Hosts & Moderators

Christophe Collard holds a doctorate in language and literature (Brussels, 2009) and has taught at universities and colleges in Belgium, Spain, China and the Philippines, as well as holding research fellowships in the USA and his second home, Canada.

Author of numerous journal articles, he has also written a monograph entitled Artist on the Make: David Mamet's Work Across Media and Genres (2012), which was shortlisted for the 2014 biannual prize of the European Society for the Study of English.

Currently a professor at the Université de Moncton, he combines his academic activities with writing and translation work for the agance Prokopê, which he founded in 2019.

Photo Credit: Annie France Noël

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Colleen Kitts-Goguen

Colleen Kitts-Goguen is an award-winning journalist with CBC New Brunswick. Originally from Moncton, she now lives in Fredericton where she is a senior writer for CBC News and the interim host of Information Morning Fredericton. Photo credit: Cari Blanchard

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Faith Wright

Born in Moncton, N.B., and raised in Anagance, N.B., Faith Wright holds a bachelor’s degree in French studies from the Université de Moncton and has just defended her master’s thesis in sociolinguistics at the same university. Her thesis examines appeals for donations for the construction of Moncton Cathedral published between 1938 and 1941, and she successfully presented it at the regional “My Thesis in 180 Seconds” competition in 2026.

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Gabriel Robichaud

Gabriel Robichaud is a multidisciplinary artist from Moncton who began his artistic career in 2007. With an academic background in drama at the Université de Moncton, his multidisciplinary practice has led him to work on stage, writing and directing. His choice to add a political dimension to his practice, coupled with the positions he takes in the public arena, also leads him to deal with various subjects concerning the arts, culture and language, particularly in the media.

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Isabelle Robichaud

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Isabelle Violette

Isabelle Violette is a sociolinguist and Associate Professor in the Department of French Studies at the Université de Moncton (Moncton campus). She is also Director of the Centre de recherche sur la langue en Acadie at the same institution. Her research interests include linguistic insecurity, social debates on language, the minoritization of French, and Francophone immigration.

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Jimena Vergara

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Khalil Akhtar

Khalil Akhtar is the host of Information Morning Moncton. He joined CBC in 2002 and has worked as a news reporter, producer and radio host in New Brunswick and British Columbia. Photo credit: Nate Blackmun from Uproar Productions

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Madeline Lamboley

Madeline Lamboley is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Moncton and holds the Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence, Prevention, and Intervention, also known as Les Raisonnantes. She is also an associate researcher with the collective for research and action on safety, autonomy, and health for all women (SAS-Femmes). Her work aims to shed new light on sexual violence between intimate partners from an intersectional feminist perspective, with a focus on minority communities.

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Marie-Linda Lord

Marie-Linda Lord is a retired professor from the University of Moncton. After working as a radio and television journalist for Radio-Canada Atlantique, she became a professor and researcher, conducting research on representations and discourse in the literature and media of Acadia and New Brunswick. Author of more than 30 scholarly chapters and articles, she has edited four books: L’émergence et la reconnaissance des études acadiennes: à la rencontre de Soi et de l’Autre (The Emergence and Recognition of Acadian Studies: Encountering Self and Other); Paysages imaginaires d’Acadie. Un atlas littéraire (Imaginary Landscapes of Acadia: A Literary Atlas); Lire Antonine Maillet à travers le temps et l’espace (Reading Antonine Maillet Through Time and Space); and La cathédrale Notre-Dame-de l’Assomption. Monument de la Reconnaissance (The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption: Monument of Recognition).

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Myriam Thomas

Originally from the Acadian Peninsula and based in Moncton, Myriam Thomas is a multidisciplinary artist who is a bit all over the place, but prefers to describe herself as an “organized mess.” Her practice—sometimes poetic or narrative, other times musical or photographic—centers on autofiction and intersectionality. With a bachelor’s degree in literature and a minor in visual arts from the University of Moncton, she is now a master’s student in literary studies and is interested in the representation of Black people in Acadian literature. Photo credit: La Cave Media, Fred Guitard

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Noel Bourque

Originally from Cap-Pelé, a former small village in Westmorland County, Noel now lives in Moncton with his family.

Before FRYE, he worked as a bookseller for over 10 years. During that same time he started volunteering at the festival, until 2019 when he was offered a contractual role and never looked back. He is now responsible for FRYE’s programming and has proudly represented the organization as a board member of the Canadian Association of Literary Festivals, as well as the Atlantic Book Awards. When he isn’t reading books or reading about them, he can be found curating your next read at Bardo Books.

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Pénélope Cormier

Penelope Cormier is a professor of literature at the Edmundston campus of the University of Moncton. Her research in Acadian studies focuses on the history of Acadian literature from a sociological formalism perspective. She is a member of the Groupe de recherche sur l’Acadie contemporaine (GRAC) and the Nouvelles solidarités en littérature franco-canadienne research group. As an art critic, she has been interested in current events in French-Canadian arts for some twenty years. Photo credit: Noémie Roy-Lavoie

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Sonya Malaborza

Originally from Rexton, New Brunswick, Sonya Malaborza took a long detour to Toronto, then Moncton, before settling a few kilometers from the village where she grew up. A reader, translator and incubator of ideas, Sonya takes pleasure in accompanying authors and translators in the exercise of their profession, notably as Publishing Director at Éditions Prise de parole. L’accoucheuse de Scots Bay, her translation of Ami McKay’s best-selling novel The Birth House, was published in 2020 and earned her a nomination for the Governor General’s Literary Awards in the translation category and for the Éloizes in the literary artist category. She also occasionally writes texts of her own; Prendre racine, her first collection, won the Prix Antonine-Maillet Acadie-Vie in 2024.

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Stephanie Domet

Stephanie Domet is the author of two novels, Homing and Fallsy Downsies, both published by Invisible. She also co-wrote a non-fiction book for middle grade readers called Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women, published by Nimbus. She is the co-founder and co-executive director of the AfterWords Literary Festival, and the managing editor of The Dalhousie Review. She teaches creative writing to adults and kids at her home in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She is no doubt wearing something she sewed herself.

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Sébastien Lord-Émard

Sébastien Lord-Émard est un militant et écrivain queer acadien, situé sur le territoire traditionnel non-cédé de Mi’kma’ki. Là où le ruisseau Panacadie (Hall) se jette dans la rivière Epetkutogoyek (Petitcodiac), le « Coude » (Moncton) est devenu son chez-soi depuis près de quinze ans. Il/iel a notamment publié de la poésie et des essais sur différentes plateformes. Rédacteur, réviseur, animateur, conférencier et gestionnaire de projets, Sébastien Lord-Émard participe activement à la vitalité culturelle en Acadie et dans la francophonie canadienne, dans une perspective intersectionnelle.

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Thandiwe McCarthy

Thandiwe McCarthy is a 7th generation African Canadian spoken word poet, writer, public speaker, and the culture correspondent for Maritime EDIT magazine, where he highlights Black community leaders and artists. Known for his unique “Vibe Harvesting” performances, he creates poetry spontaneously at events across the Maritimes.

Thandiwe has co-founded the New Brunswick Black Artists Alliance and organized the provincial event Emancipation Celebration. He played a key role in having August 1st recognized as Emancipation Day in New Brunswick. Though he has stepped back from volunteer work, his contributions have left a lasting impact on the community.

The “Still Here Initiative,” celebrating fifteen generational Black New Brunswick families, is gearing up for a national art exhibition at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and a globally distributed book published by Goose Lane Editions, both launching in July 2025.

Thandiwe’s memoir, “Social Oblivion: Raised Black in New Brunswick,” is available now.

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