The 2026 Festival  Authors & Artists

Jo Sanders is currently the President of the Parkland Poets’ Society, based out of Stony Plain. She primarily writes of experiences and observations in her own messy life, and has been published a handful of times in both local and international anthologies over the past 25 years.

In a largely primarily anglophone and Anglo-centric publishing industry, Laberinto Press has won the recognition of its peers for delivering outstanding works from writers whose first language is not English, and World Literature in translation. Their books have received rave reviews. Their “Little Press That Could” continues making strides. Meanwhile they continue tapping into diaspora authors living in Canada. Founder Luciana Erregue-Sacchi is a Canadian-Argentinian writer, publisher, and editor — she continues to learn about how their mandate fits within the larger Canadian literary context, while projecting beyond their geographic confines.

In 2020 they spotted the need to produce literature by culturally diverse writers that “does not pander to tokenism, but touches on the true diversity, multiplicity, and complexity of the human experience.” They wrote at the time: “There are many writers in Canada, waiting to have their stories published in English, who want to share their stories, background, and international networks with the Canadian public, now more culturally diverse than at any time in its history.” They are proud to have fulfilled their mandate with passion and persistence, publishing almost thirty hyphened Canadian authors so far.

Their website: https://laberintopress.com/

The Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) was formed in 1980 to provide a meeting ground and collective voice for all the writers of the province. Their members write in every genre and at every level of expertise. The WGA helps give Alberta writers a sense of unity and community, and is the largest provincial writers’ organization in Canada. They support and advocate for writers at all stages of their writing life, providing opportunities to connect and grow.

Their website: https://writersguild.ca/

The Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society aims to create a safe space where all storytellers are welcome. They provide a relaxed, friendly and encouraging environment where writers of all ages and abilities can practice their craft and sharing share the joys and difficulties of the writing experience. They support writers’ development through a variety of classes, programs, and events, creating and reshaping offerings to meet the needs and interests of their members.

Their website: https://www.alexandrawriters.org/

Sheelagh Caygill is a writer, poet, podcaster, and part-time student at Northeastern University, London, studying an MA in Contemporary Creative Writing. With fellow writer Emma Woodhouse, Sheelagh co-founded Oncreativewriting.com, a podcast show and resources for writers. Sheelagh loves reading, enjoys a wide range of podcast shows, the outdoors, and photography.

Jill M. Armstrong is a multimedia visual artist and poet, who recently relocated to Edmonton from Calgary. Her work is an ongoing search for significant form and leaps of imagination, in all mediums, including the written word. Her poems have been published in several periodicals, including filling Station, dANDelion, and the online poetry anthology This Might Help. She is currently working on a poetry manuscript. Besides her creative practices, she has also spent much of her adult life as a cultural worker in not-for-profit arts organizations, currently serving as a longtime board member and past president of Calgary’s Elephant Artist Relief Society.

M Jay Smith is an Edmonton/Amiskwaciwâskahikan-based writer. She is the author of the eclipse: poems after antonioni and Cantaloupe, a forthcoming collection of short fiction. Her award-winning words have appeared in myriad journals, magazines, and newspapers throughout North America.

Lucas Crawford writes books, including Muster Points (U of Calgary), which won the 2024 Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry from the Alberta Book Publishers’ Association. Lucas is from rural Nova Scotia and presently splits his time between Edmonton and Camrose as the University of Alberta’s Canada Research Chair in Transgender Creativity and Mental Health (Augustana Faculty). As part of his day job, Lucas directs “Rewriting Ourselves,” a collaborative pilot project that offers free poetry workshops in psychiatric wards. In 2025, Lucas was a musician in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, where he began work on his series of animated short films about Leonard Cohen’s food-ways, the first of which – “Leonard Cohen in the Eating Disorder Ward” – has screened at festivals from Oklahoma to Uruguay.

Dallas Loyd Stainthorp is a poet and spoken word artist who writes devotional epistolary work and performs free verse, prose poetry, and musical poetics. He also hosts workshops encouraging emerging literary artists development and endlessly supports community-building in Western Canada’s literary arts scene. Dallas is a passionate advocate for artistic creativity that illuminates personal expression as well as wisdom gained through mental health lived-experience. He honours our place and responsibility on treaty lands and enthusiastically promotes inclusivity, social-awareness, and compassion. Through local publications, Mayor’s art’s awards nomination, and development of poetry slam and spoken word promotion across Western Canada – Dallas works to inspire not only literary arts, but to highlight and profess the profound love we all are through his creative works.

Alexis Marie Chute is a creative powerhouse—a bestselling author and award-winning artist, filmmaker, photographer, curator and publisher—whose work spans two decades. Her abstract paintings, portraits, photography, films, and literary works have been showcased globally, and her artwork is represented by the Art Gallery of Alberta. Her debut memoir Expecting Sunshine (2017) was adapted into an acclaimed documentary film, followed by her Amazon-bestselling YA fantasy trilogy, including Above the Star (2018), Below the Moon (2019), and Inside the Sun (2020). Her recent nonfiction books—Prairie Spirits (2021), The Eternal Summer of Alberta’s Herbarium (2022), Memorable Murals (2023), Moments in Focus (2024), and Project Sketchbook Volume 1 (2025)—celebrate Alberta’s rich culture and landscape. Chute curates the Red Brick Common, Wild Skies Art Gallery, and InFocus Photo Exhibit, and co-founded Wild Skies Press. She is also a passionate public speaker and educator.

