Who We Are

Patrons & Partners

PEN Canada is grateful for the generous support of our patrons, partners, members, donors, sponsors, and volunteers. Our work would not be possible without you. Below is a list of individuals and organizations that have shown their commitment to PEN Canada and the fight for freedom of expression for our 2025 fiscal year.

This list acknowledges those individuals and organizations who were members or provided support between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025. The list was last updated August 25, 2025.

Margaret Atwood
Gary Beelik
Louise Dennys
Sturla Gunnarsson
Rick Mercer
Jim Ryce
John Ralston Saul

Anonymous
Estate of Roy Neil Warn McDonald

Anonymous
Katherine Govier

Scott Connell and Anouchka Freybe
Peter Grant and Grace Westcott
Yann Martel
Philip Slayton and Cynthia Wine
Richard Stursberg

Linwood and Neetha Sands Barclay
Margaret MacMillan

Sara Angel
Scotia Bhattacharya
Randy and Anna Boyagoda
Beverley Chernos
Adrienne Clarkson
Ron Deibert
Peter Donolo and Mary Cruden
George Galt
Anne Giardini
Nicholas Giardini
Anthony Jeffery
Nina Josefowitz
Alisha Kaplan
Michael Kedar and Eva Seidner
David Kendall and Toni Bramley
Elaine Kierans
Andrea Lenczner
Lyndsay Green and Hank Intven
Patrick Martin
Hugh McLean
Rohinton and Freny Mistry
Karen Ruddy
John Ralston Saul

James Polk and the late Ellen Seligman

RBC Financial Group

Council for Canadian American Relations

Ontario Arts Council

Balfour Bowen Family Foundation
Butterfield Family Foundation
Emerald Foundation
Margaret Atwood Extra Pocket Foundation
N.A. Taylor Foundation
Freybe Foundation
Horne Family Charitable Foundation
Howitt Dunbar Foundation
MacMillan Family Foundation
Michael and Honor de Pencier Foundation
Michael B. Decter Foundation at Toronto Foundation
Ngan Page Fund
Norman & Margaret Jewison Foundation
Penguin Random House Canada Limited
The Rotman Family Foundation

Another Story Bookshop
Arabic Canadian Book Fair
Artists at Risk, PEN America
Atwater Poetry Project
Atwater Writers Exhibition
Blue Metropolis International
Literary Festival
CBC Radio: Ideas
CBC Radio: The Current
Centre for Caribbean Studies,
University of Toronto
Centre for Free Expression
Citizen Lab
Committee to Protect Journalists
Digital Media at the Crossroads
Education Institute
English PEN, Transmissions
Forum for Caribbean Writers
Friends of the McGill Library
George Brown College
Globe and Mail
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
Hirut Cafe and Restaurant
Hot Docs
Hugh MacLennan Lecture
Humber School for Writers
International Cities of Refuge
Network (ICORN)
IFEX
McGill University
New College, University of Toronto
Port Medway Readers Festival
Quebec Writers’ Federation
Romero House
Sutherland House Press
Toronto International Festival of Authors
Toronto Metropolitan University
Victoria College, University of Toronto
Women and Gender Studies
Institute,University of Toronto
Word on the Street
Writers’ Trust of Canada
Writers’ Union of Canada
Young Writers Committee, PEN International

 

Cision
Marcello Di Cintio
Soapbox Design Communications Inc.
Literary Review of Canada

Alaa Abd El-Fattah
Said Abdelkader
Emanuel Asrat
Temesken Ghebreyesus
Mattewos Habteab
Dawit Habtemichael
Medhanie Haile
Dawit Isaak
Jimmy Lai
Yusuf Mohamed Ali
Narges Mohammadi
María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez
Seyoum Tsehaye
Fesshaye Yohannes

