David E. Armstrong was born during the baby boom and is still not dead. Adopted and raised by giant apes, his childhood was misppent on music and reading; subsequently he has played clarinet for the RCMP musical ride, guitar in Celtic bands, and worked as a staff member for the Tel Megiddo archaeological expedition. His professional writing on drunken ancestor worship and presentations on human hermaphroditism have been denounced across North America and throughout the Middle East. Consequently he sleeps on the second floor of a concrete reenforced bunker. With an advanced degree in Religious Studies and another in Ethics, he says that it's either work at Collected Works or it's back to the dole queue on Monday.

With childhood heroes including The Queen of Hearts and Bill Nye the Science Guy, it's no wonder Kae Bagg turned into a mad scientist. Kae is a double major in Philosophy and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa. A reader of science, philosophy, and mathematics, Kae only enjoys reading fiction books where things don't turn out well for any of the characters involved. The youngest staff member (probably), Kae has worked at three different bookstores for what is just under half of her entire life.

Chris C. was the youngest of three children and in that only ever had the books to play with. That started a life long addiction. He now lives in an apartment his friends call a clubhouse for deranged librarians. He has been working in various forms of retail for about fifteen years and is a self published author of three short story collections and working on having his first novel complete by Christmas.

Victoria Higgins started reading children’s books at age two and sees no reason to stop now. She can also be found in the non-fiction section obsessively reading biography, sociology, religion, Cold War history, and knitting books when she should be working. Her co-workers would tell on her, but they're intimidated by Victoria's extensive collection of books on torture. When not at the bookstore, she enjoys terrorizing the general public as a comedian with Stand Up for Mental Health. In 2009, Victoria and her talented co-author, Meghan Dunn, won 3rd prize in the International 3-Day Novel contest with a silly book about Welsh zombies. They’re now writing a silly book about evil dolphins, but whatever you do, don’t get Victoria started on the subject of dolphins.

Born in the waning years of the baby boom, Peter Hunter grew up on a farm south of Ottawa. He fell into the world of bookselling in 1990 and now puts the skills acquired to use packing returns and entering catalogues, along with other duties as assigned. Collected Works' resident expert on obscure Russian and South African fiction, Peter is also a raconteur of the world-famous Pantomimical Theological Debate joke and can highly recommend the cookies available at our coffee bar.

Lissa Lacroix is a former animation student, and has been selling books for over three years and has been a barista for just as long. Collected Works is the only place she has been able to do both at the same time. She has a fondness for zombies, books that are both strange and compelling, graphic novels, film, and devouring unattended children. She can also make a mean Cappuccino.

Trish Slater once a mere employee at Collected Works and now a fixture there (though rather more mobile than the card racks), is a valuable resource of esoteric (and mostly useless) knowledge. Her interests are wide-ranging, including history, current events, biographies, and trashy novels. She has, in fact, memorised the customer service numbers of most of the major publishers, which may come in handy if she ever gets around to finishing the Great (well, Trashy and Poorly Written) Canadian Novel.

Christopher Smith has been a bookseller since 1984 and opened Collected Works with Craig Poile in 1997. When he is not managing the store, ordering books or paying bills, Christopher can be found practicing the piano.

Margo MacDonald is a professional actor and theatre creator who works at the bookstore between gigs to sustain her voracious book habit. With thousands of books already crowding her home, she is beginning to look into alternative shelving solutions ("Windows...we don't really need windows, do we?"). Margo also dabbles in writing - both for the stage and not - and is published in Ghosts of Ottawa: From the Files of the Haunted Walk.

Craig Poile grew up in New Brunswick and now lives in Ottawa, where he is an active poet and playwright. He is part-owner of Collected Works.

A lifetime resident of Ottawa, Catherine Prickett (or "Cat") flies her geek flag high as a reader of speculative fiction, graphica, young adult novels, and esoteric other subjects. She has been a bookseller on and off throughout her career before coming to Collected Works during the holiday season of 2007. She is now also an apprentice barista and freelance proofreader. During her off-time, Cat can often be found with a character sheet and dice, playing tabletop RPGs.