Board & Organizers

Nisha Patel
Executive Director
Nisha Patel is an award-winning queer poet & artist. She is the City of Edmonton’s Poet Laureate, and the Canadian Individual Slam Champion. She is a recipient of the ... Read More

Alice Major
President
Alice Major founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival in 2006 while she was serving as Edmonton’s first poet laureate. (She warns all future laureates to be careful what they start!). ... Read More

Don Perkins
Treasurer
Don Perkins has served on the Board of the Edmonton Poetry Festival since 2013. He is currently the Treasurer, and has also served as Chair of the Governance and ... Read More

Beth Dart
Board Member
Beth Dart is an Edmonton-based director, producer, lighting designer, and theatre collaborator. She is the co-artistic producer of award-winning indie theatre company Catch the Keys Productions, best known for ... Read More

Katherine Gibson
Board Member
Katherine Gibson received her MLIS from McGill University in Montreal before working at the Richmond Public Library in British Columbia, Canada. After a year and half there she took ... Read More

Bill Howe
Board Member
Bill Howe has been basking in the sounds and rhythms of the Edmonton poetry scene for over 20 years. As a high school English teacher, he is eager to ... Read More

Marco Melfi
Board Member
Marco Melfi joined the Edmonton Poetry Festival Board in 2019. Previously, he has volunteered with the Stroll of Poets (2013-2020). He is an Edmonton poet originally from Hamilton. He ... Read More


Paul Pearson
Board Member
Raised in a mining town in the mountainous back-country of southeastern British Columbia, Paul moved to Edmonton (longer ago than he cares to remember) where he lives and writes ... Read More

Matthew Stepanic
Board Member
Matthew Stepanic is the editor of Glass Buffalo and the co-founder of Edmonton’s newest bookstore, Glass Bookshop. He is a co-author of the collaborative novel, Project Compass (Monto Books, ... Read More

Tomáš Andel
Program Coordinator
Tomáš Andel is a Slovak-born media artist living in Edmonton. Primarily a writer and musician, Tomáš approaches creating through an intermedia framework, expanding currently into digital visual and interactive ... Read More

Randall Edwards
Photographer
Randall is one of the founding fathers of the Raving Poets and has been involved in the spoken word scene for longer than he can remember. His photography has ... Read More

Kasia Gawlak
Website
Kasia is a freelance website developer and creative consultant, operating under the trade name CodeWord Media Design since 2011. Prior to launching her business, Kasia obtained a BA in ... Read More