Thirteen years ago, Jeff Day had a midlife crisis that started out as a fitness preoccupation that led to what he called ‘Runtography’. Runtography was a term he coined to make his outdoor running and photography sound, well, less insane. According to him, Runtography is easy to do. It only involves getting up at ungodly hours, running through a city, while carrying a DSLR camera in a backpack. He’s done that every other day, for 13 years, alone. He’s run 25,000 km carrying a camera; a totally normal hobby — that no one else in the whole world does. He got rather good at it, the photography part. He harvests photos in and around the local Edmonton area. The images are sold to publications, magazines, and to regular folks as wall art. People say he has an eye. Oh, he also designed the Booster Juice logo (for real). That’s his other weird claim to fame. You can learn more about him at www.jeffday.ca.

David Martin works as a literacy instructor in Calgary and also as an organizer for the Single Onion Poetry Series. His first collection, Tar Swan (NeWest Press, 2018), was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award and the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize. His second collection, Kink Bands (NeWest Press, 2023), was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry (BPAA) and the Banff Mountain Book Competition. His third book, Limited Verse, was published by the University of CFalgary Press in 2024 and was shortlisted for the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize. As well, David’s work has been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize and was included in Best Canadian Poetry 2025 (Biblioasis). His latest collection, nightstead, was published by Palimpsest Press in 2026. (www.davidjohnmartin.ca)

Jide Salawu is the author of Preface for Leaving Homeland published under African Poetry Book Fund, and the co-editor of African Urban Echoes published by Griots Lounge Canada. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fiddlehead, Walrus, Poetry Pause, Literary Review of Canada, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Transition, and so on.  He was a Yosef Wosk Fellow and the recipient of the James Patrick Folinsbee Award for Creative Writing at the University of Alberta. Salawu grew up in Shao, Nigeria, but currently lives in Edmonton, Canada, where he teaches as an assistant lecturer at the English and Film Studies program of the University of Alberta.

Sarain Frank Soonias is a Cree/Ojibwe writer and artist residing in Red Deer, AB. Soonias’ practice is inspired by his evolving relationship with intergenerational experiences, (de)colonization, trauma, spirituality and healing. His work has appeared in ARC Poetry Magazine, Canadian Literature Review, Carousel, Carte Blanche, Filling Station, and more.

Teren Hazzard is a transgender writer living on Treaty six territory in Amiskwaciwaskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). He is an University of Alberta student studying conservation biology and writing for both The Gateway and YouAlberta blog. His poetry explores the everyday experience of being queer and can be found in the Queer Toronto Literary Magazine, Beyond Queer Words, and Transit in Motion bus art. His poem, Dance with us, Girly Gil, is the 1st place winner of the 2025 Centre for Literature in Canada Poetry Contest. His debut narrative poetry collection, Penguins FLy, is soon to be released in April 2026.

Carolyne Van Der Meer lives and writes in Montreal, Canada. She has five published books, including Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience (WLUP, 2014), and the poetry collections Sensorial (Inanna, 2022) and All This As I Stand By (Ekstasis Editions, 2024). Two chapbooks were released in 2025: Birdology, published by Cactus Press; and Sincerely, Sincerely, co-written with Rayanne Haines, and published by Agatha Press. She is currently working on a book of linked fictional vignettes. 

Makda Mulatu (she/her) is a writer and multimedia producer. She is the digital production manager at The Walrus, the books columnist on CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active, and the author of the chapbook Minor Rapture. Makda lives in amiskwacîwâskahikan or Edmonton, Alberta.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, Drew Walker (she/her) is a typewriter poet who has spent her life striving to obtain wealth through experiences. International travel, deep connection to nature, and the navigation of complex relationships inspire Walker’s poetry. Outside of her writing, Walker is a professional Landscape Designer, Beekeeper, and community steward. Drew’s poems are a glimpse into her personal journals, sharing honest contemplations, unexpressed feelings, and messages to lovers past.

Closer to Closure (2025) is Drew Walker’s second poetry book, following Confines of a Free Spirit (2020). This collection reflects on the everyday joys and sorrows that shape us, exploring love, loss, relationships, and awe-filled moments with honesty and lyrical contemplations. Walker’s poems invite readers to slow down, feel deeply, and discover new layers of connection within themselves. More than a book of poetry, Closer to Closure is a work of art. Each poem was originally typed on handmade, recycled paper—botanically embedded and naturally dyed—then faithfully reproduced, giving every page a tactile sense of honesty and care. From cover to cover, the collection radiates intimacy, creativity, and the universal desire to live fully and authentically.

Erina Harris (she/they) is a writer, Creative Writing Instructor and mentor living in Edmonton. A graduate and Fellow of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is the recipient of numerous writing and teaching awards, and international residency prizes. Her first hybrid book of poetics, The Stag Head Spoke was short-listed for the Canadian Authors’ Association Poetry Award. In 2024 she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award. For a decade, she curated and hosted a reading series for innovative women writers, holding yearly salons as fundraisers for local women’s shelters. Her most recent book of poetics and lyric essays is entitled Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead, a collection of experimental and revisionist nonsense verses and mythological queerings. 

Pritxie Marantal is an emerging writer and student of Professional Communication at MacEwan University. Her work has been published in the Bolo Tie Collective, appearing in Volume IX and the upcoming Volume X. She writes poetry that explores emotional depth, identity, and human connection. In her free time, she continues to develop her creative practice through poetry, novel writing, and musical storytelling.

