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Since 1990, The Word On The Street has proudly hosted some of the finest talent in Canadian literature. Our next festival is shaping up to be another great one. Check out some of the authors, storytellers, and performers who have been involved in the festival over the years.
Dwayne Brenna is the award-winning author of seven books of humour, poetry, and fiction. His first novel NEW ALBION won the fiction award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards and was shortlisted for the M. M. Bennetts Award for historical fiction. His book of poetry, STEALING HOME, was recently included on CBC’s list of 15 baseball-themed books that should be read to celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series.
David Carpenter was born in Edmonton and has lived in Saskatoon since 1975, where he began what has become a rich and influential writing career. He is the author of numerous novels, short story collections, memoirs, and editorial works, including A Hunter’s Confession—winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Book of the Year—and the three-volume Literary History of Saskatchewan. His collaborative work with Joseph Auguste (Augie) Merasty on The Education of Augie Merasty received wide national acclaim. Known for his generosity, humour, and grounded wisdom, Carpenter remains a beloved voice in Saskatchewan’s literary community. He is currently at work on a new collection of short stories.
From Saskatoon, Eric earned arts and law degrees from the University of Saskatchewan and practiced law in Saskatoon prior to serving in the Saskatchewan Legislature for sixteen years. He held a series of senior cabinet positions such as Health, Finance, Justice, and Industry and Resources. After politics, he worked as a corporate executive in the mining sector before establishing his ongoing arbitration practice, authoring two published books, and commencing work as a professional fused glass artist. He also served various community groups as a board member or volunteer.
Caleigh Crow is a queer playwright and theatre artist from Mohkinstsis. She is of Metis and Settler bloodlines, born and raised on Treaty 7 Territory where she currently resides. In 2024 she was honoured with the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama.
Betty Ternier Daniels lives with her husband and two cats on a farm in northwest Saskatchewan. When she retired from teaching as a sessional instructor in the University of Saskatchewan
English department, she wrote her first novel. Grounds for Murder was published by ECW Press in September 2024 and was shortlisted for the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction. She is
working on her second novel, A Clear-Cut Case.
Marina Endicott’s Good to a Fault was a finalist for the Giller Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads, and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. The Little Shadows was short-listed for the Governor
General’s award and long-listed for the Giller Prize, as was Close to Hugh; The Difference won the Edmonton and Dartmouth Fiction Prizes. The Observer won the City of Saskatoon Book
Award and was Saskatchewan Book of the Year for 2023.
Tea Gerbeza (she/her) is the author of How I Bend Into More (Palimpsest Press, 2025). She is a neuroqueer disabled writer and multimedia artist with a very loud laugh. Tea has an MFA in Writing from the University of Saskatchewan and an MA in English & Creative Writing from the University of Regina. She creates in oskana kâ-asastêki in Treaty 4 territory (Regina, SK) and is one of four pain poets. Find out more on teagerbeza.com
Erina Harris is a Canadian writer and Instructor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta (Edmonton). A graduate and Fellow of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her cross-genre writing projects have been published widely and in translation. Her writing and teaching have been awarded multiple prizes and she is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award (2024). Erina will read from her most recent book, Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead ( Wolsak & Wynn, 2024) in which she strives to deploy the transgressive force of play. In these poems and essays, she works to re-imagine nonsense verse, children’s literature, and various female mythological figures through de-colonial inquiry. Be welcome to visit: www.erinaharris.com
Trevor Herriot is a naturalist and the author of several award-winning books, including Grass, Sky, Song and the national bestseller River in a Dry Land, both of which were short-listed for the Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. His eighth book, a novel entitled The Economy of Sparrows was awarded the 2024 Glengarry Book Award. He is also a recipient of the Kloppenberg Award for Literary Merit and the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. His essays and articles have appeared in The Globe & Mail, The Narwhal, Brick, Border Crossings, Canadian Geographic, and several anthologies.
Award-winning essayist, poet, fictionist, Red Seal chef, and food writer dee Hobsbawn-Smith lives west of Saskatoon. She’s published ten books, served as Saskatchewan’s 10th Poet Laureate, and as Saskatoon Public Library’s 35th Writer in Residence. Called an educator “blessed with whimsy and precision,” she’s taught thousands of adults and kids to cook or write. Most recently, Among the Untamed received Saskatchewan Book Awards’ 2024 Poetry Award. Bread & Water: essays won Saskatchewan Book Awards’ 2022 Nonfiction Award, and Taste Canada’s Gold Medal for Culinary Narratives; it’s also Saskatchewan Library Association’s 2025 One Book One Province selection. Her novel Danceland Diary was shortlisted for the 2023 Sask Book Awards Fiction Award, and was a shortlisted finalist for the Glengarry Book Prize. She loves running, gardening, period dramas, and yoga, and hopes to learn how to play her guitar before she turns eighty.
Jeanette Lynes is the author of four novels and seven books of poetry. Her third novel, The Apothecary’s Garden was a finalist for a High Plains Book Award and two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Both The Apothecary’s Garden and The Paper Birds appeared on National Bestseller lists. Her book of non-fiction, Apron Apocalypse: Lyric Essays is forth coming from Thistledown Press in 2026. She directs the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan.
Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems
Adam Pottle is a Deaf author whose works span multiple genres, including fiction, children’s books, drama, film, poetry, and memoir. He was the 2021-22 writer in residence at Sheridan College and a 2022 Warner Bros Discovery Access screenwriting fellow. He has taught English, creative writing, and professional communication for almost twenty years. He lives with his wife Deborah and their two dogs Valkyrie and Loki in a small town outside Saskatoon.
The Bus
Guy Vanderhaeghe is a three-time winner of the Governor’s General Award for English language fiction for his collections of short stories, Man Descending and Daddy Lenin, and for his novel, The Englishman’s Boy, which was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize and The International Dublin Literary Award. His novel, The Last Crossing, was a winner of the CBC’s Canada Reads Competition. August into Winter, his most recent novel, won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and the Glengarry Book Award and was shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize. He has also received the Timothy Findley Prize, the Harbourfront Literary Prize, and the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Prize, all given for a body of work.
Daddy Lenin and Other Stories