trey anthony is the award winning playwright of  'da Kink in my Hair. Critics have referred to anthony as 'The Oprah of the Canada theatre scene!' 'da Kink in my hair is Dora-nominated and has received four NAACP Theatre awards and was the first Canadian play to be produced at the Princess of Wales Theatre.  The play recently opened in London, England and will be returning in Fall 2008 by popular demand! 'da Kink in my Hair has been published in Testifyin edited by Djanet Sears. anthony is the co-creator and executive producer of 'da kink television show, former television producer for The Women's Television Network, and a writer for the Comedy Network and CTV. She is also the producer of Canada's first Urban Womyn's Comedy Festival, 'dat girl sho is funny!  trey's website. (Pride 2006, Visions of Loving 2007, sistahz sAY! walk good 2008, Over The Rainbow 2008)

Kadeem Brown is a Jamaican born, trans-identified, writer, storyteller and freelance photographer who currently reside in Toronto. Kadeem has spent over ten years perfecting and practicing his unique brand of storytelling that is derived from his personal experiences, the experiences of those in his community and the teachings of his Jamaican ancestors. Kadeem is focused on his writing and passionate about his community. For over four years, he was an active group facilitator for Black Queer Youth (BQY) a Toronto based group aimed at supporting Black youth aged 16 – 29. He has been reading at various events around Toronto for queer writers of colour for the last two years. Currently, Kadeem Brown is writing a book based on his experiences of being a transman living, loving and laughing whilst growing up in Jamaica. Other projects in progress include: a documentary about the fire between a transman and his fem, a book of poetry and an exhibit of photographs. Contact: kadeemb7@hotmail.com

Michele Chai is a Butch, Chinese-Trinidadian Feminist Warrior Dyke inspired by social justice movements and everyday acts of resistance. Her works endeavor to provoke conversation and action that build relationships and challenge accepted notions of gender, sexuality, community and identity. Michele lives, dreams and agitates in Toronto with her beloved Cindy. Michele's website.  (Reading Series Launch 2005, Pride 2006, Matters of the Heart 2008)

D-lishus is a Jamaican-born activist, womanist, spoken word artist/dubpoet and mother, a warrioress who strives to break down barriers, fights to put an end to violence against women and organizes to open up spaces for women of colour. Her writings are meant to provoke passion, engender engagement, and titillate thought.  (Reading Series Launch 2005, Pride 2006, Visions of Loving 2007 , Generations of Resistance 2007, Flex Fridays 2007, sistahz sAY! walk good 2008)

Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based author and social worker. Her novel, Stealing Nasreen (Inanna, 2007) has received critical acclaim from the Globe and Mail, Quill and Quire, and NOW Magazine. She has had her poetry, reviews, short stories and creative non-fiction published in NOW, Trikone, Herizons, Siren, Aurat Durbar and Sightlines 7 Anthology. She has also co-written a manual for therapists and was part of the video collective that produced the documentary, “Rewriting the Script”. She is now working on revisions on her second novel.  (Over The Rainbow 2008)

OmiSoore Dryden is a Jamaican-Canadian Lesbian. She is proudly her mother's daughter and a student of and for life.  (Host of Generations of Resistance 2007, Host of Flex Fridays 2007, Co-host of sistahz sAY! walk good 2008, Moderator of Over The Rainbow 2008)

Hope Engel, "Evening Star", Turtle Clan, has flown with the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Oklahoma crows until landing in Canada in 1989. Since then, the K-W/Guelph area has become her home. She continues to caw messages and collect shiny things to share with her community. She says, "Be the dandelion in the sidewalk, feel Sweetgrass through the concrete...My life drips with honey. Chi Miigwech, to All Our Relations."  (Matters of the Heart 2008, Over The Rainbow 2008)

 GLAD Voices is a queer positive, African acappella singing group born of Toronto's community organization, GLAD Toronto (Gays Lesbians of African Descent). GLAD Voices performs songs originating from Africa, spanning various themes including liberation, hope, spirituality, and social justice. GLAD website. (Generations of Resistance 2007)

Julia Gonsalves is a queer mixed-race writer, artist and non-profit children’s program manager who is currently working on an ever-elusive book of poetry, learning to love herself as is and trying to get her partner pregnant.  (Visions of Loving 2007)