Amy Claffey is from Edmonton, Alberta. Amy is a textile artist, mother, and burgeoning poet. Her work takes inspiration from everyday life, whether it be a feeling, memory, or experience. Winter is her favourite season, when she can spend time with her family in the snow and be wrapped in layers of knitting.

Dawn Carter began her literary career in the 1990s. Most recently, her writing has appeared in The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology, the first collection of prairie-based Black literary works. She collaborated with artist Elsa Robinson for “Art From Here,” a series of visual art paired with literary reflections hosted by Latitude 53. She also gave a walking lecture on the Art Gallery of Alberta’s “Inheritance” exhibit by visual artists Steven Nunoda, Adrian Stimson, and AA Bronson. She joined leading women poets in Rayanne Haines’ SkirtsAFire production, She, the Rock, in 2022. In January 2025, she headlined VERS/E, a queer poetry series in Edmonton.

Pritxie Marantal is an emerging writer and student of Professional Communication at MacEwan University. Her work has been published in the Bolo Tie Collective, appearing in Volume IX and the upcoming Volume X. She writes poetry that explores emotional depth, identity, and human connection. In her free time, she continues to develop her creative practice through poetry, novel writing, and musical storytelling.

Viktoria Bradley is a published short story and poet raised in multiple cities across Canada, but she considers Edmonton to be her hometown. She is a 2024 graduate of Macewan University with two degrees in English and History. When she isn’t writing, Viktoria can be found volunteering at the local museum, sewing, reading, trying new recipes, and cuddling with her cats. She has been published twice with the Bolo Tie Collective for her short story, ‘the Cake Tin,’ and her poem, ‘Splitting.’

Neema Rutegeza is a poet and movement specialist living in the Edmonton region. Her time is split up instructing bodies, attending open mics and spending time with loved ones. She is a dedicated public service professional with a background in law and extensive experience in federal programs. She is an avid runner and takes any opportunity to be out in nature.

The Black Femme Poetry Collective (BFPC) is a group of Black femme poets, artists, and storytellers creating ritual-rooted, music-driven poetic performances. Activated in 2024 by Jabulani Festival’s Spoken Word Curator, Timiro Mohamed, they have captivated audiences through poetry, theatre, and collective creation. BFPC’s mission is to uplift Black femme voices, honour ancestral lineage, and transform their lived experience into art as liberation.

Instagram: @blackfemmepoetrycollective

Arsh Kaur is an advocate of expression. With power of words and guidance from nature, she dreams of reminding the souls of immense love within their hearts. Her debut poetry book, You’re on Your Own, marks the beginning of her journey of unlearning. Her second collection, Rooh da Cheta, is a poetic exploration of the soul’s remembrance of the divine. Both books are available at arsheverest.com, and you can read her essays on her blog at arsheverest.substack.com.

Leah Joly is a spoken word poet and performer who seeks to (at least somewhat) explain the incomprehensible with the precision of language. Her work insists upon the reimagining of all we have accepted as concrete and may serve as a bridge to bring us towards a more beneficial understanding of Nature and our place within her.

Violet Poitras grew up in the Paul First’s Nation with her mother and father and nine brothers and sisters.  Her life has been heavily influenced by the culture and Creator.  Elder Violet Poitras was forced to attend resident school when she was ten years old and witnessed a lot of pain and misery at the school itself.  This tough experience inspired her to stick up for abused kids and later becoming a foster parent with little help from the government and maintained that for many years.  She has earned the right to be a peace pipe holder and a herbal medicine woman for her community and speaks both the Stoney and Cree language. 

Nicole Bodnaresk is a multi-instrumentalist, poet, and expressive arts therapist whose work explores the intersection of music, healing, and transition. She performs with the band Dancing Auras and offers sound baths that support grounding, reflection, and connection.Her creative practice is deeply influenced by experiences of threshold, moments of crossing, both in life and at its edges. Nicole works with threshold music, which is sound that holds space for transformation, presence, and the unseen. Alongside her musical work, she integrates art therapy to support individuals in expressing, processing, and navigating complex emotional and life experiences. Through sound, art, and story, Nicole endeavors to create spaces where people can pause, listen, and move gently through moments of change.

Her website: https://www.nicolebodnaresk.com/

Shyanne Duquette is a mixed-Cree emerging multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Amiskwacî (Edmonton). A writer, director, actor, and facilitator, they create provocative theatre that confronts identity, belonging, and the things that unsettle us. Their work has been presented at SkirtsAfire, Edmonton Fringe, Found Festival, Nextfest, and Ignite, and they have participated in national development programs including the ThisGen Fellowship with Whynot Theatre, the Major Matt Mason Wildfire Development Unit, Fresh AiR and Riser with Common Ground Arts, and the Tarragon Young Playwrights Unit. 

Shyanne also facilitates workshops and occasionally teaches,  cultivating dialogue and reflection through theatre, as they continue to develop bold, boundary-pushing work across Turtle Island,  leaving audiences moved and slightly on edge.

Marianela Juana Adasme has been performing since the age of 18 on the streets of Santiago, in the middle of the military dictatorship in Chile. From 2001 on, Marianela has found a home in Edmonton where she continues to write and perform in both Spanish and English.

