Amanda Leduc

Amanda is a novelist, essayist, and mischief maker. After making her wanderlusty way through England, BC, Europe, and enjoying a stint eating shortbread and clotted cream on an almost-daily basis in Edinburgh, she now lives primarily on the Internet. And also, sometimes, in Hamilton, Ontario, which often puts her close enough to scheme with the lovely Allegra Young.

Amanda holds a BFA in Writing and Philosophy from the University of Victoria, and a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews. This makes her pretty much unemployable, but in her working life thus far she has held down jobs as an admin assistant, bookseller, support worker, strawberry picker, waitress, fundraiser, hospital admissions clerk and — perhaps most exotically —  a dogwalker along a misty Edinburgh beach. Her new novel,  THE MIRACLES OF ORDINARY MEN, comes out in May 2013 with Toronto’s ECW Press. If you like, you can pre-order it here. And here. And also here.

Amanda enjoys wearing clothes on a regular basis. In her spare time, she likes thinking up crazy projects, reading, playing piano, drinking tea, and eating pizza. She can probably procrastinate you under the table, and makes a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Allegra Young

Allegra adores reading Canadian literature. She is currently reading/blogging her way through the 40 books selected as the celebratory 10th Anniversary picks of Canada Reads. She is thrilled to be working with Amanda Leduc on the Bare it For Books project.

In her other life, Allegra is the Recording and Licensing Manager for Centrediscs – the contemporary Canadian classical music label of the Canadian Music Centre. Allegra has lived in Montreal and Banff and is now happily back in her hometown of Toronto. She got her Bachelor of Music from McGill University in Voice Performance and a post-graduate diploma in Communications from Concordia University. In Banff, Allegra worked as the Podcast Producer at The Banff Centre where she interviewed a plethora of Canada’s finest artists such as Barbara Budd, John Vaillant and Matt Andersen. Her favourite moment in Banff? When she conducted a 15-piece string orchestra playing her arrangements for the recent Weezer album, Hurley.

In her spare time, she knits, crochets, canoes and sings.