Yolk and the Writers’ Trust of Canada are bringing finalists of the 2025 & 2026 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers to Montreal for one special evening.

Join us on Saturday, September 19 at White Wall Studio (4532 Av. Laval) from 7pm-10pm for readings from 2025 finalists Hana Mason and Cicely Grace, and 2026 finalists Rachel Robb, Renato Gandia, Rebecca Peng, Katie Lawrence, Jeremy Audet, and Graham Slaughter (also a finalist in 2025).

A limited number of anthologies of the 2026 Bronwen Wallace Award will be available for purchase on site.
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The event is BYOB.
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Limited seating is available at the venue.
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No tickets at the door.
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Doors at 7pm, readings begin at 8pm.


‍READERS:

‍Rachel Robb​ is a writer and educator of Jamaican-Irish heritage. Her poetry has been featured in the Bridport Prize anthology and shortlisted for The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, The Alpine Fellowship, and the Montreal International Poetry Prize. Robb’s work has also appeared in anthologies for the gritLit Festival and The Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story. She won the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize for her poem, “Palimpsest County.” Most recently, she was a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Award for Poetry. Robb is currently working on her first collection of poetry. She lives in Toronto. 

‍Hana Mason is a writer and editor. She holds a BFA and an MFA in Writing from the University of Victoria, where she was a founding editor of Over/Exposed Lit and now teaches. Her work appears regularly in literary magazines, including Room, carte blanche, yolk, and filling Station and has been nominated for the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, the Pushcart Prize, a Best of the Net award and a National Magazine Award. In 2025, her short story “Training the Replacement” was a finalist for the RBC/Writers’ Trust Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Artists.

‍Graham Slaughter is a Toronto-based writer whose work has appeared in PRISM international, Canadian Geographic, Toronto Life, and elsewhere. A two-time nominee for the Bronwen Wallace Award, he won in 2026 for his essay, “The Perfect Home For Your Child.” He is currently working on a novel and a memoir about whales.

‍Renato Gandia is a Filipino-Canadian writer emerging at 55, proving there is no prescribed age for finding your literary voice. His debut poetry collection, Eating Rice, On Our Feet, is forthcoming from Frontenac House in spring 2027. He is a 2026 RBC Bronwen Wallace Emerging Writers Award winner.

‍Katie Lawrence (she/her) is a writer, actor, filmmaker, and script supervisor from Toronto. She received the 2021 University of King’s College Medal in European Studies and holds an MFA in Scriptwriting from Toronto Metropolitan University. She is a finalist for the 2026 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award in Creative Nonfiction.

‍Cicely Grace has been a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Award, the CBC Poetry Prize, and the Foster Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Prism International, Yolk Literary, CV2, and elsewhere. Most recently, she participated in a fellowship at the Poetry Society of America in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in English literature at UBC while working on her debut poetry collection HAVE YOU SEEN PRECIOUS?

‍Rebecca Peng is a multi-millionnaire on neopets.com. She also writes.

‍Jeremy Audet's writing has been awarded the Bridge Prize and listed for the Writers' Trust Bronwen Wallace Award, the CBC Short Story Prize, the Montreal International Poetry Prize, and others. A 2026 Writer-in-Residence at the Al & Eurithe Purdy A-Frame, he is the publicist at McGill-Queen's University Press and senior editor at yolk.

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