Kelsey Klip comes from a long line of women who’ve had something to say. She’s had the opportunity to perform at literary and arts festivals from Coast to Coast over the past decade and now hosts the Mother’s Mic here in this fine city that she calls home. Her experience as a mother, artist and daughter of diaspora is channeled through the words that she shares in hopes to provide some respite to those with similar experiences- or insight for those who do not.

Ken Davis is a happily retired former broadcaster and marketing executive, who now devotes himself to the performance of music, the company of good friends, and sleeping in.

Brenda Gunn taught poetry to eight-year-olds for more than thirty years. She retired in 2017 so she could write some of her own. Since she joined the Parkland Poets in 2019, Brenda earned a Certificate in Creative writing from the U of T and has had her poetry spray painted on sidewalks, printed on beer cans, and published in local, national and international journals and anthologies. Brenda is a proud member of the Stroll, Saint City Writers, the Writer’s Guilds of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Sage Hill, The Ontario Poetry Society, The Writer’s Union of Canada, and the League of Canadian Poets. Brenda’s first collection, Florilegia, twice charted on Audreys Books poetry bestseller list. Her second book, Reading the Air is set to launch in June 2026 with Wild Skies Press.

Saraswoti Lamichhane is a poet, translator, and editor. She has translated several literary works from Nepali to English and vice versa, which includes contemporary Nepali poetry by women authors. She is a co-editor of Kavya: Representative Nepali Poetry in English (Grey Sparrow, 2023) and co-author of Six Strings: A Joint Anthology of Poems (2011). Her new poetry collection, Karaikhola Flows is forthcoming with Mawenzi House Press in June. She holds an MA in English (Pokhara University) and a Creative Writing Certificate (University of Toronto). A celebrator of life and the natural world, Lamichhane crafts poetry shaped by landscape, migration and the rhythms of existence. Her work–lyrical, evocative, and deeply rooted in both Nepali heritage and Canadian experience–has been published internationally. She is a recipient of the 2026 Mayors Art Award in St. Albert.

Her website: https://www.saraswotilamichhane.com/

Latifat Busari (they/she) is a storyteller and multi-disciplinary art originally from the Yorùbá people of Southwest Nigeria and currently residing in Treaty 6 territory (Edmonton, Alberta). Their art is guttural and raw, reflecting their life experiences and the history of their people. They have had their work published in multiple publications across so-called Canada, and have performed in many spoken-word events across the city. More recently, they have performed as part of the Black Femme Poetry Collective and co-created the Grief Collective. In their work, Latifat explores Afrofuturism through a queer, Indigenous Yorùbá lens, blending faith and culture, and building a world where variance—in its many intersections—is allowed to exist without apology.

Instagram: @latifat_theartist

The League of Canadian Poets is Canada’s only national professional poetry organization. The League serves the poetry community and promotes a high level of professional achievement through events, networking, projects, publications, mentoring, and awards. They administer programs and funds for governments and private donors and encourage an appreciative readership and audience for poetry through educational partnerships and presentations to diverse groups. As the recognized voice of Canadian poets, they represent poets’ concerns to governments, publishers, and society at large, and we maintain connections with similar organizations at home and abroad. The League strives to promote equal opportunities for poets from myriad literary traditions and cultural and demographic backgrounds.

Members of the League are professional poets who are actively contributing to the development, growth, and public profile of poetry in Canada.

You can visit their website, or find them on:

Instagram: @canadianpoets

Facebook: canadianpoets

Bilingual poet, performer, producer, mentor and emerging playwright, Pierrette Requier was raised in the Peace River region of northern Alberta and educated at the University of Alberta and at St Stephen’s College in Edmonton. After teaching in bilingual programs in northern Alberta, a year’s exchange in Queensland, Australia, and teaching French Immersion in Edmonton, she returned to studies, built a private practice and committed to a writing practice, and subsequently achieved publication in poetry.

For the last 15 years, Pierrette has created space for writers at all levels by designing and hosting monthly, 3-hour Wind Eye Writing Seminars incorporating writing and spoken word and various forms of writing. She has featured presenters offering readings of various forms of writing. Not only has Pierrette sat on boards, liaising between the English and French literary communities of Edmonton, she has given numerous workshops, appeared at variety of conferences and festivals and has collaborated in exciting multi-disciplinary events across Alberta, in Winnipeg, and Montréal. She enjoyed her experiences while serving as Grant MacEwan University’s 20th writer-in-residence and as a poet mentor for the Writer’s Guild of Alberta Mentorship Program.

Jaspreet Singh (he/him) is the author of acclaimed poetry collections, non-fiction, novels, short stories, and a memoir. More and more his work engages with deep time and the ecological crisis. His most recent poetry books form the “Still Astonished” trilogy — How to Hold a Pebble (2022), Dreams of the Epoch & the Rock (2024) and The Time of the Earth (2026). 

Founded in 1977, NeWest Press is one of Canada’s first independent literary publishing houses. NeWest publishes literary fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, and drama, as well as a line of mystery novels, with a particular interest in books by Western Canadian authors. Its Nunatak imprint is the longest-running first-fiction series in Canada.

NeWest Press books have won or been shortlisted for numerous national and international awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Awards, Giller Prize, Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Canada-Japan Book Award, Leacock Memorial Medal, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, Danuta Gleed, Lambda Literary Awards, Arthur Ellis Awards, Alcuin Society Awards, Sunburst Award, and ReLit Awards, as well as being featured on Canada Reads.

