Our Team

Anuja Varghese,
Chair

Anuja Varghese (she/her) is an award-winning writer and experienced non-profit professional. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines and anthologies, and she is the Fiction Editor at the Ex-Puritan. In 2023, Her short story collection, titled Chrysalis, won the Writers Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, and in 2024, was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her debut novel, A Kiss of Crimson Ash, the first in a new fantasy trilogy inspired by medieval India, is forthcoming in spring 2026. Find Anuja online at anujavarghese.com.

Lynne Sargent,
Vice Chair

Lynne Sargent (they/she) is a writer, aerialist, and ethicist who holds a Ph.D in Applied Philosophy. Lynne is a published poet, short fiction, and non-fiction writer, and is the poetry editor at Utopia Science Fiction. Their work has appeared in venues like Plenitude, Terse, and Augur Magazine, and has been nominated for Rhysling, Elgin, Best-of-the-Net and Aurora Awards. They are a three-time Hamilton Short Works Prize winner in both short fiction and poetry, and their work has received repeated support from the Ontario Arts Council. You can also find them working as a consultant specializing in ethics, technology, and vulnerability at Type Driven Consulting.  

Charaya Thach,
Treasurer

Charaya Thach grew up in the Hamilton community, attended McMaster University and has worked in Banking for 20 years. 

She joined gritlit in November 2025 as Treasurer. She previously served on the Board of YWCA Hamilton. She found her love for reading and learned English quickly through consuming all of the Babysitters club, Sweet Valley High, and RL Stine books. 

As an adult she loves romance and fantasy books and loves to chat all things bookish on bookstagram and booktok. 

Mary Ellen Ruddell,
Secretary

Mary Ellen is a Social Worker and healthcare leader for the Canadian Mental Health Association, Hamilton where she focusses on strategy, governance, and quality improvement.  Her work has taken her across North America and provided a breadth of experience in multiple sectors and populations. 

Mary Ellen is an avid outdoorsperson with a love of all animals and nature. 

Mary Ellen continues to be a member of the Book Club she started in 2001.  She is passionate about consuming the written word and has volunteered for the past 5 years with the CNIB’s “Reading Room” program. 

Mary Ellen has been a Hamiltonian since 2015, falling in love with the culture and art scene.  She has been involved with gritLIT since 2021, is a writer and aspiring author dabbling in a variety of genres including young adult, dystopian future, adult prose, and psychological thriller and is a member of the Canadian Authors Association.

Shalini Abeysekara ,
Director

Shalini Abeysekara (she/her/hers) is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of This Monster of Mine. A former corporate lawyer, she uses fantasy to explore monstrosity, craft cynical MMCs who respect women, and centre neurodivergent women reckoning with their place in a world that tells them they’re too much and not enough. When not writing, she games her life away and tries to make the perfect entremet. Most days, she can’t believe she's an adult, and hope you don’t either.

Audrey Hensen,
Director

Audrey Hensen is a former School Administrator and Education Officer for the Ministry of Education, and currently a member of the Accreditation Committee for the Ontario College of Teachers. She is the mother of three avid readers, a watercolourist, member of The Harmones Band, and a lover of all things outdoors. Reading and learning have always played a large role in Audrey’s life. As a career educator, she has witnessed and experienced the many ways that reading and exposure to books can be transformative, can illuminate lives, and bring people joy, solace, inspiration and connectedness.  Audrey is enjoying being a part of gritLIT's literary community and Board as she serves as a member of the Governance Committee. 

Selena Middleton,
Director

Selena Middleton is a writer, editor, and community-focused publisher. She teaches at McMaster University in the Faculty of Humanities and the Department of English and Cultural Studies, where she delivers first-year academic reading and writing, and creative writing courses within the Creative Writing and Narrative Arts Certificate. She is founder and publisher of Stelliform Press, whose books have been finalists or winners of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, the Indigenous Voices Award, and other major honours. Through teaching, mentoring, festivals, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Middleton's contributions strengthen regional literary ecosystems.

Alicia Cox Thomson,
Director

Alicia Cox Thomson has been working in Toronto media for over 20 years as a lifestyle editor and writer for some of Canada's biggest brands. Today, she writes about culture, design, books and more for the Globe and Mail, 3 Magazine, Chatelaine and the CBC. She also champions her favourite books on-air as a columnist for CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter.

Caroline Topperman,
Director

Caroline Topperman, has written articles for Huffington Post Canada, Jane Friedman’s blog, and served as managing editor for NonBinary Review.  Caroline is an Author Accelerator Book Coach,  is a co-founder of Mountain Ash Press and of KW Writers Alliance. Her book, Tell Me What You See, serves as a toolkit for her writing workshops. Her hybrid memoir, Your Roots Cast a Shadow (HCI Books), explores explosive intergenerational histories that link war zones and foreign shores with questions of identity and belonging. Caroline teaches at an underground school for girls in Afghanistan.