Event: The Power of the Page: Who gets Seen and Heard?
December 5th 12:30 – 2:00 pm EST
Power of the Page: Who Gets Seen and Heard is a virtual panel discussion on representation and gender diversity in authorship and publishing. Featuring writers, a publisher, librarian, and a book club founder and community activist. The event explores how the voices we uplift, and those too often left out, shape what young readers see, imagine, and believe as possible. Held in remembrance of the women lost in the Montreal Massacre, as well as the many missing and murdered Indigenous, women, girls, and two-spirit, trans, and non-binary people across turtle Island, this conversation honours their legacy by advancing gender equity and amplifying the power of the page to drive change.
Panellists
Tanya Marie Lee
A Room of Your Own Book Club Founder
TANYA MARIE LEE is a passionate advocate for literacy and the power of books, founding the vibrant "A Room Of Your Own" book club. Dedicated to diverse voices in literature, her club celebrates reading and has featured acclaimed authors such as Marie Henein, Tracy Wolff, and Lawrence Hill.
Tanya’s commitment to inclusivity and accessibility has led to collaborations with prominent Canadians, including Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and various Senators and Ministers. She partnered with the Canadian Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (CCIAWJ) to host a national event on human trafficking and worked with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on social justice education.
Bridging the literary and political scenes, Tanya introduced former Mayor John Tory to young adult fiction and hosted Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik to highlight BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors. Her work has earned international recognition, including a written endorsement from Michelle Obama, and she has collaborated with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad. Tanya uses her platform to promote diverse voices and empower communities through literature.
Rick Wilks
Publisher Annick Press
RICK WILKS co-founded Annick Press in the late 1970’s, along with Anne Millyard. Throughout the years, the company’s guiding principles have remained solidly in place—to find new ways into ideas, to challenge ways of thinking, to try to be as inclusive and representative as possible. An emphasis is placed on encouraging critical and analytical thinking and building empathy while speaking directly to the lives of contemporary children and youth with thought-provoking stories. Of course, no story will successfully resonate unless it is well told and offers a stimulating and engaging reading experience. Rick has committed to building the company’s profile throughout North America, and around the world. Internationally, Annick has been named a finalist for the highly regarded Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year three times in the past. Rick is currently the Co-Publisher at Annick Press, having entered into a succession arrangement with David Caron.
Maggie DeVries
Book Rabbit Ears
MAGGIE De VRIES is the author of eleven books including the Governor General Literary Award nominated Missing Sarah: A Memoir of Loss and the teen novel, Rabbit Ears, winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. In the early and mid 2000s, Maggie was children’s book editor at Orca Book Publishers. For fourteen years after that she taught writing for children and young adults in UBC’s School of Creative Writing. As well, her 2014 TEDxSFU talk The Red Umbrella: Sex Work, Stigma and the Law has been viewed more than 40,000 times, and she was part of a team of women who wrote and performed the collaborative stage production Hooker Monologues, which sold out five shows at Vancouver’s Firehall Arts Centre. Maggie lives with her husband, Roland, and their two cats, Savi and Hana, in Ladysmith, on Vancouver Island.
Melanie Florence
Book- Stolen Words
MELANIE FLORENCE has been writing full-time since 2010 and has written a bunch of books, but she’s probably best known for her picture books, Missing Nimama and Stolen Words, which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award respectively.
In her spare time, Melanie plays guitar, plays video games, collects vinyl, listens to really loud rock music and slightly quieter K-pop, gets tattoos and drinks too much coffee. She lives in Toronto with her family.
Sandra Laronde
Book - She Holds Up The Stars
SANDRA LARONDE is from the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water) in Temagami, Northern Ontario, Canada. An acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and visionary leader, she has garnered numerous accolades, including the 2023 Indspire Award for the Arts and the 2023 Indigenous Artist Award from the Toronto Arts Foundation. Laronde is currently the Executive & Artistic Director of Red Sky Performance.
Trynne Delanney
Book- A House Unsettled
TRYNNE DELANEY is a writer currently based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). They were born on the west coast and raised on the east coast in the place colonially known as Canada. the half-drowned, a poetic novella, will be published with Metatron Press in June 2022. Trynne has never seen a ghost, but they’ve been one.