Notable NeWest titles include Blood Relations and Other Plays by Sharon Pollock, Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto, Icefields by Thomas Wharton, Diamond Grill by Fred Wah, Playing Dead by Rudy Wiebe, The Widows by Suzette Mayr, All of Baba’s Children by Myrna Kostash, The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou, Extensions by Myrna Dey, Dance, Gladys, Dance by Cassie Stocks, The Shore Girl by Fran Kimmel, and Where It Hurts by Sarah de Leeuw. NeWest publishes ten to twelve books each year.

To learn more about NeWest, you can visit their website.

You can also find them on:

Instagram: @newest.press

Facebook: newestpress.page

YouTube: NeWest Press

Agatha Press (est. 2024) is a one-person (Matthew Stepanic), one-dog (Agatha) press for very good reads. They publish poems, essays, short stories, and a few surprises in small runs of chapbooks and broadsides.

You can visit their website or check them out on Instagram @agatha_press!

The Dog:

Agatha is a French Bulldog-mix adopted in 2023 and born in 2019 (estimated). She enjoys fetch, peanut butter, and cuddles. She hates sudden noises, late bedtimes, and being ignored. Agatha cannot read. 

Hungry Zine is based out of Edmonton, and centres voices that are missing from traditional food media. They are a space for sharing stories, art and building community around food. They are a platform for writers, artists and creators who are inspired by food culture and stories in their art.

You can check them out on Instagram @hungryzine.

The Polyglot is a community hub, magazine, and publisher created out of an overwhelming urge to respect, promote, and celebrate heritage and Indigenous languages that are often ignored or neglected in the literary, art, and publishing worlds.

Founded in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, Canada) in 2016 by poet, researcher, and educator Adriana Oniță, it was billed as the first biannual online magazine devoted to publishing multilingual poetry and art in Canada. We have since expanded to publish poetry, art, stories, essays, and translations by both Canadian and international contributors.

The Polyglot has a role to play in maintaining heritage and Indigenous languages; they provided the first platform where multilingual artists and writers could freely live, write, gather, and hold events in other languages in Edmonton.

To learn more, visit their website: thepolyglotmagazine.com

A fixture in Edmonton’s jazz community, New Standards Music offers musicians, artists, and listeners a place to perform, meet, and network. Every Wednesday at The Common starting at 8pm. Come out and jam with Edmonton’s jazz musicians or simply watch the magic and get your groove on!

Please note, The Common is an 18+, minors prohibited establishment!

To learn more:

Instagram: @new.standards.music

Facebook: New.Standards.Music

The Carrot Community Arts Coffeehouse was established by Arts on the Ave, a charitable organization that started in 2005, and is committed to community development through the arts, along the City of Edmonton’s 118 Avenue (NAIT to Northlands).  

The Carrot opened in 2007 as a volunteer-powered, not-for-profit coffee house, and served also as the headquarters of Arts on the Ave. Over the years, The Carrot has become a second home for many people who come to the coffee house to connect with others and enjoy art in its various forms. The Carrot today continues to count on dozens of volunteers to thrive as a cornerstone of the Alberta Avenue community.

Community and creativity is the heart and soul of The Carrot and Arts on the Ave!

To learn more, please visit their website: www.thecarrot.ca

Facebook: TheCarrotCoffeehouse

Instagram: @thecarrotcoffeehouse

Ting Pimentel-Elger’s body of work represents diversity and multifariousness, intermixture of words, images, moves (including dance & yoga), languages, cultural traditions and a variety of innovation and invention and tons of fun. She embraces openness, diversity, equity, inclusivity and is a certified trauma-informed Yoga instructor.

Her most recent collaborations were with the Alberta Filipino Journal, Polyglot Magazine, Hungryzine, Alberta Writers’ Guild,  Horizon Circle, Edmonton Chinese Writing Club, Filipino Artists of Edmonton, Gallery @501, AGA (Art Gallery of Alberta),Anti Racism & Hilom projects with UPAAE,  FOE with MacEwan, Smoke & Ginger, SalingPusa, The King’s University publications, and The Shoe Project (amplifying the voice of immigrant women using shoes as metaphor) with the Workshop West Playwrights Theatre in Edmonton- 

When Ting isn’t interpreting for the Canadian government or engaged in development work and as a volunteer Sign Language interpreter, she advocates for self-care through activities such as yoga, intuitive arts, walking with puppies, hugging trees, or foraging in the nearby forest.

The Olive is the longest running, off-campus, out-of-bookstore, poetry series in Edmonton. From its start at Martini’s Bar and Grill, to Hulbert’s Cafe, Leva Cappuccino Bar, The Empress Ale House, The Almanac, and now The Rooster, The Olive Reading Series is recognized as a unique and stimulating venue by both emerging and established poets.

A key feature of the Olive is the publication of an eight-page chapbook highlighting the Olive Reading Series’ featured reader/writer’s new work. This chapbook serves not only as a record and a keepsake of each reading, it is also a vital part of the experience. The Olive believes that a truly complete poetry and prose experience happens when you take the words in through both the ears and through the eyes.

All organization of this series is done for free by their volunteer Olive Collective members: Paul Pearson, Thea Bowering, Luciana Erregue-Sacchi, Chris Hutchinson, Wendy McGrath, Paul Pearson, and Colby Clair Stolson.

