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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 several books of humour, poetry, and fiction. Coteau Books published his popular series of humourous vignettes entitled Eddie Gustafson’s Guide to Christmas in 2000. His two books of poetry, Stealing Home and Give My Love to Rose, were published by Hagios Press in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Stealing Home, a poetic celebration of the game of baseball, was subsequently shortlisted for several Saskatchewan Book Awards, including the University of Regina Book of the Year Award.
David Carpenter began writing as a translator and reviewer, but after moving to Saskatoon and seeing a reading by the Moose Jaw Movement, he switched directions and decided to try writing fiction and poetry. He took several sessions at the Summer School of the Arts and two more at the Banff Centre and published 4 of his early stories in Saturday Night. His first book of fiction came out in 1985. He has published a total of 14 books: fiction, nonfiction and one volume of poetry. His adopted province of Saskatchewan has become a great source of inspiration.
Eric H. Cline (born September 1, 1960) is an American author, historian, archaeologist, and professor of ancient history and archaeology at The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C., where he is Professor of Classics and Anthropology and the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,[1] as well as Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute.[2] He is also the advisor for the undergraduate archaeology majors, for which he was awarded the GWU Award for “Excellence in Undergraduate Departmental Advising” (2006).[1] Cline served as co-editor of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research along with Christopher Rollston from 2014 to 2020.
Caleigh Crow is a Métis playwright and actress from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is most noted for her play There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow, which won the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama at the 2024 Governor General’s Awards
Betty Ternier Daniels lives with her husband, Doug, and their cat, Diesel, on her family farm in Cochin, northwest Saskatchewan. Like her protagonist, she has two adult children and is a member of the National Farmers Union. She previously taught English as a sessional instructor for the University of Saskatchewan
Marina Endicott is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Her novel Good to a Fault won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. It was a finalist for the Giller Prize and was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC award
Tea Gerbeza is a Canadian artist and writer based in Regina, Saskatchewan, whose debut poetry collection How I Bend Into More was published in 2025. The book was shortlisted for the 2025 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ writers.
Erina Harris is a Canadian poet. A native of Waterloo, Ontario, she has lived in Iowa and Calgary. She has connections with the poetry and academic communities throughout Canada and the USA. She has devoted the past decade to the writing, study, thinking, and rewriting of this first collection, The Stag Head Spoke
Naturalist Trevor Herriot, the 2017 recipient of the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence, is the author of six books, including Grass, Sky, Song and the national bestseller River in a Dry Land. His most recent books are Towards a Prairie Atonement (U of R Press, October 2016) and Islands of Grass (Oct. 2017, Coteau), with photographs by Branimir Gjetvaj. He is currently writing a novel.
dee Hobsbawn-Smith is equally at home writing essays, poetry, novels, short fiction, and journalism. Her award-winning writing is at times influenced by her earlier career in the food industry as a Red Seal chef, educator, Slow Food member and locavore advocate, editor, and mentor. Her work has appeared in literary journals, newspapers, magazines, websites, on the airwaves, and in numerous anthologies in Canada, the USA, and Scotland. Her literary books include Wildness Rushing in: poems; What Can’t Be Undone: stories; a chapbook, Jeanne Dark comes of age on the prairie; Bread & Water: essays (winner of the SK Book Awards Nonfiction Award); Danceland Diary: a novel; and Among the Untamed: poems. dee’s culinary books include Skinny Feasts; The Quick Gourmet; The Curious Cook at Home; Shop Talk; and Foodshed: An Edible Alberta Alphabet (winner of the 2013 Gourmand World Cookbooks Awards; Best Culinary Book, 2013 High Plains Book Awards; and 3rd prize, 2014 Les Dames D’Escoffier M.F.K. Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing). She has edited five books by other writers. She also edited and produced a hand-bound-bound and hand-stitched limited-edition poetry chapbook designed as a fundraiser for Slow Food. She has contributed to a Canadian culinary textbook and numerous culinary recipe anthologies.
A lifelong athlete, dee runs half-marathons, walks, swims, and has a daily yoga practice. For fun, she turns to quilting and sewing, cooking, painting, growing orchids and vegetables, and betting on the ponies at the track. She loves dancing, crossword puzzles, good coffee, better wine, mysteries and period movies, books and reading, folk music, R&B and bluegrass, her kids, dog, partner, family, friends, and the natural world. She is the proud mother of two adult sons who are fabulous cooks. dee Hobsbawn-Smith and her husband, the poet and writer Dave Margoshes, live rurally west of Saskatoon, in Treaty Six Territory, home of the Cree, Lakoda, Dakota, Nakoda, Dene, and the traditional home of the Metis Nation.
Jeanette Lynes’ second novel, The Small Things That End The World, was just released by Coteau Books. Her first novel, The Factory Voice, was long-listed for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize and a ReLit Award. Jeanette is also the author of seven books of poetry; her most recent collection, Bedlam Cowslip:The John Clare Poems, received the 2016 Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award. Her poetry recently appeared in The Anti-Languorous Project and Forget Magazine. Jeanette directs the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan.
Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems
Adam Pottle’s writing focuses on the dynamic and philosophical aspects of deafness and disability. His first book, the poetry collection Beautiful Mutants, was shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards and the Acorn-Plantos Prize. His novel Mantis Dreams: The Journal of Dr. Dexter Ripley won the 2014 Saskatoon Book Award. His play Ultrasound premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. His most recent book is The Bus, which won the 2016 Ken Klonsky Award. He lives in Saskatoon.
The Bus
GUY VANDERHAEGHE’s previous fiction includes A Good Man, The Last Crossing, The Englishman’s Boy. Among the many awards he has received are the Governor General’s Awards (twice); and, for his body of work, The Pierre Elliot Trudeau Fellowship, the Writers’ Trust Timothy Findley Award, and the Harbourfront Literary Prize.
Daddy Lenin and Other Stories