Jenna Kalinsky, Principal & Founder, One Lit Place
Jenna holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught creative and academic writing at University of Toronto Scarborough, Humber College, and Western University, where she redesigned the Continuing Studies Creative Writing program. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appear in mainstream and literary magazines, including in the LA Times best-selling The Modern Jewish Girls’ Guide to Guilt (Penguin). Originally from Los Angeles, Jenna has lived in New York, Germany, and now makes her home in Toronto, Canada.
- Fiction & Creative Nonfiction: instruction & coaching in craft and practice
- Academic articles & dissertations: structural consultation & editing
- Grammatical instruction
- Manuscript consultation: developmental feedback & substantive editing
- Copyediting & Proofreading
- Web Copy: writing & editing
- Business documentation
Marcia Walker, Instructor, Fiction & Nonfiction
Marcia holds an MFA from the University of Guelph. Her writing has appeared in Prism international, Room, Event, Antigonish Review, University of Toronto Magazine, This Magazine, The Globe and Mail, CBC radio and The Broken Social Scene Story Project by House of Anansi. She has been shortlisted for Prism’s fiction and non-fiction prize and was a finalist for the 2017 Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition and the Lascaux Fiction Award. In 2016, her play, Recess, was part of Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell festival. Currently she also co-organizes the Emerging Writer Reading Series in Toronto.
Anna Sonser, Instructor, Fiction & Nonfiction
Anna holds a Ph.D from the University of Toronto in English Literature. In addition to her non-fiction book, A Passion for Consumption: The Gothic Novel in America, she has published six novels under a pseudonym with Kensington Publishing in New York. She also has numerous newspaper, magazine and academic articles to her credit. She has taught at the university and college levels as well as taking on a coaching role as marketing and communications branding and change management consultant for financial and IT organizations. Fluent in French and German, Anna divides her time between Toronto and Southern California.
Rebecca Hales, Instructor, Screenwriting
Rebecca Hales is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Bell Media Prime Time TV program and holds an MFA from University of British Columbia. In 2016 she was awarded the Telefilm New Voices award at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference and was one of the Corus Entertainment Writer’s Apprentice Program participants at the Banff World Media Festival. Her credits include an episode of Travelers, the Showcase/Netflix sci-fi series from showrunner Brad Wright (Stargate franchise), working in the development room of Solstice, another Brad Wright original series, interning on the CTV drama series Saving Hope, and the Women in Film and Television Toronto Showcase award winning short film “Dissecting Gwen.” She is currently developing a political crime thriller with Rusty Halo Productions, a half-hour comedy series with creative partners in Toronto and LA, and multiple solo projects.
Vaishali Patel, Instructor, Wellness Writing
Vaishali is a Registered Psychotherapist and narrative practitioner. She received her Master’s Degree in Community Counseling at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro (UNCG), and currently holds certification with The Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. She has been counselling since 2003, and worked in the field of Employee Assistance Programming (EAP) for more than six of those years, gaining experience and a greater understanding of the importance of work-life balance, and overall wellness of individuals. In addition to individual therapy in her private practice, Vaishali runs RAW (Revealing Authentic Women) Support Circles and “good for you Ladies Night Out” events.
Alice Neiley, Instructor, Nonfiction
Alice’s creative non-fiction prose has appeared in Eckleburg Review, Provincetown Arts Magazine, and Underwater New York, and her poetry in Vantage Point, Nashville Review, and Tahoma Review. She received a BA in English Literature from the University of Vermont and an MFA from Hunter College, where she was a Hertog fellow and a teaching fellow. She is currently an adjunct professor of writing and literature at Champlain College, and regularly writes album reviews for a handful of independent musician clientele.
Dr. Liat Radcliffe Ross, Editor Nonfiction
For more than 15 years, Liat has been a freelance editor specializing in academic and non-profit work. She has worked in academia, print journalism, policy research and finance in the US, UK and Canada. Liat earned her doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford.