All collective members of The Olive Reading Series stand by the importance of the reading, publication and promotion of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction as something essential to the vitality of Edmonton. The Olive Reading Series serves as a venue for the sharing of ideas and the discussion of writing in relation to pertinent cultural topics.

For more information, you can visit:

Website: olivereadingseries.wordpress.com

Facebook: olivereadingseries

sakâw laboucan (they/them) is an amiskwaciywaskahikan-based poet, singer, and member of the Woodland Cree First Nation. They are a PhD student in Indigenous Studies at the University of Alberta studying how queer and trans Indigenous care practices are learned and enacted through storytelling.

Parkland Poets are a non-profit society with a mission to bring more poetry into their community and to the world.

The Parkland Poets’ Society was founded in January 2018 in Stony Plain, Alberta. The very first reading happened at the Stony Plain Public Library during an Albertan snowstorm, but 15 poets and poetry enthusiasts braved the snow and ice to see what a poetry reading was all about.

The early days of the Parkland Poets saw two in-person readings each month, on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays. In 2020, the format moved online to Zoom to keep the poetry and sense of community alive during the Covid-19 pandemic. The online readings were a success, with regular attendance by both local members as well as poets from across the globe. The Stony Plain Public Library relocated during this time. When in-person readings were reintroduced, the format was split to maintain one Zoom reading and one in-person reading each month – ensuring that both local and international members still have a place to share and enjoy poetry.

To learn more, visit their website: parklandpoets.com

Chanel Klein is a spoken word artist from Treaty 6. Her work is published in ROOM Magazine, Circe Magazine and Edmonton Public Library’s Capital City press. Right hook is her favourite punch.

Follow her on Substack and Instagram: @chanellovespoetry

Kayleigh Cline (she/her) has been published in several Canadian literary journals, including FreeFall, CV2, and Funicular. Her work has also appeared on a bus and two beers. She is currently President of the Stroll of Poets Society. Read more about her work at www.kayleighcline.ca.

University of Alberta Press is a contemporary, award-winning publisher of scholarly and creative books distinguished by their editorial care, exceptional design, and global reach.

For more info check out their website:
https://ualbertapress.ca/

Or connect through their socials:

Bluesky: @UAlbertaPress

Facebook: @UAlbertaPress

Instagram: @UAlbertaPress

Funicular Magazine publishes short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry from emerging and established writers, as well as work from writers around the world, edited by Jason Lee Norman.

Follow on IG: @funfunfunicular

For more info check out their website:
https://www.funicularmagazine.com/

The Bolo Tie Collective is a SAMU student club whose mission is twofold: to bridge the gap between the students of the English and Communication Studies departments of MacEwan University and to foster a community within the broader MacEwan student body, comprised of those passionate about the process of creative writing.

Follow on IG: @thebolotiecollective

For more info check out their website:
https://thebolotiecollective.ca/

The Horizons Writers Circle is a Writers’ Guild of Alberta program that provides support and mentorship for writers within the Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) community, ESL, and underrepresented writers who live in Edmonton and are at the beginning of their literary journey.

For more info check out their website:
https://writersguild.ca/programs-services/horizons-writers-circle/

As an art form, poetry is deeply rooted in oral performance and there’s nothing like performing a poem to find out what works and what doesn’t. The Stroll exists to provide poets with an opportunity to connect with an audience, both through our Haven Reading Series and our annual printed anthology.

The Stroll are a warm and friendly grassroots organization, and we create a supportive community of artists that welcomes members of all ages and all levels of experience.

The Stroll of Poets offers a weekly reading series called The Poets’ Haven Reading Series, running from September to March on most Monday evenings and some Sunday afternoons. They also publish an annual anthology showcasing the poems of members who have read at a Haven event. 

For more information about what they do, check out their website:
https://www.strollofpoets.com/

David Berry is a writer, editor and cultural critic based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His latest book, How Artists Make Money & How Money Makes Artists, is out now from Coach House Books. His first book, On Nostalgia, came out in 2020. Prior to that he spent six years as a critic and columnist in the arts section for Canada’s National Post, and his work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, the Walrus, Toronto Life, the CBC and elsewhere, though he has a particular fondness for his time working for numerous dearly departed alt-weeklies. He’s also honoured to serve as an Editorial Consultant for Coach House Books, acquiring and editing works of creative non-fiction. 

Leilei Chen莫译 (muo-yee) is the author of Re-orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-cultural Understanding and a poetry chapbook, i give birth to my body. She is the Chinese translator of Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction and the English translator of MA Hui’s contemporary Chinese poetry, I Have Forsaken Heaven and Earth, but Never Forsaken You. Her translations of Chinese women’s fiction and ecological writings are anthologized in Virginia’s Sisters: An Anthology of Women’s Writing and Environmental Futures: An International Literary Anthology. Her Mandarin version of Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House is forthcoming in 2026.

Social Media:
instagram: IG @leileichenleilei | Facebook: Leilei Chen MoYi | TikTok: @leilei.chenmoyi | X: @leileichenlei

For more info check out her website:
www.leileichen.ca

Jennifer Bowering Delisle’s new poetry collection is Stock, a response to stock photography. Her 2023 book of lyric essays, Micrographia  won the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and the Writers Guild of Alberta Memoir Award. She is also the author of Deriving, a collection of poetry, and The Bosun Chair, a lyric family memoir. She is on the board of NeWest Press and lives in Edmonton on Treaty 6 territory.

