2026 Junior Online Finals Judges

Véronique Grenier has been teaching philosophy at the college level since 2009. She is the author, with Éditions de Ta Mère, of the poetry collections Carnet de parc (2019) and Chenous (2017), and the short story Hiroshimoi (2016), which was also published in Switzerland by Paulette éditrice in November 2017. She has published a poetry collection for young people with La courte échelle, entitled Colle-moi (2020). She has collaborated with several collectives (Sous la ceinture : unis pour vaincre la culture du viol, Québec Amérique ; Libérer la colère, Remue-Ménage ; Avec pas une cenne, Québec Amérique). She has also worked with the magazines Art Le Sabord, Les Écrits, XYZ, La revue de la nouvelle, Jet d'encre, and Exit, and on the stage play Strindberg (spring 2019, directed by Luce Pelletier). She has been contributing to the "Ideas" section of the newspaper Le Devoir since the fall of 2020. She is a columnist—notably as a "philosopher of circumstance"on the program Et si on se faisait du bien, ICI Radio-Canada, summer 2018— as well as a blogger (Les p'tits pis moé) and public speaker. She was also a spokesperson for the provincial campaign "Sans oui, c'est non!" to counter sexual violence (2015-2018). She was the winner of the Grand Prix du livre de la ville de Sherbrooke in 2020 (creative component), received the Estrie Merit Award in January 2018, was the recipient of the 2017 Jean-Claude-Simard Award from the Société de philosophie du Québec (Quebec Philosophical Society) and was the recipient of the "Coup de cœur" Award from the Conseil de la culture de l'Estrie in 2015. She loves kitsch and quotations and hates appeals to the Universe.

Kyla Jamieson was born and raised in Squamish and North Vancouver. Her debut poetry collection, Body Count (Nightwood Editions 2020), wove the disparate experiences of a brain injury, modelling in New York City, and studying creative writing in Vancouver into a text that was named a CBC Best Poetry Book of 2020 and received praise for its candour, humour, and complexity.

She earned her BFA and MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and has served as a literary editor of both poetry and prose in roles with SAD Mag and PRISM international. Guided by her belief in the universality of creativity, her cultural work centres self-expression, interdependence, and embodiment. She was the Vancouver Public Library’s 2024 Writer in Residence and is passionate about supporting emerging writers. Find her at kylajamieson.com or in the ocean.

Noémie Pomerleau-Cloutier is originally from the Côte-Nord, and left Montreal to settle in Rimouski at the end of 2023. She tries to live in tune with the rhythm of the St. Lawrence estuary. She is an author, cultural mediator, facilitator, trainer, and embroiderer. She has published two collections of poetry with La Peuplade: Brasser le varech (2017), which deals with grief through the vocabulary of plants, and La patience du lichen (2021), which links geographical territory with intimate stories about Quebec's Basse-Côte-Nord. The latter was a finalist for the 2021 Grand Prix du livre de Montréal and won the CALQ's Prix de l'œuvre de la relève in Montreal in 2022. She has also published a collection of poetry for young people (ages 13-17), Tête boule disco (2024), in the brise-glace collection at Boréal, which was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award - Youth Text 2025 and won the Prix littéraire des enseignant·es de français du Québec. She explores how we inhabit our lives and our territories. She is also interested in vulnerability and in the voices that are rarely heard in our society. When she was young, she was described as a very (too) sensitive child. That is probably why she writes. 

Greg Santos is a poet, editor, and educator. He is the author of Ghost Face (2020) and several other poetry collections, including Blackbirds (2018), Rabbit Punch! (2014), and The Emperor's Sofa (2010). His work has also been featured in a range of Canadian and international periodicals. Greg is the Editor-in-Chief of the Quebec Writers' Federation's online literary magazine, carte blanche. Santos's poetry has been described by poet Stuart Ross as "intimate, dark, enigmatic, playful, and surreal." He is a Montreal-born Cambodian adoptee with Portuguese and Spanish heritage. His writing is known for touching on popular culture, identity, migration, adoption, parenthood, family, love, imagination, and the power of hope. He regularly teaches creative writing workshops in partnership with diverse and at-risk communities. He lives in Tio'tia:ke/Montréal with his family.

Alison Smith is the author of three books of poetry and one chapbook from Gaspereau Press. Her most recent collection, This Kind of Thinking Does No Good, was awarded the 2019 J.M. Abraham Award for Atlantic Poetry and shortlisted for the 2020 Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award. She has written for radio, the stage, and has taught poetry workshops in prison, schools and other community settings. Alison's poetry is by turns confessional, surreal, and gothic, confronting the realities of contemporary rural life with humour and courage. Alison also makes analog collages.

Emmanuelle Tremblay is a poet, novelist, and translator. Born in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, she currently lives on the island of Lamèque. Since 2013, her writing has explored the violence of being torn from oneself through a feminist perspective on the origins of and the desire to belong to the world.

Éditions du Noroît has published her translation of Mexican poet Pedro Serrano's essays: Pare-Chocs. Essais d'autodéfense poétique (2020). Third winner of the 2020 Geneviève-Amyot Poetry Prize for her sequence "L’enfance à cinq cennes," she has published two collections: Mesurer les combles (2015) and Nous le lac (2022). The latter book offers an autobiographical account of the journey to womanhood, from the prenatal period to adulthood, with a particular focus on childhood and adolescence. It was awarded the Prix du Salon du livre du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (poetry/theatre category).