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Maggie Helwig was born in England in November 1961. She is the daughter of prominent Canadian writer David Helwig and theatre director and actor Nancy Helwig of Kingston, Ontario. She is married to editor Ken Simons and has one daughter, Simone.  She received her BA in Classical Studies from Trent University in 1983 and earned her Master's of Divinity at the University of Toronto, Trinity College in 2011.

Maggie Helwig has published six books of poetry, two books of essays, a collection of short stories and three novels, Where She Was Standing (2001), Between Mountains (2004), and Girls Fall Down (2008). A human rights activist as well as a writer, she has worked for the East Timor Alert Network in Toronto, the Women in Black network, and War Resisters' International. She is also an Anglican priest and has been at the Church of St Stephen-in-the-Fields in Kensington Market since 2013.

Stanley J. White was a British Canadian industrial photographer and writer.

Born in Birmingham, England in 1929, White’s first job was as a letterer for a commercial photography studio. Following wartime service in the Royal Air Force, he returned to the same company as an industrial photographer focusing on the Midlands. Further information about this period of Stanley White’s career is available in his article “Annals of a 1940s-50s Industrial Photographer in England” (Photographic Canadiana 39, no. 3).

White moved to Toronto in 1957, where he worked as a commercial and advertising photographer. From 1971-1993, he taught photography at Sheridan College (Oakville), with a focus on lighting and product illustration. White was also involved in the Photographic Historical Society of Canada and the National Stereoscopic Association.

White began writing poetry at the age of 51. He was a member of the Brantford Writers’ Circle, the Cambridge Writers Collective, and the Hamilton Poetry Centre. He self-published numerous chapbooks under the press names ““Third Dimension Press,” “Third Dimensions Press,” and “Beyond the Third Dimensions Press.” In 2022, he self-published two larger collections: Ars Poetica (poetry) and Short Tall Stories (short fiction).

White passed away in 2023.

Robert Ezergailis is a McMaster alumnus. He completed a B.A. (Hons) in Religious Studies and graduate courses in Philosophy.

Ezergailis wrote poetry through the late 1980s to 2023, much of which was posted to bulletin board systems (BBSs) and Usenet forums.

Marjorie Stibbards Harris Batten, freelance writer, editor, and noted Canadian gardening authority, was born in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, in 1937, the eldest of Bernard and Kay Stibbards ’s three children. Her father was a Baptist minister and the family moved frequently across Canada. She was tragically orphaned in her teens, losing her mother to cancer and her father soon after in an airplane crash. Harris graduated from McMaster University in 1959 with an Honours BA in English, and began graduate studies at University of Toronto, studying with Northrop Frye.

She married musician and TV producer Barry Harris with whom she had two children, Christopher and Jennifer. After separating from Harris, she met fellow writer Jack Batten, to whom she has been married since 1968. The couple resided in their Toronto Annex home until 2024. Harris gardened on this property for over fifty years. Her garden features in many of her publications and speaking engagements.

In the early 1960s Harris worked for Toronto art dealer Dorothy Cameron which led to a position as modern-living editor and writer at Maclean’s magazine. Well into the1980s, Harris continued as a freelancer, writing on a wide range of topics for nearly every major Canadian magazine. In the early 1970s Harris was also a writer, producer, and commentator for CBC Radio on such shows as “Gerussi,” “This Country in the Morning,” and “Ideas”. In addition, she wrote and co-authored numerous general interest books in the 1970s and 1980s.

What Harris describes as her “epiphany” occurred in 1988 when she combined her writing talents and passion for gardening to create The Canadian Gardener. Published in 1990, it launched Harris into a new career and was the first of over 20 gardening monographs she has written. Recognition for her expertise led to gardening columns in Chatelaine and The Globe & Mail, and to editorship roles with Toronto Life Gardens and Gardening Life.

By 1991, Harris also had a garden design business. Doris Giller, journalist, editor, and namesake of the Giller Prize, was one of her first clients. Harris worked primarily on residential landscapes in the Toronto metropolitan area. She provided clients with a written document containing garden design plans and plant recommendations. Occasionally, she provided both written documents and technical drawings. She continued this business through 2023.

She continued to be much sought-after for speaking engagements, public appearances, and local and international garden tours, and is a regular garden commentator on television and radio programs and online forums.