Trisia Eddy Woods (she/her) is an award-winning writer and artist living on Treaty 6 territory. She is the author of A Road Map for Finding Wild Horses (Turnstone Press), which received a 2025 High Plains International Book Award. Trisia’s writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals and chapbooks across North America, is recently published in the anthology I’ll Get Right On It (Fernwood Publishing), and forthcoming in the anthology Beyond the Concert Hall (Laberinto Press). She is the former editor of Red Nettle Press, which published numerous handmade books by local poets, one of which was shortlisted for the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award. A recognized printmaker and photographer, Trisia’s artwork has been exhibited and published both close to home and internationally, and is held in the special collection of the Herron Art Library.

Follow on IG: @prairiedarkroom 

For more info check out her website:
https://prairiedarkroom.com/

To hear Kathy Fisher perform her poetry is to open yourself to deeper incantations of the human heart and soul. The melodic rhythm of her words, bordering on music, frames journeys of joy and loss, of love and death, of the spirit and the sensual. Since her early beginnings in Montreal, she has wandered the world in a quest for rich experience and a deeper understanding of this human life. Let her share her journey with you.

Kathy Fisher is an Edmonton-based, Montreal-born multidisciplinary artist, performance poet and documentarian. A host in the local literary and spoken word scene, Fisher regularly produces and hosts evenings of words and music whose poetry has been published in traditional and on-line literary journals. A keen collaborator, she regularly performs spoken word and song with a roster of musicians. In 2023, she wrote, directed and produced her Spanish-flu themed show, Vox Virago, as part of The Travellers, a six-person ensemble. Recent poetry commissions and performances include two tribute poems honouring colleagues at McGill Law School, where she had her first poems published 40 years ago. Her video-poem wabi-sabi, co-produced in collaboration with filmmaker Louise Abbott, screened in LA in November 2024 at The Film and Poetry Symposium where she performed a lively poetry reading. 

Stephanie (Sage) Giroux is a resident of Amiskwacîwâskahikan, Edmonton. Sage has been published in 2 anthologies with the stroll of Poets, the Polyglot, Tipi Confessions, and has been a featured reader for Soul Speak, Parkland Poets, and Breathe In Poetry. A reader for the Edmonton Poetry Festival in 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023 with the Edmonton Indigenous Poets Society, 2025 with Turtle Island Collective and for Verse in 2026. She is First Nations through Onion Lake, Metis through Buffalo Lake Metis Settlement, and French from the West Nippissing area, Ontario. As a disabled indigenous person and writer, she has been taking the time learning more about her roots, her nation, and her life. 

Michael Gravel is an Edmonton-based poet and writer who was a founding member and frontman of the fabled Raving Poets Band. His storied career includes years of involvement with the Edmonton Poetry Festival.  His poetry chapbooks include The Fast Places (2008), Corduroy Forecast (2010), and We Need You (2014). His poetic influences include Carl Sagan, Jack Kerouac, and Dylan Thomas. When not digesting the day’s codswallop, he can be found writing & reading, drinking tea, and walking.

He also adds that he enjoys the great chase with the hounds for the unattainable meaning of the world.

His website: https://michaelgravel.com/

Rayanne Haines (she/her) is an award-winning poet, producer, podcaster and educator. Rayanne has penned five poetry collections including Tell The Birds Your Body Is Not A Gun (Frontenac, 2021) winner of the 2022 Stephan G. Stephansson, Alberta Literary Award for Poetry and shortlisted for both the BPAA Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry, and the National ReLit Award for Poetry, What Kind of Daughter? (Frontenac House 2024), finalist for the 2025 Stephan G. Stephansson, Alberta Literary Award for Poetry, and most recently, co-written with Carolyne Van Der Meer, the chapbook Sincerely, Sincerely (Agatha Press 2025). A previous Writer in Residence for the Edmonton Region Federation of Libraries, she hosts the literary podcast Crow Reads, is the President for the League of Canadian Poets, and is an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Ellen lived in Calgary for four years while completing her BA. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. As an active writer and freelance editor throughout her career, Ellen worked with and for the Edmonton Poetry Festival for many years as a volunteer coordinator, event planner, founding member, and board member. 

Carley Lizotte is an otipemisiwak iskwew, mad aunty, threat to colonization, inventor of worlds, land and water defender, storyteller, teacher and poet with ties to treaty no. 6 & 8 territories.

Kim Mannix (she/her) is a journalist, poet and short fiction writer who lives and creates on Treaty Six territory near amiskwaciy-wâskahikan in Sherwood Park, Alberta. Her passion for climate justice issues, the importance of art, feminism and parenthood intersect in both her creative and professional pursuits. She is a contributing editor of Watch Your Head, a climate crisis anthology, a poetry reader for Ex-Puritan journal, associate poetry editor for the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild literary magazine spring and currently volunteers as Board President for the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous Canadian and international journals and anthologies. Confirm Humanity, her first full collection of poetry, was published by Wild Skies Press in 2025.

Her website: https://makesmesodigress.com/

Lisa Martin is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently NIGHTHAWKS (University of Alberta Press, 2026). Her first novel, A STORY CAN BE TOLD ABOUT PAIN, came out last spring (NeWest Press, 2025). Her work has been a finalist for the City of Edmonton Book Prize (2018) and has won a National Magazine Award for Personal Journalism (2012) and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry (2009). She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at MacEwan University.

