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• Erica Alini

  Toronto, ON

  Erica Alini is a Toronto-based journalist at Maclean’s, where she focuses on international politics and business, but also pens the occasional culture and society feature. She has written for The Wall Street Journal’s economics desk, and Foreign Policy magazine, among other media outlets, and for the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank based in New York.

  She grew up in Milan, Italy, and is bilingual. She has a master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, in Washington, DC. She has also lived in Iran and speaks, reads, and writes intermediate-level Farsi.

• Michael Benedict

  Toronto, ON

  Michael Benedict offers writing, editing and consulting services to a diverse group of not-for-profit and for-profit clients. Michael worked in journalism for three decades, including 19 years as an editor at Maclean’s. He also was a director of corporate communications with both the province of Ontario and Canada Post. In 2005, Michael established MCB Strategies, a Vendor of Record for writing services for the Ontario government and registered with the federal government’s Professional Services Online. In the corporate and journalistic worlds, Michael has dealt with prime ministers, premiers, cabinet ministers and CEOs. He is a member of the Professional Writers Association of Canada and the Editors’ Association of Canada.

• Luigi Benetton

  Toronto, ON

  A communications professional for more than ten years, Luigi has written for organizations such as Microsoft, MTS Allstream, and the Province of Ontario’s Ministry of Health. He has written white papers, case studies, blog posts, executive profiles, reports, Web copy, and a variety of other materials. Also, Luigi has contributed to consumer and trade publications such as The Toronto Star, itbusiness.ca and cbc.ca.

  Luigi focuses on demystifying the technology industry, especially the value it offers. He has also written on topics as diverse as the business of law, green building and professional squash.

• Sarah Boesveld

  Toronto, ON

  Born and raised in rural Eastern Ontario, Sarah sees the world from a distinctly Canadian perspective. A driven newshound, she graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Journalism degree and has worked as a reporter in the Life and News sections at The Globe and Mail, covering everything from the G20 to TIFF. She loves a good ‘get’ and any tale that really grabs a reader while speaking to what matters in their daily lives. You can usually find her digging for story ideas or owning the mike at karaoke.

• Paul Carlucci

  Toronto, ON

  Paul Carlucci’s career has taken him back and forth across Canada as a feature writer, reporter, editor, columnist, and short story writer. He excels in putting faces to policies and narrative to ideas. He also has a knack for the interview, having sat down with an assorted cast, from Danny Williams to the frontman of death metal mainstay Napalm Death.

• Andrew Clark

  Toronto, ON

  Andrew Clark is an award-winning writer and humourist. He writes a weekly humour column “Road Sage” for the Globe and Mail. His work has appeared in publications ranging from the Walrus and the The New York Times to Cosmopolitan and Toro Magazine. He is the director of the Humber College Comedy Program. He also writes frequently on tennis.

• Lynn Coady

  Edmonton, AB

  Lynn Coady is a Canadian novelist, editor and journalist living in Edmonton, Alberta.  She has published four award winning works of fiction and has acted as editor on novels and anthologies published by Doubleday Canada, House of Anansi Press, and Brindle and Glass Publishing.  She is also a writing teacher and mentor and regularly contributes non-fiction to magazines and newspapers across Canada.  She writes a weekly advice column for the Globe and Mail, and is the co-founder and senior editor of a the magazine Eighteen Bridges.  Her new novel, The Antagonist, will be published by House of Anansi in Fall 2011.

• Heather Finley

  Toronto, ON

  Heather Finley has been translating complex ideas into selling copy for more than 25 years. She has been freelancing since 1993.

  Heather’s work builds bridges from her clients’ ideas to the intended audience in clear, straightforward language. Her style flexes where it’s needed: formal for black-tie concepts, relaxed for audiences with a more casual culture. Her integrity and ability to see the full picture of business objectives have earned long-term loyalty from her clientele.

  Heather’s portfolio includes a wide range of print and interactive media.

• Christopher Frey

  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Toronto, Canada

  Christopher Frey is a print and radio journalist who writes about culture, politics, environment and technology in a globalizing world. A two-time National Magazine Award winner, in recent years he has reported from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Ghana, Cuba, Guyana, Guatemala and Brazil.