- Academic Articles
- Business documentation, writing & editing
Krista Foss, Editor, Fiction & Nonfiction
Krista Foss is a writer of novels, short stories and creative non-fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in Granta and has twice been a finalist for the Journey Prize. Krista’s essay writing, which won the PRISM International creative non-fiction contest in 2016, has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and featured in Best Canadian Essays. Her first novel, Smoke River, published by McClelland & Stewart, won the Hamilton Literary Award. She is a senior editor at Hamilton Review of Books, at work on her second novel, a collection of essays about cycling and a television project. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
Allison LaSorda, Editor, Poetry, Nonfiction & Academic
Allison’s writing has appeared in North American Review, Shenandoah, The Fiddlehead, and Hazlitt, among others. A recipient of scholarships from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Vermont Studio Center residencies, she was also nominated for a 2018 National Magazine Award for Personal Journalism. Her debut poetry collection, Stray, was published in 2017.
- Academic (humanities) grant applications (SSHRC, OGS, etc.)
- Arts grants and residency proposals
- Manuscript consultation: non-fiction, poetry, academic articles and dissertations
- Copy editing and proofreading
Lori A. May, Writing Instructor & Editor, Fiction and Nonfiction
Lori is the author of several books including The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship & the Writing Life (Bloomsbury), which was nominated for a Michigan Notable Book Award and named a “best book for writers” by Poets & Writers magazine. She writes across the genres, with publications including The Atlantic, Brevity, Midwestern Gothic, and Writer’s Digest. She is also a contributing writer for Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel. Her nonfiction specialties include travel, food, and memoir. For fiction, she seeks compelling characters and smart structure. For poetry, it’s all about lyricism. As a freelance editor, Lori has worked with Kaylie Jones Books (an Akashic Books imprint), Creative Nonfiction, Poets’ Quarterly, and other presses and journals. She teaches in the creative nonfiction low-residency MFA program at University of King’s College-Halifax. Originally from Ontario, Lori now calls the Pacific Northwest home.
- Fiction & Creative Nonfiction: instruction & coaching in craft and practice
- Manuscript Consultation: developmental feedback & substantive editing
- Copyediting & Proofreading
- Nonfiction Book Proposal: editing & consultation
Erica Fyvie, Editor, Fiction & Nonfiction
Erica holds an M.A. from York University in film, and a B.A. from the University of Guelph in English and Drama. After working as a script editor at a family film company, she turned to educational editing and freelance writing. She’s worked with everyone from graduate students, marketing professionals, first-time writers, and grade school students to help them find their writer voices. Her first published book, Trash Revolution, for Kids Can Press, was released in April 2018.
- Children’s, YA fiction & non-fiction
- Academic dissertations & articles
- General fiction & non-fiction
- Copyediting & proofreading
Melissa Campeau, Freelance Journalist
Melissa’s articles have appeared in newspapers, consumer magazines and association publications including the Financial Post, Canadian Living, Profit and HR Professional. Having worked in both the private and not-for-profit worlds, she creates marketing, PR, web and branded content for a range of clients including Royal Bank, Humana, Great Place to Work and Engineers Canada. Melissa lives, works and treks about in Toronto, Canada with her husband, son and dog. melissacampeau.contently.com
- Journalistic writing: editing, coaching and instruction
- Marketing and public relations: writing and coaching
- Web Copy: writing and coaching
- Social media: writing and coaching
- Pitch coaching for magazine and newspaper articles
Our Creative Team
Pascale Potvin, Assistant
Pascale is a writer and actor with a BAH in Stage & Screen Studies from Queen’s University. She has a fiction piece in The Writing Disorder’s Summer 2018 issue, and she is currently working on a budding book trilogy. One of the award-winning films that she wrote, Beat, is being distributed by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.
Razili Datta, Programming Consultant
Razili is a program management and communications consultant specializing in international development programs who moonlights as a virtual community facilitator and content curator. She earned a BA in Economics and Government from Smith College and an MA in International Affairs from The George Washington University. Born and raised in northern California, Razili has lived in western Massachusetts, Washington, DC, and New Delhi, and currently resides in Toronto where she has learned to complain about the winters like a native.
- Corporate and nonprofit report writing
- Copyediting and proofreading
- Presentation writing and development
Janet Hoy, The Book Activist for One Lit Place
One Lit Place Associates
Tamara Sztainbok, web designer and developer, Puzzle Box Communications
Having worked in the publishing industry for almost 20 years, Tamara well understands writers’ unique needs. She created Puzzle Box Communications, a web design studio, to give writers and creatives a professional and strategic online presence. Puzzle Box Communications provides sales funnel, email marketing, social media, and content marketing. Tamara lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. www.puzzleboxcommunications.com
- Web design and development
- Online strategy
- Email marketing
