Amanda Leduc and Allegra Young spearheaded the Bare It For Books campaign, which will see 12 Canadian authors strip for a charity calendar. (Handout/QMI Agency)

A dozen celebrated Canadian authors will bare more than their souls to support free speech.

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The Bear It For Books campaign announced its list of award-winning writers who will pose naked, or nearly naked, for a 2014 calendar to raise money for PEN Canada, a free-speech advocacy group.

Former Globe and Mail editor Trevor Cole will be Mr. February, lesbian fiction writer Farana Doctor will be Ms. March, musician/novelist Dave Bidini will be Mr. April and Life of Pi writer Yann Martel will be Mr. December.

The other authors-turned-models are Angie Abdou, Miranda Hill, Daniel MacIvor, Terry Fallis, Sachiko Murakami, Vincent Lam and Saleema Nawaz.

The campaign is being spearheaded by classical music producer Allegra Young and author Amanda Leduc, who suggested the project half-jokingly on Twitter last summer.

The calendar will be available in October, and supporters can donate to help cover production costs at the Bare It For Books Indiegogo page.