Voices of 2026
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Adam Loo
Chef Adam Loo is a chef and entrepreneur. Born in the heart of Prince Edward Island’s farm country, Adam grew up and lived through twenty years in kitchens, before opening his own restaurant, Ada Culinary Studio. He hopes his story inspires others in rural environments to become their own innovators. He lives with his wife and children in Charlottetown. Let Rise is his first book.
Denise Bruce
Denise Bruce is a Prince Edward Island-based artist, writer, and L. M. Montgomery historian specializing in the real places and circumstances that shaped Montgomery’s writing.
She is the creator of Denise of Ingleside Tours, which offers literary tours devoted exclusively to Montgomery’s life on Prince Edward Island, visiting the island haunts and landscapes that inspired her writing.
Denise’s work is shaped by her kinship with “Maud’s island”: a love of old homesteads, red roads, seaside shores, and the ache and beauty of belonging. Walk where history once lived and by the tour’s end, she hopes visitors may feel what Montgomery once described: “As white sand beach and murmuring ocean, on homestead lights and old fields by dead and gone generations who loved them, and you say, “Why…I have come home.”–L.M. Montgomery – The Alpine Path – Everywoman’s World, 1917
When she is not guiding visitors across Maud’s Island, Denise continues her research, as well as her painting and writing on this little Island she calls home.
Donna Morrissey
Donna Morrissey is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Pluck, which was a finalist for the Atlantic Book Awards’ Non-Fiction Award, and of seven acclaimed and bestselling novels, including the national bestseller Rage the Night. She won the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction for The Fortunate Brother; Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; and The Deception of Livvy Higgs was a One Read pick for Nova Scotia in 2017. Her fiction has also won awards in the US and the UK, and has been translated into several languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she lives in Halifax.
Dr. Brian Goldman
DR. Brian Goldman is an ER doctor and a bestselling author. His CBC Radio show and podcast, White Coat, Black Art, has been on the air for over a decade. A sought-after speaker, he is also the host of The Dose, a CBC podcast about personal health. Brian Goldman lives in Toronto with his family.
Linwood Barclay
Linwood Barclay, a New York Times bestselling author with over twenty novels to his credit, spent three decades in newspapers, including The Toronto Star where he was one of the paper’s most popular columnists before turning full time to writing thrillers. His books have been translated into more than two dozen languages, sold millions of copies, and he counts Stephen King among his fans. Many of his books have been optioned for film and TV, a series has been made in France, and he wrote the screenplay for the film based on his novel Never Saw it Coming. Born in the US, his parents moved to Canada just as he was turning four, and he’s lived there ever since. He lives near Toronto with his wife, Neetha. They have two grown children.
Mike Ross & Alicia Toner
Mike is an accomplished performer and creator who is proud to be from Prince Edward Island. He began his career in the Feast Dinner Theatre, then transitioned to The Jive Kings, and finally to The Charlottetown Festival before making the big move to Toronto. There, he became the founding Slaight Family Director of Music at the Soulpepper Theatre Company, creating a new wing of the company that would create a unique space for interdisciplinary artists. A space where concert, story, design and dance all crashed into each other. He was also an international fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. Mike has won 7 Dora awards and has the distinction of being the only Canadian ever to win best new musical three different times. In 2020, Mike and his wife Nicole Bellamy purchased Harmony House in Hunter River where they continue to follow their passion of creating joy in audiences and treating artists like the heroes that they are.
Alicia Toner is a multi-award winning singer/songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist from the East Coast of Canada. Her latest album, Joan, was released in June 2021 and was nominated for two East Coast Music Awards (Rising Star and Solo Recording of the Year) and won Solo Artist of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. She also spent a decade working in theatre, and some selected credits include – for Mirvish: Once; The Charlottetown Festival: Million Dollar Quartet, Jesus Christ Superstar, Anne of Green Gables, Evangeline, Spoon River, Ring of Fire; For Soulpepper: Chasse Galerie; For the Blyth Festival: A Huron County Christmas Carol. Lately she has regularly been onstage at Harmony House in Inside American Pie, Inside the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and co-creating Ladies of the Canyon and Behind the Veil.
Nicholas Herring
Nicholas Herring’s debut novel Some Hellish won the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was a national bestseller. His second, Your Breath in Charcoal, will be published in the fall of 2026. He works as a fisherman and a carpenter on PEI.
Renée Blanchette
Renee Blanchette was an educator in Charlottetown Prince Edward Island for 28 years. Enriched by the dual perspective of her French and English families, she has been writing poetry and short stories her whole life but has only recently begun to publish. Her Chapbook, On a Blue Colander, was well received in 2014 as was her poetry collection Monday’s Child, published by Acorn Press in 2024. In the near future, she hopes to complete another edition of poetry, a collection of short stories and is working on a memoir.