Nila Gupta was born in Montreal and spent several childhood years in India before immigrating back to Canada in 1967. Her first book of inter-linked short stories, The Sherpa and Other Fictions, was published by Sumach Press in Spring 2008 and is part of the Literary Press Group's Fiery First Fiction Campaign. In 2004 she won the Ontario Arts Council K.M. Hunter Award for Literature. She teaches Creative Writing at community venues and social work/community work at community colleges and is enrolled in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program at the University of Guelph-Humber. Poet, playwright and scholar, Gupta has also had work published in numerous journals and anthologies.  (Matters of the Heart 2008)

elisa hatton is a queer woman of caribbean-mexican-cherokee descent. she writes to heal, to encounter wisdom, and also to let loose the voices that swim in her cellular, muscular, skeletal and blood memories. her current focus is short-story writing and she is eagerly looking forward to the day when she will finally publish her first collection of short stories!  elisa currently lives in toronto. (Pride 2006)

Lorelei KING says, "Though I don't think of myself as a writer, I do allow myself to dream of what we consider impossible and visualise what I believe to be possible and then sit back and watch what happens. I try to remember that we are all students in the lesson of life and with experience become teachers. Writing keeps my spirit young and my eyes open." (Generations of Resistance 2007)

Tiffany-Lethabo King is a writer, educator and activist representing her home-towns of Wilmington-Delaware, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and now Toronto. Tiffany-Lethabo is currently using poetry and collage to reshape and expand her activism. She is also a member of the Toronto INCITE chapter. (Generations of Resistance 2007)

 tamai kobayashi is the author of "Quixotic Erotic" Arsenal Pulp Press, "Exile and the Heart" Women's Press and "All Names Spoken" co-authored with Mona Oikawa, Sister Vision Press.  (Matters of the Heart 2008)

Kyisha is a black, queer, sexy, poly-amorous, activist, vibrant, fighter and writer. Originally from Toronto, she currently lives in Ottawa attending Carleton University, studying policy and human rights. (Visions of Loving 2007)

Maxine Marcellin hates writing bios. However, she does enjoy referring to herself in the third person, so don't think the irony is lost...Some of her favourite projects have included inflating her (fake) breasts in a show called Breasts; baring her breasts in Marc Camoletti's adapted French farce Don't Dress for Dinner; and is now writing her first one woman show, The Rise and Fall of the Great Hooter Empire, about... well, it's obvious what it's about. Needless to say, Maxine is a bona fide artist with a one-track mind. "Hey! Her eyes are up here!" (Host of sistahz sAY! walk good 2008)

Virma Marguerite - A caribbean lesbian woman writes slowly in search of her artist voice.  She lives in Toronto.  (Reading Series Launch 2005, Pride 2006, Visions of Loving 2007)

Courtnay McFarlane is a Toronto-based visual artist, and closet poet brought out of ‘retirement’ to celebrate and re-launch Piece of My Heart. His poetry has been published in a number of African-Canadian and Queer anthologies including: Fiery Spirits, and Voices: Writers of African-Canadian Descent, Word-up, Plush. Courtnay co-edited, along with Douglas Stewart, Debbie Douglas, and Makeda Silvera the Sister Vision publication Ma-ka: Diasporic Juks, New Writing by Queers of African-Descent.  (Matters of the Heart 2008)

Pamela Mordecai is one of the thousand Toronto women in Pierre Maraval’s Mille Femmes Exhibition being mounted for Luminato 2008. A prize-winning poet and children’s writer as well as prolific anthologist, her first collection of short fiction, PINK ICING, received rave reviews from critics in Canada, the US and the Caribbean. Her play, THE PIG FROM LOPINOT, commissioned by the Lorraine Kimsa Young People’s Theatre in Toronto, is currently being workshopped under the direction of b current’s ahdri zina mandiela.  She is currently working on an anthology of short fiction, "Cold comfort” is the title story.  (sistahz sAY! walk good 2008)

Mecca is an edutainer in her early-to-mid 20's. Borne from Trinidadian and South African parentage, Mecca has followed in her parents footsteps. Raised by a mother who was heavily involved in community issues and activism, Mecca began her career as a community activist early. Her modus operandi is edutainment (Educational Entertainment). Using the Arts to educate all communities, Mecca dabbles in Spoken-Word, Theatre, Dance and Film. (Generations of Resistance 2007, Flex Fridays 2007, Matters of the Heart 2008)