Catherine Abreu
Irene Aguzzi
Will Aitken
Patricia Aldana
Mozhgan Alishah
Bahar Almasi
Almohannad Alnasser
Jason Anderson
Ken Anderson
Anneli Andre-Barrett
George Anthony
Richard Archbold
Sally Armstrong
Said Arvidsson Maslouhi
Robina Aryubwal
Ashley Audrain
Parimah Avani
Khalid Awan
Richard Bachmann
Britta Badour
Sharon Bala
Natasha Bartula
Alison Bate
Paul Bennett
Steven Benstead
Barbara Berson
David Bezmozgis
Ted Bishop
Neil Devindra Bissoondath
Robin Blackburn McBride
Becky Blake
Ronna Bloom
Stephanie Bolster
Marian Botsford Fraser
Jane Bow
Lynne Bowen
Marilyn Bowering
Darby Minott Bradford
Anika Brigant
Rebecca Brill-Argall
Jay Brodbar
Colin Browne
William Bruneau
William Bryant
Gillian Campbell
Thea Caplan
Alison Carr
Marc Luc Carrier
Kern Carter
Jennifer Chapin
Delvin Chatterson
Miguel Antonio Chavez
S D Chrostowska
Ken Clowes
Kristin Cochrane
Andrew Cohen
Valerie Connor
Margaret Cornish
Susan Coyne
Kerry Craven
Patrick Crean
Jim J. Creskey
Alan Cumyn
Gwen Davies
Elizabeth Davis
Ryan Day
Teri Degler
Helena Delaney
Gezahegn Mekonnen Demissie
Suzanne DePoe
Marcello Di Cintio
Fouad Diab
Jo Ann Dionne
Bronwyn Drainie
Brynn Duggan
Naomi Duguid
Catherine Dunphy
Deanna Duxbury
Maggie Dwyer
Kim Echlin
Esi Edugyan
Onat Ekinci
Omar El Akkad
Nadia Elmasri
Jacqueline & Peter Elton
Marina Endicott
Akhtar Etemadi
Christopher Faiers
Jane Fairburn
Marsha Faubert
Thelma Fayle
Robert Finley
Christine Fischer Guy
Ian Fisher
Charlie Foran
Lindsay Foran
Charles Ford
Keath Fraser
Josh Freed
Mark Fried
Wanja Gathu
Marie-Louise Gay
Masha Gessen
John and Judith Grant
Melvyn Green
Andre Guertin
Andrew Guy
Beth Haddon
Jennifer Hall
Judith Hall
Nancy Hansen
Merle Harris
Fiona Hartmann
Elizabeth Hay
Peter Hay
Christopher Hedges
Dorris Heffron
Elizabeth Herlich
Lawrence Hill
Judy Holm
Jennifer Holness
Jennifer Hosten
Ella Hough
Louisa Howerow
Ah Htwe
Linda Huestis
Isabel Huggan
Nancy Huggett
Graeme Hunter
Abdullah Al Imran
Hunyah Irfan
Kevin Irie
MD Shafiqul Islam
Mohd Zainul Islam
Frances Itani
Scott Jacobsen
Bassam Jamil
Maureen Jennings
Plum Johnson
Elizabeth Johnston
Kath Jonathan
El Jones
Milan Kang
Janet Keeping
Margo Kelly
David Kent
Hajera Khaja
Bill Killorn
Camie Kim
Mark Kingwell
Julie-Ann Kirkpatrick
Caroline Kirouac
Heidi Klaassen
Kathy Koch
Brenda Koller
Sheila Koop
Myrna Kostash
David Koulack
Cengiz Koyuncu
Christina Kramer
Uma Krishnaswami
Diana Kuprel
Andrey Kurkov
Tanya Kyi
Anita M. Lahey
Fiona Tinwei Lam
Vincent Lam
Sharlene Lazin
Trudy Ledsham
Alexander Leggatt
Sylvia Legris
John Lent
Ezra Levant
Gregory Light
Dahlia Liwsze
Damian Lopes
Gloria Lorenzen
John Lorinc
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Jordan MacInnis
Wendy MacIntyre
Janet MacLean
Maria Maksymiw
Kate Malloy
Nicole Mankinen
Lorna Marsden
Lily Martin
Sandra Martin
Abdulrahman Matar
Carol Matas
Bob McArthur
Richard McClelland
S.A.M. McCue
Hope McIntyre
Scott McIntyre
Harvey McKinnon
Neil McKinnon
Susan McMaster
Sia Mehta
Samar Mezghanni
Raffi Minas
Susan Minsos
Lawrence Mirkin
Michael Mirolla
Majid Mirzaei
Salah El Mohssein
M. Mehdi Moradi
Rebecca Morris
Elise Moser
Ezat Mossallanejad
Wren Mynhardt
Dimitri Nasrallah
Marie Natanson
Monica Nathan
Sylvestre (Dwoeen) Ngakie
Chad Norman
Peter O’Brien
Gillian O’Reilly
Susan Olding
Katrina Onstad
Antolina Ortiz
Margaret Ostrowski
Narendra Pachkhede
Frederick Packer
Laurence Packer
Brian Panhuyzen
Shree Paradkar
Jeungsoon Park
Kathleen Pattinson
Shauna Paull
Louise Penny
Susan Perly
Shahla Pezeshkzad
Carolyn Poirier
Luka Poljak
Anna Porter
Pamela Porter
Rachel Pulfer
Barbara J. Pulling
Dilan Qadir
Darlene Quaife
Monique Rabideau
Mehrub Rahman
Suman Rahman
Deepa Rajagopalan
Sharareh Rakhshan
Ceta Ramkhalawansingh
Sarah Rauch
Rafi Raza
Matt Redding
Philip Resnick
Pedro Restrepo
Benyamin Rezvan
Kamel Riahi
Nino Ricci
CS Richardson
Dianne Rinehart
Diana Rivington
Diane Roblin
Brenda Roche
Laura Rock Gaughan
Ingrid Rose
Michael Rowe
Georgio Russell
Susan Ryan
Mary Rykov
Siavash Saadlou
Maria Sabaye Moghaddam
Dr. Farshid Sadatsharifi
Jamal Saeed
Judie Sahadeo
Kerri Sakamoto
Candace Savage
Denise Schon
Anneliese Schultz
Shyam Selvadurai
Giorgia Severini
Arra Shadman
Evelyn Sharpe
Sheena Shirani
Peter Showler
Suzannah Showler
Haroon Siddiqui
Antanas Sileika
Merilyn Simonds
Marvin Singer
Marsha Skrypuch
Caitlin Smith
Khin Soe
Adam Sol
Catherine St. Denis
Andrew Steinmetz
Hugh Stephens
Lori Sterling
Robin Stevenson
Kate Story
Susan Stromberg-Stein
Sarmishta Subramanian
Rosemary Sullivan
Mark Surchin
Susan Greer
Tessa Swackhammer
George Swede
John Tackaberry
Banafsheh Taherian
Basima Takrouri
Barbara E. Tangney
Jean Teillet
Prof. Cheryl Thompson
Marian L Thorpe
Hung T. Ton
Ziya Tong
Andrea Torrey Balsara
Laura Trachuk
Istikbal Turut
Rui Umezawa
John Vaillant
Nazanin Nana Valajam
Aritha van Herk
Mark Vessey
Eleanor Wachtel
Hazrat Wahriz
Jennifer Walcott
Bruce Walsh
David Waltner-Toews
Karen Walton
Janette Watt
Lucy Waverman
Alison Wearing
Janice Weaver
Neil Weinstein
Ira Wells
Cheryl Wertman
Elisabeth Westberg
Patricia Westerhof
Alan Whitehorn
Laurelyn Whitt
Janice Williamson
Carolyn Wood
Patrick Woodcock
Donna Wootton
Christine Wu
Max Wyman
Serhy Yekelchyk
Arzu Yildiz
Ahmad Yousefi
Chro Zand

