Dymphny Dronyk is a publisher, writer, artist, arts activist, mediator and mother. She is also a communications professional in the oil and gas industry. Past President of the Writers Guild of Alberta, Dymphny is currently the President of the League of Canadian Poets.Dymphny has published articles, fiction and poetry in magazines and newspapers in Europe and in North America since 1984. She has also been a contributor to Alberta Views magazine.Her first volume of poetry Contrary Infatuations, was published by Frontenac House. It was shortlisted for two major literary awards: the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry (Alberta) and the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award (national). In 2009 she published a memoir about Alberta potter Bibi Clement. She is a co-founder of the RE:act Collective.

Ron Wood has been a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery; television anchorman; federal communications bureaucrat; News Director for CKXL and CHFM Radio in Calgary (winning several regional and national radio awards, including the prestigious National Radio Award for Best Opinion/Commentary Broadcaster); Press Secretary to Preston Manning, Leader of the Reform Party; and EA/Communications Advisor to Opposition Leader John Reynolds. He also handled special communications assignments for Stephen Harper when Mr. Harper was Leader of the Opposition.

Shirlee Smith Matheson is the author of numerous books on Canadian aviation, including Volumes I, II, and III of Flying the Frontiers; A Western Welcome to the World – The History of Calgary International Airport, and Maverick in the Sky – The Aerial Adventures of WWI Flying Ace Freddie McCall.

Shirlee has also written on other non-fiction subjects for adult readers, as well as novels for young people, short stories and stage plays. She is a charter member of Canadian Women in Aviation International (Alberta Rocky Mountain High chapter) and, in 1999, was awarded The 99’s Canadian Award in Aviation. Her literary awards include The 99s Canadian Award in Aviation; The Emerald Award; Honorary Associate of Arts (Northern Lights College), and Distinguished Alumni 2001-2 (Athabasca University).

Born in Winnipeg, Shirlee has since lived in all four Western Canadian provinces. For many years she resided in the Peace River country of northeastern B.C., and currently makes her home in Calgary, where she is a Life Member of the Aero Space Museum of Calgary.

For more information, visit http://www.ssmatheson.ca

Ven Begamudré was born in South India and moved to Canada when he was six. He has also lived in Mauritius and the United States. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.

He has an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. He has been writer-in-residence for the University of Calgary’s Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Programme, the University of Alberta’s Department of English, the Canada-Scotland Exchange, Regina Public Library, McMaster University’s Department of English, and the Yukon Public Libraries.

Diane Buchanan is a poet and essayist who has lived in and around Edmonton, Alberta all her life. The last thirty years have been spent on a thoroughbred horse farm where she and her husband of forty-three years raised four daughters. She began to write after retiring from nursing and returning to University at the age of fifty. Her book of poetry, Unruly Angels, about the drug court in Edmonton, Alberta, was published in 2011.

Patria Rivera is a Toronto poet and editor. Her first poetry collection, Puti/White, launched in 2005, was shortlisted for the 2006 Trillium Book Award for Poetry.

Patria won an honourable mention in the 1997 ARC National Poetry Magazine Poem of the Year Contest and has received fellowships to the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Hawthornden Castle International Writers Retreat Centre in Scotland.

In 2005, Rivera’s poem, “Rare species”, was selected as the second prize winner in the Eric Hill Award of Poetic Excellence competition held by QWERTY, a literary journal published by the English Department of the University of New Brunswick.

Born and raised in the Philippines, she lives with her family in Toronto’s east end.

Second prize winner of the Eric Hill Award of Poetic Excellence

J. Fisher was born in Edson, has lived and worked in Victoria’s downtown core and is now in Calgary. His first short story “for what it’s worth” was published when he was 19. He spent his early 20s as a wildly unsuccessful blues singer and lyricist. His love of the word propelled him thru his failings until, in 2004, he managed to bring together the pieces which would make up his first collection, Death Day Erection. His poems continue to appear in e-zines, reviews and publications all over North America and Europe.

Lisa Pasold’s first book of poetry, Weave, was hailed as a masterpiece by Geist magazine. Her second book of poetry, A Bad Year for Journalists, was nominated for an Alberta Book Award. Her 2009 novel, Rats of Las Vegas, was described as “enticing as the lit-up Las Vegas strip and as satisfying as a winning hand at poker” by the Winnipeg Free Press. Lisa has taught creative writing at the American University in Paris and led writing workshops in places such as Dawson City, Yukon, and Winter Park, Florida. Lisa grew up in Montreal, which gave her the necessary jaywalking skills to survive as a poet and travel writer. While working as a journalist, Lisa has been thrown off a train in Belarus, mushed huskies in the Yukon, and been cheated in the Venetian gambling halls of Ca’ Vendramin Calergi.

Her 2012 book of poetry from Frontenac House, Any Bright Horse, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. The Globe and Mail has called her poetry “critical, darkly funny and painstakingly lyrical.” Her writing has appeared in a wide range of newspapers, magazines and anthologies including 100 Poets Against the War. She is the host and co-writer of Discovery World’s TV travel series “Paris Next Stop.”

Kevin Irie has appeared in publications in Canada, the United States, England, Germany, and Australia and his poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese. He has four books of poetry: Burning The Dead; The Colour of Eden, a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Award; Dinner at Madonna’s; and Angel Blood: The Tess Poems, longlisted for the National Relit Award in Poetry. He was a finalist for the CBC Literary Award in Poetry 2008, and was also shortlisted for ARC’s Poem of the Year Contest 2009. He lives in Toronto.

