Conversations in Trust Halifax: Canadian Authors Make Sense of Our World

Canadian writers tell stories of who we are and who we might become. Through the shared heritage of their books and the deep thinking that informs them, writers bring complexity and nuance to a time that needs them. Yet, the work of building connection is fraught with questions about how community can be held together when individuals hold disparate views, and misinformation and misunderstanding are weaponized to sow discord.

With 50 years of supporting writers as the truth-tellers of our world, Writers’ Trust of Canada believes that we need writers to help us navigate the future.

Join these prominent Canadian writers for a conversation on connection.

Michael Crummey won the 2007 Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award and has been nominated twice for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. He began his literary career by winning the 1994 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. He divides his time between Kelowna, British Columbia, and St. John’s.

francesca ekwuyasi won the 2022 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers for her debut novel Butter Honey Pig Bread. The book was also selected for CBC’s Canada Reads, longlisted for the Giller Prize, and shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and a Governor General’s Literary Award. She divides her time between Halifax and Montreal.

Naben Ruthnum won the 2013 Writers’ Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. He writes under his own name and the pen name Nathan Ripley, and has published a collection of essays, two literary thriller novels, a work of YA horror, a novella, and a novel. He also writes for film and television. Ruthnum is from Kelowna, British Columbia, and now lives in Toronto.

Moderator: Mary Lynk is the host of The Kill List, a CBC podcast, and is a producer with CBC’s celebrated radio program IDEAS.