Bianca Lakoseljac

Bianca Lakoseljac (nee Planinčić) is an author, educator, environmentalist, and a lover of arts and all creative endeavours. She holds an M.A. and B.A. from York University where she received the Matthew Ahern Memorial Award in Literature. Over a ten year period, Bianca taught communication at Ryerson University and Humber College in Toronto.

“Bridge in the Rain,” a collection of stories linked by an inscription on a bench in Toronto’s High Park, was published by Guernica Editions, 2010.

“Memoirs of a Praying Mantis,” a collection of poetry exploring environmental issues, legends and sculptures of High Park, and the horrors of wars, was published by Turtle Moons Press, Ottawa (a First Nation’s publisher) in 2009.

“The Summer of the Dancing Bear,” a novel exploring “the rite of passage” of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a Gypsy clan and set in Serbia, (Bianca’s place of birth and childhood) is slated for publication by Guernica Editions in 2011.

Her short stories, novel excerpts, and poems have been published in journals and anthologies such as Canadian Woman Studies, York University; “Canadian Voices,” BookLand Press, among others.

Bianca is currently working on a historical novel, “Flower Power,” a construct of two parallel mother/daughter stories set in present day Toronto, with a backdrop of the 1967 Art Symposium in High Park. The novel draws on the events of the anti-Vietnam war movement, symbolized by some of the art work such as Mark di Suvero’s sculpture Flower Power, from which the novel takes its title.

Her involvement with the writers’ community includes judging the Dr. Drummond Poetry Contest; the National Capital Writing Contest (short story); serving on the panel of judges for the Canadian Aid Literary Award Contest, (poetry, short story, and novel).

She is past president and program chair of the Canadian Authors Association, Toronto Branch; board member with Book and Periodical Council as well as Huronia Foundation for the Arts; member of The Writers Union of Canada, The League of Canadian Poets, PEN Canada, The Algonquin Square Table, Toronto Writers’ Co-op, The Ontario Poetry Society, among others.