John Terpstra was born in Brockville, Ontario in 1953 and moved to Edmonton as a child. He has spent most of his life in Hamilton, Ontario. Terpstra was educated at Trinity Christian College in Chicago and the University of Toronto. He has published several books of poetry including the Governor-General Literary Awards’ nominee, Disarmament (2003). His prose works include The Boys, or Waiting for the Electrician’s Daughter (2005) which was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize and Falling into Place (2002 and 2011 reprint). His selected poetry has been collected in Two or Three Guitars (2006), Brilliant Falls (2013), This Orchard Sound (2014), Mischief (2017), and Call Me Home (2021).

Jeffery Donaldson is a professor in McMaster University’s department of English Literature and Cultural Studies and an author of poetry and non-fiction.

In 1960, Donaldson was born in Toronto; he developed an interest in creative writing at a young age. His early education was at Gosford Boulevard Public School, Jane Junior High School, and Huron Heights Secondary School. He completed his post-secondary education at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Certification in English Language and Literature (1983), Master of Arts (1985), and lastly, his Doctorate (1990).

Donaldson’s academic research focuses on metaphor and metaphoric thinking. He is the author of Missing Link: The Evolution of Metaphor and the Metaphor of Evolution (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015). He has contributed to numerous academic journals and anthologies. Many of his scholarly articles are focused on psychology, the philosophy of language, religion, cognitive sciences, and English language and literature. Donaldson is also the editor of The Essential John Reibetanz (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2017) and co-editor, with Alan Mendelson, of Frye and the Word: Religious Contexts in the Writings of Northrop Frye (University of Toronto Press, 2003).

Donaldson is also the author of seven poetry collections, including Once Out of Nature (McClelland & Stewart, 1991), Waterglass (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999), Palilalia (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008), Guesswork (Goose Lane Edition, 2011), Slack Action (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2013), Fluke Print (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2018), and Granted (Gordon Hill Press, 2023). Palilalia was nominated for the Canadian Author’s Association Poetry Prize in 2008.

Donaldson has also published three non-fiction volumes, including Echo Soundings: Essays on Poetry and Poetics (Palimpsest Press, 2014), Viaticum: From Notebooks (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2019), and Momento: On Standing in Front of Art (Gordon Hill, 2023). Viaticum: From Notebooks received the Hamilton Arts Council award for non-fiction in 2021.

In addition to writing, Donaldson has taught American literature, poetry, creative writing, and literary criticism at McMaster University since July 1989. He hosted an online podcast called “Jeweller’s Eye” from August 2015 to September 2018.

Charles Henry (Marty) Gervais was born in Windsor in 1946. He received a BA degree from the University of Guelph and later studied writing under Morley Callaghan at the University of Windsor, where he received an MA in Creative Writing. Gervais has undertaken many roles in the arts community. He established Black Moss Press in 1969, one of the earliest and most enduring literary publishers in Canada. Gervais continues to lead Black Moss Press in publishing new titles of poetry, novels, non-fiction, and anthologies.

He was also an award-winning journalist with the Windsor Star, for 35 years, beginning his career in 1974 and retiring in 2008. He was a special correspondent, based in Iraq for three months in 2007. He continues to write "My Town" column on a freelance basis. His books, often concerned with the history of the Windsor area, including Baldoon (1976, a play written with James Reaney), The Rumrunners (1980), The Fighting Parson (1983), The Border Police (1992), and, more recently, Keeping with Tradition: The Working Man's Choir, Forty Years of Song with Il Coro Italiano (2002). His first published novel, Reno, appeared in 2005 from Mosaic Press. Another book, Taking My Blood, charting his time in a hospital, and including photographs he took while he was there, came out in 2005. In addition to being the author of many books of poetry (the most recent The Sky Above [2024]), he was named the first Poet Laureate of the City of Windsor in 2011. He was the resident writing professional at the University of Windsor and managing editor of the Windsor Review. Gervais is also a trained photographer. His exhibition entitled "A Show of Hands: Boxing on the Border" documented the life of young boxers on the Canada-U.S border.

Ellen Seligman was an editor of Canadian fiction who served as McClelland & Stewart’s Editorial Director of Fiction from 1987 on, and eventually, Vice-President (2012). Seligman edited many of McClelland & Stewart’s most noteworthy books during her tenure, including works by Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, Rohinton Mistry, Anne Michaels, and others.