Jeff Abraham
Shelley Ambrose
George Anderson and Charlotte Gray
Kate Andrew
Annick Press Ltd.
Patricia Balfour
Arjun Basu
Ali Boreyri
Randy Boswell
Harvey Botting
Maureen Boyd
Michael Brooks
John Budd
Bruce Burnett
Jane and Tom Clark
Sarah Colwell
Trevor Corkum
Sarah Cosh
Barry Critchley
Cassandra Cronenberg
Stuart Culbertson
Barbara Darby
Maureen Donnelly
Richard Doyon
Susan Ellard
Karen Enns
Margaret Evans
Karyn & Bernie Farber
Kevin Farris
Olga Feiguina
Rob Fennell
Flavelle Family Foundation
Thistledown Press Ltd
The George Cedric Metcalf
Charitable Foundation
Anne Golden
Robert Granatstein
Stephen Gray
Karen Hainstock
Judith G. Hall
Adrian Harewood
Ajay Heble
Marianne Hero
Clarke Herring
Jason Hooper
Amy Hutchison
Hon. Janis Johnson
Helen Kersley
Peter Kirby
Joseph Kirman
Lynne Kutsukake
Hannah Lee
David Leggatt
Bruce Libin
David Lockhart
Louise MacCallum and
Michael Barnstijn
Diane MacDiarmid
J.B. MacKinnon
Alexandra MacLennan
Kristin Marshall
Mateusz Sklad and Lynn Tobin-Sklad
Paul Maurenbrecher
Catherine McKenna
Ian McKercher
Norman McLeod
Catherine Mitchell
Nancy Moon
Sarah Murdoch
Maureen O’Neil
Mark O’Neill
Steve Paikin
Marnie Parsons
Constantine Partasides
Barbara Payne
Klaus Pohle
Russell Prowse
Resolute Funds Limited
Corin Robertson
Ian Robinson
Kristina Roic
Ronsdale Press Ltd
Elspeth Ross
Arthur Rubin
Pierre Sarrazin
Sheridan Scott
David Simmons
Jason Skomorowski
Glenn Smith
Roger Smith
Roman Solonysznyj
Gary Soroka
Stephanie Stavro
Evan Steingarten
Paul J Stoesser
George Szanto
Andrew Szende
Paul Torrie
Douglas Wilson
Randy Witten
Dorothy Woodhouse
Dwayne Wright
Wendy Wright
Writers’ Guild of Alberta