Ronald Boudreau
First and foremost a teacher, Ronald Boudreau is a keen observer of the Canadian Francophone community. Originally from New Brunswick, he held various posts within the Nova Scotia education system before going on to lead research for the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) in support of French-language schools in minority communities. His involvement on the national stage began with his collaboration with parents’ movements and continued with associations such as the Canadian Association for French-Language Education (ACELF) in the field of identity building and francisation. He is the originator of Pedagogy in French-Language Schools (PELF), a concept that addresses the specific challenges of teaching and learning in an English-dominant environment.
Sandra McIntyre
Sandra McIntyre is a writer, book editor and writing instructor. Her short fiction has appeared in Prairie Fire and Freq. In a twenty-five-year career as a book editor, Sandra has worked both in-house and freelance, and has edited hundreds of books across categories and genres. She delivers in-demand writing courses, webinars and presentations on writing craft, self-editing skills and the ins and outs of book publishing. She holds a master’s degree in English and specializes in fiction editing through Parlay Manuscript Services. Sandra lives with her family in Nova Scotia’s beautiful Annapolis Valley.
Sharon Bala
Sharon Bala’s second novel, Good Guys, was published in January 2026. Publishers Weekly calls it “quietly profound” and a “blackly comic tale.” Her best-selling debut novel, The Boat People, won a Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award and the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, was short listed for several awards, and is in translation in four languages. Her short fiction has won the Journey Prize and been published in: Best Canadian Stories 2024, Hazlitt, Grain, PRISM international, The New Quarterly, and Maisonneuve. Her non-fiction has appeared in The Globe & Mail, Maclean’s, and elsewhere. Sharon is the Creative Non-Fiction editor at Riddle Fence Magazine.
Susan Christensen
Susan Christensen has a passion for the arts and for her island home. She has travelled extensively, enabling her to appreciate the beauty and serenity of Prince Edward Island. “Each spring, as I see the land awaken with its lush red soil, the greens of the trees and fields, the blues of the ocean and sky, I feel an awakening in my soul and a renewing of my deep love for this island that has always been my home.” Susan has shown her artwork both locally and internationally. Her image “Beach Walk, PEI” was chosen to represent PEI at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Her art was also featured on the Marilyn Dennis TV show in the fall of 2022.
Tara Gereaux
Tara Gereaux is the author of Saltus, which was shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Novel Award and three Saskatchewan Book Awards; and Size of a Fist, a teen novella, which was also shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Tara holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and has worked as a writer and story editor for film and television. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and lives in Regina on Treaty 4 territory and the homeland of the Métis.
Terrilee Bulger
Terrilee Bulger is the co-owner and General Manager of Nimbus Publishing, the largest English-language publisher east of Toronto, and serves as Publisher of The Acorn Press. Bulger has worked in the book industry since her teenage years and joined Nimbus Publishing in 2004. In 2012, she and business partner Heather Bryan purchased the company to keep it independent and rooted in Atlantic Canada.
Under this leadership, Nimbus has expanded its publishing program to produce more than 50 titles annually across genres including fiction, non-fiction, history, and children’s books, with a strong focus on Atlantic Canadian stories and culture.
Bulger is an active leader in Canada’s publishing community, serving on industry boards such as the Access Copyright Foundation and the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association. She has been recognized by Quill & Quire as one of the Canadian book industry’s “ones to watch under 35.”
Passionate about storytelling and regional voices, Bulger is committed to supporting independent publishing and amplifying stories from Atlantic Canada.
Trevor Corkum
Trevor Corkum’s debut novel Here with You is forthcoming with Knopf Canada. His work has appeared in Canada’s leading periodicals, including the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail. He currently serves as the Atlantic Canadian correspondent for The Walrus. Trevor’s story “Lost Boys” was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and his writing has been recognized with nominations for the Journey Prize, National Magazine Award for Fiction, Western Magazine Award for Personal Journalism, and the CBC Short Story and CBC Nonfiction Prizes. Trevor holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a PhD in Adult Education from the University of Toronto. On PEI, he is a co-proprietor of The Hideout, which offers annual self-directed residencies for Canadian and international writers.
Uzma Jalaluddin
Uzma Jalaluddin is a critically acclaimed and bestselling novelist, playwright, and teacher. She writes nuanced and entertaining stories about Muslims, South Asians, and Canadians and is the author of Much Ado About Nada, Three Holidays and a Wedding, Hana Khan Carries On, and Ayesha at Last. as well as her first play, The Rishta. Her novels have been optioned for film and television, including by Amazon Studios and Mindy Kaling. A high school English teacher, Jalaluddin is also a former contributor to the Toronto Star and the Atlantic. She lives near Toronto with her family.
