11:00 - 11:45 :: Paths of Glory - How I Beat the Odds and Got My First Book Published

It is usually so hard to get a book into print. Does it take talent, grit, luck, persistence or some secret combination of the above? Come hear how two different first-time published authors found their way.
 

Julie Booker’s fiction was shortlisted for the Metcalf-Rooke Award and has appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including the 2010 edition of Best Canadian Stories. She won the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers in 2009.  Up Up Up, with House of Anansi Press,is her first book.
Learn more about Julie Booker
 

Dorothy Ellen Palmer was conceived in Hurricane Hazel, adopted at three, and taught high school for 23 years. When Fenelon Falls (Coach House Press, 2010) set in cottage country in the summer of 1969 is her first novel. She is currently at work on Kerfuffle, the story of a Toronto Improv troupe making sense and nonsense of last summer’s G20.
Learn more about Dorothy Ellen Palmer

12:00 - 12:45 :: Getting Paid for Itchy Feet - Travellers Who Write

Writers who travel are a various breed, from sailors who go searching for the mythical "Minister of Rum", to a collector of rare bottles, to politicized visitors, to oppressed Rangoon in Burma. Come explore the range with two celebrated writers on the move.
 

Karen Connelly won the Governor General’s Award for her 1992 national bestseller, Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal. She is also the author of a second book of non-fiction, One Room in a Castle: Letters from Spain, France & Greece, which was praised in the New York Times Review of Books. In addition, she has written four books of poetry. Her novel, The Lizard Cage, was shortlisted for the U.S. Kiriyama Prize and won the UK Orange Prize for New Fiction. Burmese Lessons is her most recent non-fiction book.
Learn more about Karen Connelly
 

Ann Vanderhoof is the author of The Spice Necklace: A Food-Lover's Caribbean Adventure (Doubleday, 2010) and An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude (Doubleday, 2004). Ann, who loves to experience the places she visits through her tastebuds, has also written travel-and-food pieces for magazines such as Gourmet, Caribbean Gourmet, Islands, and Caribbean Compass.  She blogs about her travels at www.spicenecklace.com. 
Learn more about Ann Vanderhoof

1:00 - 1:45 :: Essentials of Crime Fiction

How do you write crime fiction anyway? Find out from two crime fiction writers who broke into the genre in the last few years and met with international success.

Elizabeth J. Duncan’s first work of fiction, the award winning The Cold Light of Mourning, was nominated for both an Agatha Award (USA) and Arthur Ellis Award (Canada). Her second novel, A Brush with Death, was published in July, 2010. Elizabeth lives in Toronto with her dog, Dolly, and spends several weeks each year in North Wales where her books are set.
Learn more about Elizabeth J. Duncan

Prominent Toronto criminal lawyer, Robert Rotenberg, broke into the world of fiction by landing a New York agent and publisher and sales in nine other countries for his debut murder mystery novel set in Toronto, Old City Hall, which was published to great acclaim. The Guilty Plea, his most recent crime novel, was released in several countries this spring.
Learn more about Robert Rotenberg

2:00 - 2:45 :: The Insider's Guide: How to Get Published in Perilous Times

It was always hard to get published, and it’s getting harder still in the brave new world of bloggers, self-publishers, e-books and dwindling sales. This session provides an expert to help pilot you through those perilous waters.
 

A former president and publisher of Penguin Books, Cynthia Good, Director, Creative Book Publishing Program, Humber has been in the publishing industry for over 25 years.  Under her leadership the roster included such writers as John Ralston Saul, Michael Ignatieff, Michael Adams, Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, Timothy Findley, Stuart McLean, Peter Robinson, Guy Gavriel Kay and many others.  After 20 years with Penguin Books, Ms. Good went on to create The Creative Book Publishing Program at Humber College. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

3:00 - 3:45 :: No, No, A Thousand Times No

What must you NOT do when trying to get published? Find out the gaffes to avoid, the clichés to discard, and the bad ideas that keep rising like the undead from two editors who have seen it all. They will tell how to put your best foot forward, or at least, how to keep your worse foot back.
 

Barbara Berson has been an editor in the book publishing industry for 25 years, first in her native New York City and then in Toronto. She was Senior Editor at Penguin Books. Her authors have been the recipients of numerous prizes, including the Giller Prize and the Governor-General’s Literary Award. Today, she is an independent editor and consultant to writers and publishers, and an instructor at Ryerson University.
Learn more about Barbara Berson
 

Barry Jowett has acquired and edited award-winning books for adults and young readers for more than 15 years. He has built publishing lists of literary and genre fiction, and is now Associate Publisher of Dancing Cat Books, the young-readers imprint of Cormorant Books.
Learn more about Barry Jowett

4:00 - 4:45 :: Beyond Vampires in Commercial Fiction

What are the latest trends in books that the public adores?  Will it be warlocks and witches or vampires and zombies? Romance or thriller? Two editors who work with commercial fiction will give you the inside scoops.
 

Hadley Dyer is the executive editor of children's books at HarperCollins Canada and an author for children and teens. She is also a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail and an instructor in the publishing program at Ryerson University.
Learn more about Hadley Dyer
 

Prior to joining HarperCollins Canada as a fiction editor in 2010, Lorissa Sengara was a freelance book editor and an editor at Canadian Art magazine. She has also worked at Book City and at Toronto’s YYZ Books. At HarperCollins, she edits and oversees the publication of the work of writers such as Glenn Cooper, Daniel Kalla, and Isabel Wolff.
Learn more about Lorissa Sengara

5:00 - 5:45 :: How am I doing so far?

In this session, a professional editor and writing teacher will listen to one minute of your prose (novel, non-fiction, short story) and let you know what they think of the writing and the story. Aspiring writers should bring one anonymous page of an adult novel or short story to the session and drop it in a box. Pages will be chosen by lottery (no guarantees that yours will be picked) and read aloud by host and author, Antanas Sileika. Jack David and Kim Moritsugu will each react to the opening line. This is a rough and ready exercise, not for the faint of heart!