John Degen is executive director of The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC), and Chair of the International Authors Forum. He is a poet and novelist. His debut novel, The Uninvited Guest, was shortlisted for the 2006 Amazon.ca First Novel Award. His two acclaimed collections of poetry are Animal Life in Bucharest and Killing Things. John writes regularly in national and international media on creator rights and copyright issues. He is the previous Executive Director of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and was Literature Officer at the Ontario Arts Council between 2008 and 2012. Visit him at jkdegen.com
Bill Harnum is treasurer of the Canadian Copyright Institute. He has worked in scholarly publishing in Canada for 30 years, and is director of publications for the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto. He has served as President of the Association of Canadian Publishers for two terms, and has chaired that organization’s Copyright Committee.
Elisam Magara is an academic and author specialising in Information Science, Records and Archives Management, Information Management and Documentary Heritage. He has also written a number of general motivational works. He is a professor in the Records and Archives Management Department, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. He is Chair of the Uganda Textbook-Academic and Non-Fiction Authors Association (UTANA) and Board Secretary of the National Book Trust of Uganda (NABOTU).
Francisco Romero is a writer and innovator who has focused his life on finding an audience for his work and bringing it to the market. He became his own publisher and then opened a book shop to complete the production process, from the first thought to the reader. After publishing more than 20 books, receiving several awards and the loyalty of his readers, he proved that it is possible for authors to fight for diverse, independent literature.
Maggie Gee OBE is the author of 14 books including The White Family, shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Impac Prize, and a pair of comedies, My Cleaner and My Driver. Her work has been translated into 14 languages. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and has represented writers on the UK Society of Authors Management Committee, the UK Public Lending Right Committee and as the first woman Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. Her latest novel, Virginia Woolf in Manhattan, brings Virginia Woolf back to life in 21st -century New York, where Virginia is shocked by the economics of the modern book trade and has to go to surprising lengths to earn a living.
Maureen Duffy is the author of 34 published works, including poetry, non-fiction, and 16 plays, the most recent being the poetry collection Pictures from an Exhibition. She is a fellow and vice-president of the Royal Society of Literature and a fellow of King’s College London, President of Honour of the British Copyright Council and Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, and a CISAC gold medallist. She was recently awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Loughborough and Kent for contributions to literature and equality law reform.