• Don Gillmor

  Toronto, ON

  Don Gillmor is the author of a two-volume history of Canada, Canada: A People’s History, and two other books of non-fiction, The Desire of Every Living Thing and I Swear by Apollo. He has also written eight books for children, including The Fabulous Song, which won the Mr. Christie Award and was nominated for a Governor General’s Award, and Yuck, A Love Story. His children’s books have been published in eight countries. He has worked as a journalist and was a senior editor at Walrus magazine, and contributing editor at both Saturday Night and Toronto Life. His journalism has appeared in those publications as well as The Globe and Mail, Rolling Stone, and GQ magazines. He has won nine National Magazine Awards. His novel, Kanata, was published by Penguin last year.

  He lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

• Darrell Harvey

  Ottawa, ON

  Darrell is a writer, editor and broadcaster who produces features and documentaries for English-language media outlets around the world. He has travelled widely, spending much of the past decade reporting from Europe, Africa and Latin America, writing about everything from urban farming and Romanian gold mines to locked-out NHLers and, perhaps his favourite, Hungary's Whiskey Robber, the post-Communist country's own scotch-swilling, bank robbing Robin Hood. Darrell also operates his own audio production company and does communications work for corporate, academic and non-profit clients.

• Ian Harvey

  Toronto, Ontario

  Ian Harvey is an established freelance writer who has worked in marketing, media relations, marketing and daily newspapers for more than 35 years. He specializes in crisis communications planning, media training, media strategies and content creation for a variety of media and business needs. Whether it’s a magazine feature, a breaking story for a newspaper, a case study, web content, white paper, sales brochure Ian’s got it covered.

• Robert Hercz

  Toronto, ON

  Robert earned a degree in engineering at the University of Toronto in 1979 and spent a decade in the computer industry, based in London (England), Toronto, and finally Los Angeles. During this time, he worked with a fascinating range of clients including the Vatican, the Los Alamos National Laboratories (home of the atomic bomb), and the National Library of France. Finding himself more interested in his clients’ backstories than their computer systems (and unfulfilled by corporate life), he became a full-time writer in 1990. Robert is also an avid photographer and regularly sells photos that illustrate his writing.

• Colleen Kimmett

  Vancouver, BC

  Colleen Kimmett is an award-winning journalist focused on all aspects of sustainability: what we eat, where we live and how we get around. As a contributing editor at TheTyee.ca, she specializes in examining and explaining innovative solutions to environmental problems. Some of her most popular articles have looked at recycling buildings, growing the local food movement, harnessing energy from city sewers and solar power on First Nations reserves.

  Colleen is currently at work on her first book, about British Columbia’s most famous icon – the sasquatch.

• Christine Langlois

  Toronto, ON

  Christine Langlois is a widely published magazine writer with a talent for narrative and experience writing everything from features to personal essays to service. Christine specializes in health and medical pieces but regularly covers a wide range of topics. She’s the author on one book, lead author on another and editor of a three-book series. To promote her books and articles, Christine has given speeches, done book tours, and made numerous radio and television appearances. Christine also writes and edits copy, and manages communications projects for a roster of corporate and government clients. Her website can be viewed at http://www.christinelanglois.com/.

• Jason McBride

  Toronto, ON

  Jason McBride is a former editor at Toronto Life and Coach House Books, where he was co-editor of the popular uTOpia series, among other books. He is currently a full-time freelance writer and editor.

• Paul McLaughlin

  Toronto, ON

  Paul is a highly experienced writer, communications specialist, interviewing and performance trainer and university teacher. He writes for both the journalism and corporate markets, and has produced virtually every kind of publication (as well as a few videos), including magazine and newspaper features, books, scripts, trade articles (ghosted at times), brochures, ad campaigns and plays.

  The author of Asking Questions: The Art of the Media Interview, he’s trained interviewers at the CBC and in private practice, and has lectured extensively on interviewing.

  He teaches in the Professional Writing program at York University, and previously at the schools of journalism at Ryerson and Carleton universities.