Seligman was born and raised in New York City (Manhattan). She attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English. She began her publishing career in New York City, continued it in London, England, and moved to Canada in 1976. By 1977, she was hired as a senior editor at McClelland and Stewart, where she was responsible for a range of books, including non-fiction, memoirs, poetry, and art.

Seligman became Editorial Director of Fiction in 1987. Following this appointment, she took on primary responsibility for acquiring and editing much of McClelland & Stewart’s fiction list. Books Seligman worked on won Canada’s top literary prizes, including the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Prize, and the Giller Prize. Seligman’s books also won or were shortlisted for prestigious international prizes such as the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Seligman worked with Sandra Birdsell, David Adams Richards, John Steffler, Shyam Selvadurai, Jane Urquhart, M.G. Vassanji, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and many others.

In 2000, McClelland & Stewart donated 75% of their shares to the University of Toronto; the remaining 25% were sold to Random House of Canada Ltd. In the same year, Seligman was promoted to the position of Publisher (Fiction). In 2011, Random House purchased the remaining 75% of the company to become the sole owner. By 2012, Seligman was named Vice-President of McClelland & Stewart, a position she held until her death in 2016.

In addition to her work in publishing, Seligman was an active member of PEN Canada, and from 2009-2011 she served as the organization’s president.

Seligman won many editorial and professional awards throughout her career, including the Order of Ontario (2008) and the Canadian Booksellers Association’s Editor of the Year award.

Seligman was married to James Polk.

Bernadette Ryan is a writer, academic teacher, radio host, and poet who predominantly publishes under the pen name Bernadette Rule. Born in 1951, Ryan grew up in Kentucky. In 1973, she received a B.A. from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky with a double major in English and History and a minor in Education. In 1975, she received an M.A. in English from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. After graduating, she moved to Ontario, Canada, where she began writing, editing, and teaching.

Ryan has published ten collections of poetry, most recently, The Window Washer of Chartres (Paradise North Press, 2023) and Deep Breath (Frog Hollow Press, 2021). In 2021, she released her first non-fiction novel, Dark Fire (Ironing Board Press, 2021), which was shortlisted for a 2022 Hamilton Literary Award and a Whistler Independent Book Award. In 2023, she published her second non-fiction novel, The Arithmetic of Color (Ironing Board Press, 2023). She has received two Short Works Prizes, one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction, and the 2017 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Writing.

In addition to writing, Ryan taught at McMaster University in the Continuing Education Writing Certificate Program from the 1990s to 2006. She also taught English as a second language at Mohawk College from 2006 to 2019, as well as various community workshops and events around the Greater Hamilton Area.

Ryan has been involved in many local Hamilton arts organizations and activities, including hosting the Art Waves podcast series from 2008 to 2021 on the Mohawk College radio station (101.5FM). For the Art Waves program, Ryan interviewed artists, photographers, musicians, authors, and event organizers from the Greater Hamilton Area. Ryan was also an executive at the Hamilton Poetry Centre, and from 2018-2025, she served as president of the Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art (HAALSA).

Sources:

Art Waves: “A History & Some Highlights”. Article by Bernadette Rule. Issue 14.1, 2021. https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/hamilton_arts_and_letters/2021_14-1/samizdatpress.typepad.com/hal_magazine_issue_14-1/art-waves-by-bernadette-rule-7.html

HA&L Biographical Sketch: “Bernadette Rule”. Issue 14.1, 2021. https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/hamilton_arts_and_letters/2021_14-1/samizdatpress.typepad.com/hal_magazine_issue_14-1/hal-biographical-sketch-bernadette-rule.html

Bernadette Rule “Radio”. https://www.bernadetterule.ca/radio

Library of Congress Authorities. https://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=2117922&v1=1&HC=1&SEQ=20241108113011&PID=GUVdRyZBwRzG7UAVJeBAJFag-1RBf

The Arty Crowd. “Bernadette Rule”. https://theartycrowd.ca/artist_profile/bernadette-rule/

Bernadette Ryan (Rule) Fonds, Box 1, Files 3, 8-17; Boxes 2-3.

Sylvia Nickerson is an award-winning comic artist and writer, as well as a historian of mathematics and science.

Nickerson trained in visual arts at Mount Allison University and Etobicoke School of the Arts. In her early career, she worked as a freelance illustrator for clients such as The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Washington Post, and others. From 2004 to 2010, she also contributed monthly illustrations to The Dominion, a co-operatively run media organization publishing grassroots Canadian journalism online.