S.K. Ali
Book- Love from A to Z
S. K. ALI is the New York Times and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author of several books spanning genres from romance to dystopian. Her debut novel, Saints and Misfits, was a finalist for the American Library Association's William C. Morris award, and the winner of the APALA Honor Award and Middle East Book Honor Award. Her second novel, Love from A to Z, was the first YA title selected for NBC Today Show's "Read with Jenna" Book Club, named one of the best teen novels of all time by Reader’s Digest and Good Housekeeping, and became a Goodreads Readers’ Choice Award finalist. Both novels were critically acclaimed and chosen as top ten teen books of the year by various media including Entertainment Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. The sequel to her debut novel, Misfit in Love, was a People magazine best book of summer. Her newest title, featured on several best-of-the-year lists, including NPR’s, is book one of a dystopian duology called Fledgling: The Keeper’s Records of Revolution, with a sequel releasing in 2026. Her books have been lauded in media across North America such as the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, The Globe and Mail, CBC, and Buzzfeed, and are on required reading lists for school and universities in over a dozen states in the U.S. Sajidah has a degree in Creative Writing from York University and teaches writing workshops online and in-person. She lives in Toronto with her family, which includes an athletic-cat named Miss Sheba Mimi Mocha.
E. Graziani
Book - Breaking Faith
E. GRAZIANI is the author of several acclaimed YA novels, including the Alice of the Rocks time-travel series. Alice of the Rocks (Book 1) was recognized as one of Barnes & Noble’s Top Ten Young Adult Summer Reads, 2023, and Angel of Time (Book 2), one of CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens Spring 2024. She is the author of Magenta and Breaking Faith, a contemporary YA novel, listed on CBC Canada’s Must-Read Books for Spring 2017, selected for the ‘In the Margins’ Book Award 2018 Recommended Fiction List, and one of CCBC Best Books for Kids and Teens. Her YA historical memoir War in My Town was a CCBC Best Book for Kids & Teens and a finalist for the Hamilton Arts Council Literary Awards. She has recently signed a three-book deal with Calgary-based Wicked Ink Publishing for her upcoming YA fantasy series, Of Fire and Sky. Book One, The Last Ember, will be available in print, eBook, and audiobook in the Spring of 2027. Edy is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada and CANSCAIP. She frequently speaks at schools, book clubs, and author panels, and lives in Ontario with her family. You can find E. Graziani on TikTok (@reading_egraziani), Instagram (@e.graziani), Goodreads, or her website, where you'll find links to her social media profiles.
Shelly Page
Book- Night of the Living Queers
SHELLY PAGE is a young adult contemporary fantasy romance and horror writer. By day, she’s a practicing attorney representing homeless LGBTQ+ youth. By night, she’s writing stories about love, magic, and mystery—all with the hope of providing genuine representation for queer readers of color. Shelly is the author of Brewed with Love and the forthcoming Charmed and Dangerous. She lives in Los Angeles with a collection of half-dead plants.
Larysa Essex
Librarian- Former TPL employee
LARYSA ESSEX is the Children’s Services Coordinator at the Midland Public Library. She has worked in public libraries since high school, as a page, and eventually became a librarian after realizing that teacher’s college was definitely not for her. Larysa began her career at Toronto Public Library where she worked at multiple branches and departments across the city, in several different roles. Eventually, city life became too much for her, despite being born in Toronto, and she retreated to the countryside to fulfill her lifelong dream of being a small-town girl.
Barb MacQuarrie
BARB MACQUARRIE has recently retired as the Community Director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence against Women & Children at Western University. She conducted research and developed evidence-based education and prevention initiatives involving both community-based and university-based partners. She collaborated with researchers, advocates, labour organizations and employers from North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa to developing new approaches to addressing gendered violence. Barb has presented to a wide variety of audiences locally, nationally and internationally about gendered violence, its impacts and strategies to address it. She is a recipient of the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest official honour, recognizing individual excellence.
