, history and arching, multi-layered plot - there is also a certain quietness and simplicity to the prose, a minute attention to detail and an elegance in the natural dialogue.

Almeda Glenn Miller
"First-time novelist Almeda Glenn Miller favors the sweep of the big screen, moving from panoramic views to detailed, close-up shots," writes Quill & Quire in a review of Tiger Dreams (Raincoast Books, 2002). Drawing on the history of her grandmother, whose husband was once Gandhi’s jailer, Miller spins Claire’s story of coping with a life-threatening disease.

Lisa Moore
Newfoundland writer Lisa Moore focuses on heartbreak and survival in Open (Anansi, 2002). Nominated for the 2002 Giller Prize, the book was praised by Quill & Quire as "An accomplished, polished collection. . . Over and over Moore expands the universe, then shrinks it back to a beat of individual consciousness …she has mastered the short story."

Gloria Sawai
Sawai’s first book, A Song for Nettie Johnson, won the 2002 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Danuta Gleed Award, The City of Edmonton Book Award and two Writers Guild of Alberta awards. Curtis Gillespie in Sunday writes that Sawai’s "understated realistic technique, coupled with her hugely empathetic sensibility, makes Nettie Johnson not just a book to enjoy as a reading, but a book to hold near, to put one’s faith in when it comes to matters of human nature."