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Phil Hall’s poetry has been nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize & the Governor General's Award. Among his many titles are Old Enemy Juice (1988), The Unsaid (1992), & Hearthedral – A Folk-Hermetic (1996). He has taught writing at York University, Ryerson Polytechnical University, Seneca College, George Brown College, and elsewhere. He has been poet-in-residence at Sage Hill Writing Experience (Sask.), The Pierre Berton House (Dawson City, Yukon), & elsewhere. His most recent books of poems are White Porcupine (2007), The Little Seamstress (2010) & Killdeer (2011). He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, and lives near Perth, Ontario.

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Rona Shaffran has lived for many years in Ottawa, Ontario.   She has chaired the boards and committees of a number of community non-profit organizations. Recently retired from the federal government, she now devotes her time to writing. Rona began writing poetry nine years ago.   Since then, she has attended the Humber School for Writers, where she worked with Olive Senior, D.M. Thomas and Karen Connelly.  Rona also attended the Banff Writing Studio in Spring 2011, where she worked with Jan Zwicky, John Barton, Daphne Marlatt and Carolyn Forché.  

Rona is Co-Director of the Tree Reading Series in Ottawa, one of Canada's longest running poetry series.  In that role, Rona also organizes Master Poetry Workshops, most recently with Roo Borson, and upcoming with Barry Dempster, John Barton and Jan Zwicky. 

Rona Shaffran has completed her first poetry manuscript, titled Cistern of my Body. She has had a chapbook published, with the same title, which includes earlier versions of eleven poems from the manuscript.  That chapbook, illustrated by Marcello D’Amico, an award-winning Australian artist, is being distributed in Canada and Australia, with a possible translation into Italian and distribution in Italy.  Rona has also had her poems published in bywords.ca, in other on-line and literary journals, and in several chapbooks.  She has won Honourable Mention in the John Newlove Poetry Award, as judged by Erin Mouré.

Rona Shaffran is at work on a second manuscript, which includes both poetry and prose.