Nickerson’s first book, All We Have Left, Is This (Ca$ino Press) was released in 2018. The book is a collection of fourteen short comic stories about daughterhood, marriage, motherhood, desire, religion, assault, loneliness, and aging. Following the publication of this volume, Nickerson was nominated for the Doug Wright Spotlight Award (“the Nipper”) for best emerging comic talent in 2019.

In 2019, Nickerson published Creation (Drawn & Quarterly), an exploration of gentrification in Hamilton, Ontario from the perspective of an artist and mother. Subsequently, Nickerson received the Nipper Doug Wright Award in 2020. Nickerson has since served as the artist in residence at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2020-2021).

Nickerson is also a historian of mathematics and science; in 2014, she completed a Ph.D. at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto. She was a postdoctoral researcher at York University from 2014-2017, where she worked on the editorial project “The Correspondence of John Tyndall and Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum.” Nickerson teaches courses at the University of Toronto and McMaster University.

Bernadette Ryan is a writer, academic teacher, radio host, and poet who predominantly publishes under the pen name Bernadette Rule. Born in 1951, Ryan grew up in Kentucky. In 1973, she received a B.A. from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky with a double major in English and History and a minor in Education. In 1975, she received an M.A. in English from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. After graduating, she moved to Ontario, Canada, where she began writing, editing, and teaching.

Ryan has published ten collections of poetry, most recently, The Window Washer of Chartres (Paradise North Press, 2023) and Deep Breath (Frog Hollow Press, 2021). In 2021, she released her first non-fiction novel, Dark Fire (Ironing Board Press, 2021), which was shortlisted for a 2022 Hamilton Literary Award and a Whistler Independent Book Award. In 2023, she published her second non-fiction novel, The Arithmetic of Color (Ironing Board Press, 2023). She has received two Short Works Prizes, one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction, and the 2017 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Writing.

In addition to writing, Ryan taught at McMaster University in the Continuing Education Writing Certificate Program from the 1990s to 2006. She also taught English as a second language at Mohawk College from 2006 to 2019, as well as various community workshops and events around the Greater Hamilton Area.

Ryan has been involved in many local Hamilton arts organizations and activities, including hosting the Art Waves podcast series from 2008 to 2021 on the Mohawk College radio station (101.5FM). For the Art Waves program, Ryan interviewed artists, photographers, musicians, authors, and event organizers from the Greater Hamilton Area. Ryan was also an executive at the Hamilton Poetry Centre, and from 2018-2025, she served as president of the Hamilton Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art (HAALSA).

McMaster University was founded in 1887 in Toronto, Ont. and named after Senator William McMaster who had bequeathed sufficient funding to endow an Christian institution of higher learning. It opened in Toronto in 1890. Inadequate facilities and the gift of land in Hamilton prompted the institution to relocate in 1930. Until 1957 the Governors of the University were elected by the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. In that year, the University became a non-denominational institution.

The head of McMaster University was given the title of Chancellor until 1950 when George P. Gilmour was given the title of President and Vice-Chancellor and a new Chancellor, E. Carey Fox was chosen. Gilmour had been Chancellor of McMaster University since 1941. Since 1950, the following individuals have served as presidents of McMaster University: George P. Gilmour, 1950-1961; Henry G. Thode, 1961-1972; Arthur N. Bourns, 1972-1980; Alvin A. Lee, 1980-1990; Geraldine A. Kenney-Wallace, 1990-1995; Peter J. George, 1995-2010; Patrick Deane, 2010-2019; David H. Farrar, 2019-2025; Susan Tighe, 2025-present.

The head of McMaster University was given the title of Chancellor until 1950 when George P. Gilmour was given the title of President and Vice-Chancellor and a new Chancellor, E. Carey Fox was chosen. Gilmour had been Chancellor of McMaster University since 1941.

Since 1950, the following individuals have served as presidents of McMaster University: George P. Gilmour, 1950-1961; Henry G. Thode, 1961-1972; Arthur N. Bourns, 1972-1980; Alvin A. Lee, 1980-1990; Geraldine A. Kenney-Wallace, 1990-1995; Peter J. George, 1995-2010; Patrick Deane, 2010-2019; David H. Farrar, 2019-2025; Susan Tighe, 2025-present.

Dianne Woodman began her work in the publishing industry in 1964 when she was hired as the Edmonton representative for McClelland & Stewart. From 1972-1974 she worked as their publicity director in Toronto, before becoming the Western rep for Stanton, MacDougall and Hunt. In 1976 she opened Village Bookshop and Volume Two in Edmonton.