• Jesse McLean

  Toronto, ON

  Jesse McLean is an award-winning humorist and culture commentator whose disciplines include technical writing, screenwriting, film and television criticism, humour articles and sketch comedy.  These varied talents conspire to deliver incisive, thoughtful and creative copy.  He has written process documentation for BMO, dialogue punch-up for Joe Flaherty and Brigitte Nielsen, ruminations on Wilhelm Reich’s “orgone accumulator” for PopMatters, how Rainer Maria Rilke might have negotiated Facebook for Yankee Pot Roast, and the inherent difficulties interviewing zombies for Eyes on Toronto with Stephen Eyes. Impromptu dance numbers lack technical grace but brim with “pizzazz”.

• Erin Millar

  Vancouver, BC

  Erin is a journalist, editor, photographer and author. She has experience both in print and online publishing, and was a founding editor of Maclean’s On Campus, a website dedicated to daily news and in-depth features about universities and colleges in Canada published by Maclean’s. Erin has travelled and written in 20 countries in Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central America.

• Patricia Pearson

  Toronto, ON

  A versatile writer across media and styles, Pearson is particularly well-known for her comic flair. She has been called “highly amusing” by the New York Times, and been compared to Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain. Clients have tapped her for speeches, screenplays and articles that require a comedic touch. As a serious journalist, Pearson specializes in health and social issues, and with a graduatelevel background in history, clients have hired her for corporate and personal biographies.

• Adrien Sala

  Victoria, BC

  Adrien Sala is a freelance writer/broadcaster with a background in radio, print, and new media.

  Currently, Adrien works as producer, story developer and co-director of a television documentary series (15 episodes) that explores the meaning of home to the people who live in BC’s north. He is also the owner of Adrien Sala Writing & Media, a dynamic communications office that includes Shoebox Studio, a sound studio designed specifically for radio voice work and podcasting.

  Adrien has long had a fascination with people and places, and he continues to be interested in new methods of telling stories.

• Ingrid Sapona

  Toronto, ON

  Ingrid’s been making complex business information clear since 1997. She has a journalism degree from Northwestern University and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University and belongs to the New York and Ontario bars. It was while practicing law that she realized she has a special talent for making complicated, technical information understandable.

  Ingrid works with professionals and business leaders, creating communications that satisfy strategic business and regulatory requirements. Using plain language principles, she measures success by whether people understand the issue or idea the first time the read it because if they do, they’re more likely to act on it.

  She writes a regular column called “Writer’s Edge” that appears in The Business Valuator, a quarterly publication of the CICBV.

• Jay Somerset

  Toronto, ON

  Writer, editor, proofreader and copywriter—Jay Somerset has been dealing in words for nearly 10 years. Articles have ranged from an etiquette guide to Toronto to a five-part newspaper series on a Toronto advertising company to an essay on the aesthetics of AM radio. As well, Jay also has ample editing experience. Besides journalism, he also works as an advertising copywriter. He holds two university degrees, is a board member for two arts organizations and enjoys solo camping and collecting weird records.

• Chris Turner

  Calgary, Alberta

  Chris Turner is an award-winning journalist and one of Canada's leading writers and speakers on climate change, sustainability and the global cleantech industry. He is the author of the bestseller The Geography of Hope (2007), a Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year and a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Nonfiction and the National Business Book Award. He is also the author of the international bestseller Planet Simpson (2004). He is at work on a new book about the global sustainability movement, which will be published in 2011.

• Anna-Kaisa Walker

  Toronto, ON

  Anna-Kaisa is a Toronto-based writer, researcher and editor. Born in Montreal, she has a Master’s degree in journalism from New York University, and in her five years as a freelancer, she has contributed a wide variety of work to Canadian, U.S. and international publications.

• Joanne Will

  Vancouver, BC

  Joanne writes a weekly column for The Globe and Mail, and a regular column for tidings magazine. She has covered stories for many publications, such as the Tyee’s 100-Mile-Diet inspired Eat Your History series. Joanne has also profiled a wide range of notable Canadians, including innovative sustainable farmers, a booker-prize winning author, and a renowned musician and producer.

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©2010 Canadian Writers Group.