Anneli Andre-Barrett
Mira Boyagoda
Kim Echlin
Hannah Fisher
Charlie Foran
Wanja Gathu
Margo Kelly
Keith Leckie
Mary Jo Leddy
Abdulrahman Matar
Elise Moser
Tala Motazedi
Joan Leishman
Mary Rykov
Sophie Shields
Andrew Steinmetz
Sayan Supratim Das
Hazrat Wahriz
Patricia Westerhof
Chro Zand

Catherine Abreu
Marie-Célie Agnant
Michelle Arbuckle
Margaret Atwood
Nahlah Ayed
Britta Badour
Zalika Reid-Benta
Andersson Boscán
Darby Minott Bradford
Gezahegn M. Demissie
Bushra El-Fadil
Shams Erfan
Charlie Foran
Emily Tristan Jones
Joseph Hafner
Lidiia Karpenko
Sebastien Lai
Abdulrahman Matar
Raffi Minas
Tala Motazedi
Luis Horacio Nájera
Dilan Qadir
Pedro Restrepo
Robin Stevenson
Banafsheh Taherian
John Vaillant
Christine Wu
Arzu Yildiz

Special thanks

Jury for Ken Filkow and Marie-Ange Garrigue Prizes*
Matt Redding
Kate Malloy
Elise Moser

*Prizes generously funded by Philip Slayton and Cynthia Wine

Jury for RBC New Voices Award
Sharon Bala
Dimitri Nasrallah
Sarmishta Subramanian

Susan Olding, mentor to Nancy Huggett, 2024 NVA winner

Support for PEN Writers in Exile
Luba Pazyuk, Program Coordinator, Continuing Education for George Brown’s ESL Part-Time Program for PEN’s Writers in Exile, in honour of Aaron Berhane’s legacy

Paula Applebaum and Shannon McLean, mentors to Tala Motazedi, George Brown College Writer in Residence

Antanas Sileika, mentor to Tala Motazedi, Humber College Scholarship recipient

Artists at Risk Connection
Gary Beechey
Gary Beelik
Kern Carter
Richard Franklin Carter
Cormorant Books
Patrick Crean
Suzanne DePoe
Kim Echlin
Charlie Foran
Katherine Govier
Don Gillmor
Lenore Harris
John Healy
Hogg, Shain & Scheck
Professional Corporation
Mwafaq Katt
Elizabeth Levitt
Fareh Malik
Leila Marshy
Ésery Mondésir
Luis Horacio Nájera
Dimitri Nasrallah
Pamela Purves
The Printing House
Deepa Rajagopalan
Maria Saba

Mathew Sandford, Pear Interactive
John Ralston Saul
Alec Robinson
Philip Slayton
Adam Shapiro
Haroon Siddiqui
Soapbox Design
Saeed Teebi
Madeleine Thien
Alissa Trotz
Jim Turk
Urbanspace
John Vaillant
Writers for Peace Committee, PEN International
Yonge Lawrence Dentistry
Allison Zhao

 

And all those who have contributed their thoughts and time.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If your name is misspelled or excluded, please contact Theresa Johnson at 416-703-8448 ext 2221 or through email at queries[at]pencanada[dot]ca so we can correct the error.

If your name isn’t on this list, please consider joining us! PEN Canada needs stable charitable support to sustain our vital work. You can call us at 416-703-8448 ext 2221 or visit pencanada.ca/donate to donate today.