The City of Edmonton’s eleventh Poet Laureate, Haitian-born spoken word artist and advocate, Medgine is someone for whom the love of language and the alchemy of words comes naturally. Her multilingual upbringing (French, Creole, and English) not only encouraged her to explore the potential and magic of language but also nurtured a deep love of poetry. Her work has been featured on CBC, Global TV, at SkirtsAfire Festival, and the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Medgine is a two-time recipient of awards from the National Black Coalition of Canada (NBCC), having received the Fil Fraser Award for outstanding contributions to the literary and performing arts, and the Dr. John Akabutu Award for demonstrating resilience in the face of significant challenges. In 2023, she received the Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Edmonton Community Foundation — an award granted to exceptional local artists to support their creative work and encourage their continued presence in the community. She is the author of the multilingual chapbook Waiting in the Land of the Living / Attendre dans le monde des vivants. She has been recently been named the Edmonton Poet Laureate.

Wendy McGrath is a Métis poet, writer, and artist living in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 Territory. Her major publishing credits include four novels, three poetry collections as well as chapbooks/artist’s books. She has collaborated with musicians and artists on a number of projects and is the winner of the inaugural Prairie Grindstone Prize. Her writing embraces multiple genres—fiction, poetry, spoken word, and creative non-fiction. Her Santa Rosa Trilogy continues her exploration of the working-class prairie gothic.

Peter Midgley is the author of several books of poetry, children’s literature, non-fiction, and plays. He believes writers can lead the charge against the malevolence of censorship and the rise of fascism. He has received national and international recognition as a writer and editor. His chapbook, 20/15, was published by Agatha Press.

For more info check out his website:
https://www.midgley.ca/

Lisa Mulrooney was Poet Laureate for the Town of Stony Plain (2019-2023). She was the co-founder and President of Parkland Poets’ Society and served on the boards of both Edmonton’s Stroll of Poets Society and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. She was a finalist for The Malahat Review’s Open Season Award for Poetry in 2019. 

Her website: https://lisamulrooneydotcom.wordpress.com/

Jason Lee Norman lives, writes, and eats in Edmonton, Alberta. Treaty Six territory.

Born and raised in a small mining town in the mountainous back-country of southeastern British Columbia, Paul Pearson lives and writes in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) with his wife and two children. Paul has been active in the literary arts community in Edmonton for more than 30 years as both a volunteer and organizer He was also one of the founding editors of the Olive Reading Series. His poetry has appeared in a number of journals and his debut collection, Lunatic Engine, was published by Turnstone Press in 2020.

Daniel Poitras, a half-breed poet from the Paul First Nation, writes vicious Native poetry. He has been published in the Home and Away anthology 2009, The Malahat Review, Grain Magazine, a featured reader in the Olive Reading series and included in the Edmonton Poetry Festival’s Poetry Moves on Transit program. He is also the curator, proprietor, and director of Dapper Dan’s Indian & Outlaw Extravaganza.

Jason Purcell is a writer and musician from amiskwacîwâskahikan. They are the author of Swollening (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022) and Crohnic (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) .

Their website: https://www.jasonpurcell.ca/

Titilope Sonuga is a poet who renders, both in verse and performance, a quality of rootedness and unflinching womanhood that extends beyond the bounds of a single poem or poetic performance. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Down to Earth (2011), Abscess (2014), and This Is How We Disappear (2019) and has composed two spoken word albums, Mother Tongue (2011) and Swim (2019). Her work is expansive, reaching into the realm of theatre, television and advertising campaigns for global brands. She was the 9th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton.

Matthew Stepanic is a queer writer who lives and works on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton. They are a co-author of the collaborative novel Project Compass (Monto Books, 2017) and the author of Relying on that Body (Glass Buffalo, 2018), a poetry chapbook about the queens of season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They edit and design chapbooks for Agatha Press, and they host and co-organize VERS/E, a monthly queer poetry open mic.

Follow on IG: @mlstepanic

For more info check out their website:
http://matthewstepanic.com/

Ryan James Summers, aka ‘Some-Sum’, is an Indigenous songwriter/storyteller, spoken word poet, freestyle performance artist & emcee from Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.). 

‘Sum’ started writing at the age of 16 & began to freestyle whilst living on the streets of Edmonton at age 17. His submersion into hip-hop culture built the foundation of his ability to cypher; write poetry & experiment with lyricism. This enthusiastic devotion for ‘word smithing’ as an art form, has cultivated an adept ability to express with purpose, passion & power for intentional, conscious, culturally informed performances. His work covers anti-colonialism, Indigenous spirituality, the relationship between self & the world around us. Whilst making sure he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Bree Taylor (she/they) is a queer Settler writer and poet from amiskwaciwaskahikan (Edmonton), Treaty 6. She is the recipient of the L. June Kelly and Peliplat Prizes, and was a finalist for the Dell Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. Her poetry has appeared in Room, Funicular, and in her chapbook “Bloody Women.” Their fiction has appeared in Quagmire and Polymorphic. Bree is completing her MFA through the University of British Columbia, where she is writing a queer horror novel as her thesis.

Umezurike is a writer, poet and assistant professor in the Department of English and Wayne O. McCready Emerging Fellow at the University of Calgary. He is the author of the poetry collection there’s more, the short story collection Double Wahala, Double Trouble, the non-fiction book Masculinities in Nigerian Fiction, and the children’s book Wish Maker.