The 2021 cohort has been announced for the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s 2021 Rising Stars program. The program invites established Canadian writers to select emerging talent to mentor.

The program, which was launched in 2019, gives each mentee $5,000, career development and networking opportunities, and a two-week residency at the Banff Centre in addition to the mentorship. Mentors were invited to participate by the Writers’ Trust.

The participating talent includes:

Eddy Boudel Tan
Vancouver

Work: The novels After Elias (2020) and July’s The Rebellious Tide (Dundurn Press).
Mentor: Brian Francis (a.k.a. Q&Q’s Agony Editor columnist)

Djamila Ibrahim
Toronto

Work: The short-story collection Things Are Good Now (2018).
Mentor: Lawrence Hill

Keriann McGoogan
Guelph, Ontario

Work: The primatologist is also the author of Chasing Lemurs: My Journey into the Heart of Madagascar (2020).
Mentor: Deborah Campbell

Amanda Peters
Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

Work: Her short-story “Crows” won the Budge Wilson Short Fiction Prize in 2017.
Mentor: Katherena Vermette

(James Arthur MacLean)

Rebecca Thomas
Halifax

Work: Children’s books I’m Finding My Talk (2019) and Governor General’s Literary Award finalist Swift Fox All Along (2020) and poetry collection I place you into the fire (2020).
Mentor: Sue Goyette

Update, May 7; Correction: This post has been updated from the original to list Katherena Vermette as the correct mentor for Amanda Peters. The original incorrectly listed Sue Goyette as Peters’s mentor.