The FORCE for Cultural Events Production
Pages UnBound events are produced by the FORCE for Cultural Events Production, Inc., a charitable non-profit Canadian organization. FORCE's mission is to explore how Canadian - and international - literary voices are developing and evolving and to bring audiences and authors together in entertaining and illuminating ways. Through the events we produce, we aim to explore what a "book" is, and what "literature" is, in a multi-platform, digital world.

FORCE was founded in 2009 to further extend the highly successful This Is Not A Reading Series (TINARS). Since then, we have produced dozens of literary events at the Gladstone Hotel, the Tranzac, and elsewhere in downtown Toronto, solidifying a reputation for high quality, innovative literary programming. In 2014, we launched the Pages Festival + Conference, which brought together authors, artists, and other cultural producers who are re-imagining the way forward for literature. Due to the extraordinary success of the event, all FORCE events are now presented as Pages UnBound programs.

FORCE is invested in innovation. We help artists, producers, educators, and distributors understand and seize opportunities presented by the changing cultural and economic landscape. We help authors and publishers find or invent new ways to create and produce. Our primary methodology is to create collaborative opportunities, giving creators new ways to talk about what they do, exchange ideas, and develop new partnerships.

Artistic Director:
Marc Glassman
Marc is a veteran bookseller, film programmer, and radio and print journalist, as well as an Adjunct Professor at Ryerson University's Masters of Fine Arts in Documentary Media program. He is the Editor-in-Chief of POV (Point of View), Canada's leading periodical on documentary culture, and Montage, the Directors Guild of Canada's national magazine. Marc founded and ran the independent bookstore Pages Books & Magazines for 30 years until it closed in 2009, and served as the Artistic Director of TINARS, voted Toronto's Best Reading Series in 2013 and 2014, during its ten-year run. Marc has organized and hosted hundreds of film, music, and literary events in Toronto's downtown core. He was the recipient of the Toronto Arts Award in Literature in 2000 and the Tom Berner Prize for Support of Independent Filmmaking in 2003.

Board President:
Judy Wolfe
Judy is President and Founder of FORCE for Cultural Events Production, Inc. She is a past Chair of the Ashkenaz Foundation, producers of the Ashkenaz Festival of New Jewish Culture. Books, libraries, bookselling and events have been part of Judy's life since…forever. Judy is a partner in Consulting Matrix, a firm that provides governance, strategic planning and organizational development advice to a wide range of government, non-profit and for-profit organizations.

Board Treasurer:
Marc Côté
Marc is the publisher of Cormorant Books, a twenty-nine year-old literary publishing house noted for the discovery and development of Canadian writing talent. He has been nominated for the Libris Award for Editor of the Year numerous times, and has won it twice. Cormorant Books has been nominated for the Libris Award for Small Press seven times in the last twelve years, and has won it three times. At Cormorant, Marc has acquired and edited many award nominated books, including but in no way limited to nominees for the Giller Prize, the Charles Taylor Prize, and the BC National Non-Fiction Prize.

Board Member:
Gerry Flahive
Gerry is a writer, producer and creative consultant at his media arts company, Modern Story. Until May 2014, Gerry was Senior Producer at the National Film Board of Canada, where he produced and co-produced more than 75 documentary films and interactive projects. His productions have garnered many international awards including two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for HIGHRISE, a global interactive documentary.

Board Member:
Steve Glassman
Steve started his career as a biologist (McGill, 1974) and spent a dozen years as a professional agronomist (PAg) and manager of laboratories before completing an MBA (York, 1986) and moving into the printing industry. As a CFO and later general manager and co-owner of small to medium sized companies, he directed and adapted his companies to the dramatic changes in technology that the industry has experienced in the last 20 years. Having sold his last company, Steve has been employed at York University since 2004 as the Director of its in house print shop, mailing department, and bookstore. Steve has been a volunteer director and treasurer of a non-profit arts and cultural foundation for eight years, as well as a grassroots volunteer in the community. One of his proudest accomplishments is that he is the co-founder and co-owner of the iconic downtown Toronto bookstore, Pages Books & Magazines, which closed in 2009 after 30 years.

Board Member:
Bob Kasher
Bob is a pioneer in the field of Digital Publishing. He was the founder of Database Directories, one of Canada's first digital publishers in 1994, and was an early driving force behind the development of mobile phone publishing while at Macmillan/Holtzbrinck. He has lectured extensively on the subject at industry forums throughout the world. Currently he is a member of the IDPF's EPUB 3 Working Group and is involved with the Book Industry Study Group's (BISG) Rights and Permissions Controlled Vocabulary and Content Structure initiatives. He has been a Rights Consultant working to develop Rights and Permissions automation software and services with both Digi-Rights and First Source for the last two years.

Board Member:
Charlotte Mickie
Charlotte was appointed President of Mongrel International in May 2014, launching the company in Cannes with global sales on MAUDIE, a feature film to star Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke. Prior to her appointment at Mongrel, Charlotte was the Executive Vice-President of eOne Films International, which she joined in 2008 after it acquired Maximum Films where she was both a Managing Director and a partner. While at eOne, Charlotte acquired and sold such high-profile films as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Animal Kingdom, Incendies, and The Babadook. Prior to Maximum Films, Charlotte was Managing Director of Celluloid Dreams, where she handled works by the Dardenne brothers, Michael Haneke, Hirokazu Kore-eda and François Ozon. Charlotte also spent many years overseeing all international film sales at Alliance Atlantis and founded the Alliance Independent division. Charlotte currently serves on the board of the AFM, and on advisory boards for Images Film Festival, ACE (Les Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), IFP (Independent Feature Project), REEL Canada, and Gamechanger. Charlotte is also a programmer for the Open Roof Festival in Toronto.

Board Member:
Doina Popescu
Doina is the founding director of the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC), a contemporary art gallery in Toronto dedicated to photography and new media and focused on collecting, research and exhibitions. In 2014 she was named distinguished visiting fellow at Ryerson University. Prior to 2008 she was the deputy director and cultural programmer of the Goethe-Institut Toronto, where she managed the Gallery and Kinowelt Hall. For over 30 years she has collaborated with and presented the work of Canadian and international artists and scholars in the visual arts, film, literature and new music.

Board Member:
Tasleem Thawar
Tasleem is the Executive Director of PEN Canada. She has lived and worked in Tokyo, Bombay, London, and Dar es Salaam. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies and magazines, including Her Mother's Ashes 3, Spacing Magazine, and Gothic Toronto: Writing the City Macabre. She completed graduate studies at the London School of Economics, and is a recent alumna of the Creative Writing Program at the Humber School for Writers. She writes from her flat in Toronto.

Board Member:
Ellen Wexler
Ellen loves reading, music, dance, and art and is committed to the development of cultural festivals. She spent six years on the Board of the Ashkenaz Foundation, which hosts a bi-annual Jewish cultural festival, during which time she was treasurer and president. She has been on the Board of FORCE since its inception.

Team Member:
Jordan Sonenberg, Print and Website Design
Jordan has been working with artists, publishers and gallerists in the realm of contemporary art for over 20 years. He has published artists' editions, books and other printed works as well as being responsible for web and digital content at Art Metropole, in Toronto. He has provided print and web design services to the people behind Pages UnBound for almost ten years.