Josée Sigouin is French Canadian and lives in Toronto/Tkaronto with her Chinese Canadian husband and their two sons. Watching South Korean films and television series in the mid-2000s launched Josée on a quest to understand the fascinating culture in ever greater depth. She has learned the rudiments of the Korean language, visited the Land of the Morning Calm multiple times, and read extensively about its past and present. She also turned her attention to creative writing, taught by Dennis Bock and Kim Echlin at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, and mentored by Omar El Akkad at a writing residency in Bangladesh. An early excerpt from Our Fifth Season was shortlisted for the 2011 Random House of Canada Student Award. In addition to travelling, Josée enjoys cycling, gardening, and welcoming birds to her tiny garden. Our Fifth Season is Josée’s first novel.
Recent Programs
Leslie Bradford Scott
This week we welcome Leslie Bradford-Scott to Word on the Hills. Leslie is the author
of the upcoming memoir The Liar's Playbook (Simon & Schuster,
2026), an Indigo Most Anticipated pick for 2026. Her path to publication
was anything but conventional — she sold the book on proposal in three
weeks, without an agent, after more than two decades of writing
screenplays, essays, and building a multi-million-dollar personal care
brand, Walton Wood Farm, from her laundry room. She is currently at work
on her first novel. Leslie lives in Northumberland County.
Patricia Calder
Welcome to Patricia Calder! Pat Calder started writing as a teenager. Inspired by an uncle who reported for the CBC, she secretly wrote stories about her life in the 50s and 60s. As a young adult she travelled around Europe as far as Moscow. Inspired by Russian writers she studied in university, she explored communism. The secret of the night her 3-year-old brother died came out at a family event. When she began writing as a retiree, these early memories reappeared in her writing: nature, equality, and loss. In a parallel life, she was developing her eye as a photographer. Spirit of the Hills has been a major influence and support for Pat as a writer and as a photographer, with its arts shows and writing critique groups.
Ted Staunton
This week we welcome Ted Staunton. Ted Staunton wrote his first story long ago, as a class assignment at university. He barely handed it in on time, but he’s glad he did: it became the picture book Puddleman. Now the author of something like fifty books, he writes for all ages, and he’s getting better. His YA novel Who I’m Not won the 2014 CCBC John Spray Mystery Award. Ted’s work has also been nominated for Silver Birch, Red Maple, Hackmatack, Arthur Ellis, BC Stellar, and City of Toronto awards, among others. His work has also been published internationally, in a variety of languages. Ted speaks, performs, and leads workshops in schools, libraries and festivals across Canada. As well, he teaches the Writing Children’s Fiction courses at George Brown College.
Kim Fahner
Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her latest book, a novel, is The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46 Publishing) and her next book of poetry, The Pollination Field, will be published by Turnstone Press in 2025. Kim was a finalist for the 2023 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, and she recently won first place in The Ampersand Review’s 2024 Essay Contest for her essay, “What You Carry.” Kim is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
Kate Rogers
Our guest this week is Kate Rogers. Her poem “False Spring” is forthcoming in the Caitlin Press anthology, Sublime: Poems for Vanishing Ice, Editor Yvonne Blomer. Kate won first prize in subTerrain Magazine’s Lush Triumphant Award for her five-poem suite, “My Mother’s House.” Her poem “The Giraffe-bone Knife Set” was shortlisted for ROOM Magazine’s Poem of the Year contest. Kate’s poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Asia. Kate lives in Cobourg where she can often be found walking the harbour. Frontenac House says of Baba Yaga and the Girl Who Ate the Rope that in this collection Kate Rogers reimagines family, folklore, and climate grief. Her muse: the Slavic witch “Baba Yaga, both matriarch and mirror.”
Kathryn Macdonald
Kathryn MacDonald’s poetry has been published in Room, FreeFall and other Canadian literary journals and anthologies, as well as internationally in the U.K., U.S., and other countries. Her new collection The Blue Gate, to be published by Frontenac House in the spring 2026, explores the surprise of love, the shock of loss, and challenges boundaries and liminal spaces. It probes into a love affair that defies conventions, capturing the narrator’s voice from the first lyrical poem. With the death of the belovèd, an invitation to fly to Kenya arrives; it’s accepted; and the long title poem ravels and unravels reality. Poems in the final section question the loss of intimacy, loneliness, change, and unattainable acceptance.
The collection seeks – what – understanding, consolation, release, or does it ask whether love enriches or leaves one lost?
Melissa Thorne
Melissa Thorne (she/her) lives on the traditional and treaty territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations (Cobourg, ON), with her husband, two sons, and Irish Wolfhound, Walter. She reluctantly serves as Walter’s social media manager after he inadvertently went “viral” online. Melissa was recently featured in The League of Canadian Poets’ Fresh Voices series. She is the author of two chapbooks, Augury, and What do we do with all this being? forthcoming in the spring and fall of 2026. Her poetry is also published/ forthcoming in ROOM magazine, The Fiddlehead, Pinhole Poetry and WEI Magazine. Follow her on Instagram @melissa_thorne_poetry
Antony Di Nardo
This week’s guest is Antony Di Nardo. The programme is an encore presentation from 2025. Antony Di Nardo has written nine books of poetry. His award-winning work appears widely in journals and anthologies across Canada and internationally, also translated into several languages. His long poem suite May June July was winner of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize for 2017 and was short-listed for a National Magazine Award. He is an active member of the League of Canadian Poets and the Cobourg Poetry Workshop. The winner of the inaugural Don Gutteridge Poetry Award, Through Yonder Window Breaks was published by Wet Ink Books. Antony’s present project is his collection Cloudspotting which he presented with his insights into the work of Antonio Damasio at the Accenti Festival of the Arts hosted by the University of PEI in Charlottetown last June.
April Potter
April Potter is a local poet, freelance writer, and artist in Port Hope. She graduated from York University with a literature degree and also studied philosophy. She has built a freelance copywriting and marketing business, Potter Creative, since moving to Northumberland County in 2014. Her poetry is published under the name Estlin Edwards. She has written for 102.1 The Edge in Toronto, Sunwing Travel, Kawartha Now, and more. Her first book of poetry will be out this year. You can find her art and postcards for sale at Purpose Thrift Shop in downtown Port Hope. She also writes local business features and theatre reviews at Featured In Northumberland, on Instagram and Facebook.
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