BIO: Bianca Lakoseljac is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist.

She is editor of a collection of essays, Rudy Wiebe: Essays on His Works (2023); author of two novels, Stone Woman (2016) and Summer of the Dancing Bear (2012), a collection of stories, Bridge in the Rain (2010), (Guernica Editions, respectively); two books of poetry, Silence Is Full of Sound (2025, Ekstasis Editions) and Memoirs of a Praying Mantis (2009, Turtle Moons Press). She is the recipient of the Matthew Ahern Memorial Essay Prize from York University; winner of the Book Excellence Award for Fiction; shortlisted for Best Book Award. Bianca is past president of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto; served as board member for the League of Canadian Poets and The Writers Union of Canada; was a Writer in Residence at Open Book Toronto 2016, and a defender at Georgian Bay Reads in 2018. Her work has been widely featured in journals and anthologies, including in 50 + Poems for Gordon Lightfoot (The Stephen Leacock Museum). She holds an MA and an Honours BA in English Literature from York University, and has taught communications at Humber College and Toronto Metropolitan University. Born in Serbia ((née Branislavka Planinčić), after living in Toronto and Mississauga for a few decades, Bianca now resides with her family in Woodland Beach on Georgian Bay. She admires the rugged beauty of the region and the spectacular sunsets of Georgian Bay.

Books in Print:

Silence Is Full of Sound. Poetry, 2025, Ekstasis Editions.

ISBN 9781771715485 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771715492 (EPUB) Subjects: LCGFT: Ekphrastic poetry. Classification: LCC PS8623.A424 S55 2025 | DDC C811/.6—dc23

“FreeFall Magazine’s review of Bianca Lakoseljac‘s Silence is Full of Sound praises it as a successful collection that captures the wonder of art, nature, and the human spirit, highlighting the poet’s passionate, curious voice in documenting beauty amidst potential recklessness, with strong use of poetic space and imagery, making it a compelling read for those seeking wonder in poetry.”

Review in FreeFall Magazine, Jan. 18, 2026. https://freefallmagazine.ca/review-of-bianca-lakoseljacs-silence-is-full-of-sound/

Buy this book at Georgian Bay Books, Midland, ON. https://georgianbaybooks.ca/store-2/Silence-is-Full-of-Sound-p797755051. Ekstasis: ekstasis@islandnet.com. Amazon.ca

Rudy Wiebe: Essays on His Works, editor. Essays, 2023, Guernica Editions.

ISBN 9781771838467 (softcover) | ISBN 9781771838474 (EPUB).

The essays examine Wiebe’s works and his achievements as an author, editor, professor and mentor who helped shape successful authors, gave rise to new approaches in the art of storytelling, and encouraged a passion for English Canadian Literature. Buy wherever books are sold.

Stone Woman, a novel, 2016, Guernica Editions.

The novel is a saga of Blossom’s unconventional family of five women (mother-daughter stories) whose lives are bound by a Vietnam War draft dodger from the 1967 hippie daze of Toronto’s Yorkville and High Park. ISBN 978-1-55071-987-1 (paperback).–ISBN 978-1-55071-988-8 (epub). –ISBN 978-1-55071-989-5 (mobi).

Summer of the Dancing Bear, a novel, 2012, Guernica Editions. Set in the countryside near Belgrade, the novel explores the rite of passage of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a gypsy clan. ISBN 978-1-55071-361-9

Bridge in the Rain, 2010, Guernica Editions. A collection of short stories set in present day Toronto and linked by an inscription on a bench in High Park. ISBN 978-1-55071-331-2

 Memoirs of a Praying Mantis, 2009, Turtle Moons Press, Ottawa. A collection of poetry that explores environmental concerns and women’s issues. ISBN 878-0-9688437-3-4

Publications in Selected Journals and Anthologies:

–The Nuances of Love, AICW 40^th anniversary anthology, 2025.

–Musings. The Heliconian Club: Women Living in the Arts. Ed. Sheila Tucker. 2021.

–Canadian Woman Studies, Inanna Publications and Education, York University, 2007.

-Migrating Memories: Central Europe in Canada. Published by the Central European Association for Canadian Studies, 2010. University of Nis, Serbia. 

-War of 1812 Poetry and Prose: an Unfinished War. Black Moss Press, 2012. 

 –50+ Poems for Gordon Lightfoot: Old Brewery Press. Stephen Leacock Museum, 2014.

 –Things That Matter: An Anthology of Ontarian Writers, Poets and Visual Artists. HAT. 2018. Oakville, Ontario.

Bianca has been a featured author at literary festivals such as the International Festival of Authors, Toronto;
Word on the Street, Toronto; the Blue Met International Festival, Montreal; the Stephen Leacock Festival, Orillia.

She has been holding successful book signings Canada-wide including in Toronto and vicinity, Ottawa, Kingston, Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, and St. John’s. She gives workshops, lectures, and readings at writers’ festivals, libraries, and online.

For more info, please see http://www.guernicaeditions.com/ or http://www. biancalakoseljac.ca/

At the Desk: Bianca Lakoseljac: http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/desk_bianca_lakoseljac/