Ali Riley’s poems have appeared in Geist, The nth Position Anthology, Matrix, This Magazine, Event and the Moosehead Review. Her collection Tear Down was short-listed for the Re-Lit awards, and her first book, Wayward, was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert Award. Her novel-in-progress, Hag, was written on a reality show and took first prize in the Walrus magazine/SLS Fiction Contest.

She was born in Calgary, and was the singer/songwriter of the seminal psycho-country band Sacred Heart of Elvis. In Toronto, she acted in several theatre productions, including The Lorca Play, for which the company won a Dora Mavor Moore award for best performance by a female. Her produced plays include dog dream, Philosophy in the Bedroom and Hole in my Heart the Size of My Heart. Her poetry has appeared in Geist, The nth Position Anthology, Matrix, This Magazine, Event and theMoosehead Review, and she has performed at festivals, schools, and hootennannies across the country. She currently lives on a farm between Nanton and Vulcan, Alberta.

Weyman Chan, who lives and works in Calgary, is married with two daughters. His poems and short stories have been published in many journals and anthologies. His poetry also appears in Many Mouthed Birds: Contemporary Writing by Chinese Canadians. Before a Blue Sky Moon is his first book. Weyman Chan was Winner of the National Magazine Awards Silver Medal for Poetry, in 2003.

Weyman Chan is featured on Ryerson University’s Asian Heritage in Canada site.

Winner of the National Magazine Awards Silver Medal for Poetry.

Leslie Greentree was born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, and has lived in various parts of BC and Alberta, including Salmon Arm, McBride, Dawson Creek, Crowsnest Pass, Calgary, and Lethbridge. She works at the Red Deer Public Library as the Marketing Assistant and as an Information Services Assistant, which means her mind is filled with useless bits of trivia she pulls out as her only party trick. Her first book, guys named Bill, was published by Frontenac House as part of their poetry series Quartet 2002. Her second book, go-go dancing for Elvis was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Leslie Greentree was the winner of the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short fiction.

Nancy Jo Cullen is a playwright, poet and fiction writer. Her plays The Waitresses (co-written with Anne Loree), Forever There and Gone Tomorrow (co-written with Rose Scollard) and Another Saturday Night have all been produced by Maenad Theatre in Calgary, of which she was a co-founder. She has published three poetry books with poetry books with Frontenac House: Science Fiction Saint which was shortlisted for three awards: Best Alberta Trade book, Best Alberta Poetry Book and The Gerald Lampert Award; Pearl (which won the Best Alberta Trade Book award) and Untitled Child.

She is a graduate of the University of Guelph Humber MFA program and is the 4th recipient of the Wrtiers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writer. Her fiction has appeared in The Puritan, Grain, filling station, Plenitude, Prairie Fire and This Magazine. Two of her short stories were included in The Journey Prize Anthology, in 2012 and in 2014. Her short story collection, Canary, is the winner of the 2012 Metcalf Rooke Award. Canary published by Biblioasis in 2013 was highly acclaimed by reviewers across Canada.

She is at work on a novel and another collection of short stories.

Yvonne Trainer was born in 1959 and raised south of Manyberries, Alberta as an only child, 32 miles from the nearest neighbour. She has a BASc (English) from the University of Lethbridge, an MA (English/Creative Writing) from the University of New Brunswick and has a PhD from the University of Manitoba. Her PhD studies were primarily focused on Contemporary Canadian and American Poetry with a special area of interest in Canadian Literature and Medicine. Yvonne has published a chapbook and four books of poetry: Tom Three Persons (Frontenac House), Manyberries, Customers (Fiddlehead Books), Everything Happens at Once (Fiddlehead Books), and Landscape Turned Sideways: New and Selected (Goose Lane).

Cicely Adams Veighey spent her early childhood in the tiny seaside town of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. Tales of smuggling, hauntings and magnificently heroic shipwreck rescues – the stuff of local legend – inspired endless games of pirates, Roundheads and Cavaliers, and smugglers and coast guards, played on the beaches, on the commons or, during inclement weather, in the dungeons of Henry VIII’s old castle. She married David Veighey, a Northern Irishman, in 1937. After his discharge from the army in 1948 they emigrated from Ulster to Canada with their three small children and settled in Windsor, Ontario

Rosalee van Stelten has won many awards for her poems, including: Finalist, Canada’s Cowboy Festival, Calgary; National poetry contest; Gold watch award, Calgary Herald; Christmas story contest; and Alberta Senior’s Games, Culture Division, bronze medal for poetry.

Catherine Moss lives in Calgary and has often spent summer and fall hiking in the high country.  Her favourite destinations involve the transition from forest to alpine tundra.

Arran Fisher was born in Brisbane, Australia, and raised in Saskatoon, Vancouver, and Calgary. He has a philosophy degree from the University of Calgary, where he studied writing under Nicole Markotic and Fred Wah. Since then he has travelled to Europe, the United States, and Japan, where he took part in the All-Japan Aikido Demonstration. He is cofounder of the rock band, The Summerlad.

Hiromi Goto is the award-winning author of Chorus of Mushrooms, and The Kappa Child. She has also written a children’s novel, The Water of Possibility, and a collection of short stories, Hopeful Monsters. Her most recent publication is a young adult novel, Half World, published by Penguin Canada. She and David Bateman collaborated on and showcased a performance piece entitled The Cowboy and the Geisha.