Wayne Johnston
Wayne Johnston was born and raised in Goulds, Newfoundland. 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 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, and was a Canada Reads finalist. In 2011, Johnston was awarded the Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award honouring the work of a writer in mid-career. His memoir Jennie’s Boy won the 2023 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Literary Humour and was also a Canada Reads finalist, in 2025.
Amanda Peters
Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry and a member of Glooscap First Nation. Her debut novel, The Berry Pickers, was the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the Dartmouth Book Award and the Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. She lives and writes in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, where she is an associate professor in the department of English and theatre at Acadia University. The Birthing Tree is her second novel.
Tracy Belsher
Tracy Belsher is part of the team at Acorn Press, taking on graphic design, acquisitions, and project management. She also writes as Judith Graves, and is an award-winning young adult fiction author, illustrator, and screenwriter.
Zoe Whittall
Frankie Scott is the romance-writing pen name of bestselling novelist and award-winning TV writer Zoe Whittall. Her most recent novels are The Fake, The Spectacular, and The Best Kind of People, which was a finalist for the Giller Prize and named Indigo’s #1 book of the year. She won a Lambda Literary Award for her second novel, Holding Still for as Long as Possible. She has worked on the Baroness von Sketch Show, Schitt’s Creek, Degrassi, and other TV shows. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Your Moderators
Dr. Trevor Jain
Dr. Trevor Jain is an emergency physician, military veteran, and award‑winning leader in disaster medicine whose career bridges science, service, and storytelling. Raised in Nova Scotia and trained at Dalhousie, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces, earning the Meritorious Service Medal for his pivotal role in the Swissair Disaster response. His experiences in conflict and humanitarian missions shaped his research into virtual‑reality and UAV‑based training, work that has received national recognition including the Order of Military Merit and CAEP’s Emergency Physician of the Year. A frequent voice on CBC and CTV, Dr. Jain is known for translating complex medical challenges into compelling narratives—making him an ideal guide for conversations at the Cavendish Literary Festival.
Keir Lowther
Keir Lowther is the author of Dirty Bird, winner of the 2013 Margaret and John Savage First Novel Award at the Atlantic Book Awards, shortlisted for a Relit Award, a PEI Book Award for Fiction, and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize. He is a former nationally ranked junior tennis player and provincial tennis champion. He lives in Prince Edward Island with his wife, daughter, son and dog.
Laura Chapin
Laura Chapin is an award-winning journalist who worked with CBC for 30 years, in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Halifax and Charlottetown before retiring last year. Her monologue The Pants was performed in Winnipeg and published by the former feminist theatre company Sarasvati Productions. She has a couple of current writing projects on the go. As an avid reader, Laura is thrilled to be a moderator with the Cavendish Literary Festival.
Musicians
Olivia Blacquiere
Prince Edward Islander, Olivia Blacquiere has an extraordinary way of captivating audiences with stories told through song. Rooted in the Island’s rich cultural traditions, she draws inspiration from generations of step dancers, storytellers, and musicians who have nurtured her deep connection to music.
For Olivia, music starts at the heart. She was raised where PEI’s rugged red soil meets the gentle stillness of the sea — a place alive with kitchen parties, fiddle tunes, and stories shared from one generation to the next.
Whether lighting up a stage or sharing songs in everyday moments, Olivia embraces the joy of musical expression through her melodies on the piano and guitar, weaving heart and heritage into every note. Her voice carries the soul of her ancestors and the spirit of a new generation, blending timeless tradition with a vibrant, distinctly personal sound.
Luka Hall & Sydney Thompson
Hailing from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Luka Hall & Sydney Thompson are a folk duo known for charming audiences with their authenticity, musicianship, and the kind of harmonies that only come from a true musical connection. Luka, a talented singer-songwriter, guitarist, and fiddle player, brings depth and musical finesse to every performance. Sydney, a captivating vocalist, adds warmth and soul with a voice that stops audiences in their tracks.
Lawrence Maxwell
Lawrence Maxwell cut his teeth on beer caps, rough waters, and country music. His latest album, Ballad of Miles was nominated for seven Music PEI Awards, and in 2024, he received the award for Music PEI’s ‘Entertainer of the Year.’ His songs have received airplay on: Sirius XM’s ‘Top of the Country,’ Country Hits Radio UK and CBC ‘Q’. With its neo-traditional production, and comparisons to both John Prine and Merle Haggard, Roots Music Canada has dubbed the record “the first great Canadian alt-country album of the year.” His music video for “Back to Cape Breton” was a finalist in the Canadian Independent Music Video Awards and his song “Better You” was selected in the Top 100 for CBC/Toyota Searchlight. Having completed his first series of international performances at Tønder Festival in Denmark and Manchester Folk Festival in the UK, Maxwell is expanding his audience as he exports into new markets. As an ECMA award nominee and four-time Music P.E.I. award winner, this Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter will tell it to you like it’s folk, and sing it to you like it’s country.