Beginning in 1984, she began to record interviews with authors and others in the industry in an effort to preserve their memories and experiences.

George Bernard Shaw, playwright, was born on 26 July 1856 in Dublin, Ireland and educated at the Wesley Connexional School. He began his writing career as a novelist. His first play, Arms and the Man, was produced in 1894. He went on to become a prolific playwright and the chief dramatist of the twentieth century in the English language. He died at his home, Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, on 2 November 1950.

William Douw Lighthall, lawyer, historian, novelist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, and editor was born on 27 December 1857 in Hamilton, Ontario. He was educated at McGill University. He practised law in Montreal from 1881-1944, became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1902, Mayor of Westmount, Quebec from 1900 to 1903, and president of the Canadian Authors Association in 1930.

His first novel, The Young Seigneur; or, Nation-making, using the pen name of Wilfrid Châteauclair, was published in 1888. The next year his poetry anthology, Songs of the Great Dominion: Voices from the Forests and Waters, the Settlements and Cities of Canada was published. His Canada: A Modern Nation was published in 1904. In 1933 The Person of Evolution: The Outer Consciousness, The Outer Knowledge, The Directive Power, Studies of Instinct as Contribution to a Philosophy of Evolution was published. Lighthall died on 3 August 1954.

H.C. Hass was a Flight Officer with the RCAF (14293) in the Special Ops division. This information provided by the Air Crew Remembered Project.

The International Union of Students (IUS) was a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations. The IUS was the umbrella organization for 155 students' organizations across 112 countries and territories representing approximately 25 million students. It was recognized by the United Nations granting the IUS a consultative status in UNESCO. The primary aim of the IUS was to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens. It collapsed in the 2000s due to an unreliable membership system and a lack of grassroots engagement.

Tools for Peace was formed to provide humanitarian aid to Nicaragua. It grew out a visit of a group of fishermen from British Columbia to Nicaragua in 1981. On their return to Canada they began to gather supplies to help a Nicaraguan fishing village. By 1983 Tools for Peace had been formally organized with a head office in Vancouver and branches across Canada. In the spring of 1984 members of the El Salvadorean Committee in Hamilton, Ont. decided to became active in collecting goods for Nicaragua and joined Tools for Peace. The Hamilton group concentrated on collecting school supplies as well as donating cash. They also sponsored speakers from Nicaragua. Although the Hamilton group was still active as late as 1995, the Vancouver head office had been closed sometime before that. A longer history of the organization, written by Jessie Kaye, is available in hard copy.

Donald Francis Galloway was born on 9 August 1915 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the son of Captain John S. Galloway and his wife, Frances. His siblings were John (Jack), Albert (Red), Bruce, Gordon and Leona. Don and Bruce, the second and third sons, joined up together in 1940 with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Within a few weeks Don had left the Army. He re-enlisted for a second time in July 1941 in Toronto. He did his basic training in Brantford, Ontario, and his advanced training with the Canadian Armoured Corps at Camp Borden. He went to the United Kingdom in March 1942 and in July was assigned to the 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse). He took part in D-Day as the co-driver of a tank in Squadron B. Four days later the tank was hit by a German shell; the driver, Michael Marchinsky, was killed; Don was badly wounded. He began his recuperation at Basingstoke Neurological and Plastic Surgery hospital in Hampshire, England. He returned to Canada in September 1944 on the hospital ship Lady Nelson. He got engaged to Catharine (Mickie) Carroll in October. On 25 June 1945 they married. The couple had two daughters, Sheila Turcon and Susan Turner. Don died on 16 May 1976. Mickie died on 8 June 2023.

Don’s four brothers also served in the military. Albert (“Red”), the first to enlist, joined the Royal Canadian Engineers. He served in England, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Bruce later served the Highland Light Infantry of Canada. He died in a road accident in Soest, the Netherlands, on 23 June. He was buried in Hilversum, a civilian cemetery, on 26 June 1945 with his brothers, Red and Gordon, in attendance. Gordon, the youngest brother, had enlisted in February 1943. He served with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in England and Italy. He was later with the No. 16 Special Employment Company in Belgium. The last brother to join the forces in 1945 was Jack, the oldest, who was married with two children. He served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Canada. Don’s cousin, Olney (Jack) Barker served with the American military in the Pacific.