Clarisa Pessoa was born in 1988 in Toronto, Ontario. She is currently 19 years old and studies journalism. Clarisa hopes to one day become a current affairs journalist on social structure to help fight all injustice toward humanity.  (sistahz sAY! walk good 2008)

Kim Quashie is a Vincentian born, Toronto grown queer female writer. As an emerging writer, she has performed her pieces with Sistafire writing group and 'A is for Orange' at the Toronto Women's Bookstore. To her, writing is about reclaiming her full voice.  (Pride 2006, Generations of Resistance, Visions of Loving 2007) 

Nik Redman writes mostly in his head and keeps it there most of the time. He is an africanbajancanadian residing in toronto for the past 15 years. He has been out and proud to be queer for the last 24 years of his life.  He lives with 4 cats and a really sweet guy name syrus. (Visions of Loving 2007)

janet romero-leiva is a queer feminist latina artist creating a place and space for under/mis/un-represented bodies. janet's writing explores immigrant displacement/denied aboriginality/loving in dos lenguas.  (Matters of the Heart 2008)

 nalini singh is a writer, an academic librarian, a fool for love, and will answer to a random collection of various other temporary labels.  she was born in guyana, and is very proud to have been included in the piece of my heart anthology.  she still gets a thrill from walking into a public library and finding a copy of it on the shelves.  she has new work coming out june 26, 2008 in the summer issue of descant.  (Visions of Loving 2007, Matters of the Heart 2008)

Dianah Smith is a writer, teacher, curator and arts educator based in Toronto.  She is the founder of ‘A’ is for Orange and the coordinator of the Walk Good project.  (Reading Series Launch 2005, Pride 2006, Generations of Resistance 2007, Visions of Loving 2007, sistahz sAY! walk good 2008, Matters of the Heart 2008, Over The Rainbow 2008)

Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes is a Jamaican-Canadian, poet/educator and former nun, lives and works in Toronto. She divides her time between poetry and projects in education. Travelling Light, her second collection of poetry, was published by Seraphim Editions in 2006. Her first poetry collection, the fires of naming, was published in Toronto by Seraphim Editions in 2001. She is one of six poets features in the Caribbean Poetry Series anthology Calling Cards: New Poetry from Caribbean/Canadian Women edited by Pamela Mordecai and published by Sandberry Press, Toronto & Kingston, Jamaica, 2005.  (Visions of Loving 2007)

Leleti Tamu is a registered massage therapist on the well-worn path to her 50th birthday. Trying to live each day with a little less drama and lot more simple pleasures. Trying to build, from lessons learned as mom to Jonathan, an inspiring life for my grandchildren.

Phyllis Walker, story-teller of multicultural tales and the Anansi tales; shares her stories with listeners of all ages to their great enjoyment and delight. Years in the class-room has given to Phyllis a special understanding of children and she engages them through active participation in the tales that she tells using singing and drama techniques. A qualified teacher, Phyllis knows that stories have the power to touch the hearts of everyone - especially children. As the first woman to have a Talk Show on CFRB 1010 in the 80's, Phyllis shared stories with her listeners and the 'TALK' continues ….  (sistahz sAY! walk good) 2008)

 Yaya Yao is a poet and community worker born and raised in Toronto's Chinatown and Little Portugal. You can find Yaya's work in Fireweed, Contemporary Verse 2, the Journal of Association of Research on Mothering and Sisters of the Sun. Finally, this year she was part of the fu-gen Asian Canadian Theatre Company's Kitchen playwriting unit, and a 15-minute excerpt of her play, Tongue, will be read on June 22, 2008 at the Factory Theatre mainspace, along with five other plays by emerging Asian playwrights.  (Matters of the Heart 2008)   

Zakiya is an air gemini love child with Torontonian/Bajan/African roots. She began sharing the words and rhythms that dance in her head about 15 years ago and has been published in several anthologies and magazines, including “Does Your Mama Know” and Fireweed. Zakiya has also been the recipient of a number of writing awards and grants. (Reading Series Launch 2005)