Staff Picks: International Women’s Month

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is about breaking the bias —  “a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated”. Here are just some authors that our All Lit Up staff recommend adding to your TBR shelf.

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Sophie Bédard

Photo Credit: Prune Paycha

Sophie Bédard completed studies in graphic design before launching her breakthrough webcomic Almost Summer, published as a four-volume print series by Pow Pow Press. She then went on to earn a BA in sexology prior to starting Lonely Boys (winner of the Doug Wright Award for Best Book in 2021). Bédard lives in Montreal with her cat Jacques and hopes that obtaining a degree will not become a prerequisite for every new book she writes.

Téa Mutonji

Téa Mutonji is an award-winning poet and writer. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, she now lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario where she was named emerging writer of the year (2017) by the Ontario Book Publishers Organization. Shut Up You’re Pretty is her first book, published by VS. Books, an imprint of Arsenal Pulp Press, in 2019. She was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and won the Edmund White Award and Trillium Book Award. Her essay “The Price of Being Pretty” was nominated for a Digital Publishing Award from the National Media Awards Foundation. She holds a degree in media studies with minors in both English literature and creative writing from the University of Toronto Scarborough and is the recipient of the Jill Davis Fellowship in Fiction at New York University. She was selected as a 2022 Writers’ Trust Rising Star by André Alexis.

Lisa de Nikolits

Photo Credit: Bradford Dunlop

Lisa de Nikolits is the international award-winning author of ten novels. She has been selected as a Chatelaine Editor’s Pick and a Canadian Living Magazine Must Read. Lisa’s most recent book, The Rage Room (Inanna Publications2020) was a finalist for the International Book Awards.The Occult Persuasion and The Anarchist’s Solution (2019) was longlisted for a Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of The Fantastic. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in various international anthologies and journals. Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy. Born in South Africa, Lisa has resided in the U.S.A., Australia and the U.K. She currently lives in Toronto.

Susannah M. Smith

Susannah M. Smith is the author of The Fairy Tale Museum (Invisible Publishing) and How the Blessed Live (Coach House Books), and a contributor to First Writes (Banff Centre Press) and All Sleek and Skimming: Stories (Orca Book Publishers).

Beth Follett

Beth Follett is the founder and publisher of Pedlar Press, a Canadian literary house. Her first novel, Tell It Slant (Coach House Books, 2001), a retelling of Djuna Barnes’s 1936 novel Nightwood, met with critical acclaim. Her poetry, prose and nonfiction work have appeared in BrickBest Canadian Poetry 2019, and elsewhere. Her latest book, Instructor (Breakwater Books), was long-listed for The Miramichi Reader’s ‘The Very Best!’ Book Award, fiction category 2021. She lives in St John’s, NL.