Board & Organizers

Kim Mannix (she/her) is a poet, dark fiction writer, and journalist who lives and writes in Sherwood Park on Treaty 6 territory. As a lover and supporter of local arts, she’s had the pleasure of being part of the Edmonton Poetry Festival Board since 2021. Her first collection of poetry, Confirm Humanity, was published by Wild Skies Press in the fall of 2025.

Megan Stobbe (she/her) joined the Edmonton Poetry Board in 2024. Her work has appeared with CV2, Funicular Magazine, Paddler Press, Capital City Press, and elsewhere. Megan works in government communications and lives with her partner and three children in a post-war bungalow on Treaty 6 territory.

Harmeet Kaur was born and raised in India. She moved to Edmonton in 1999. She did her accounting degree through NAIT and works full time with the federal government. She is a certified Yoga and Group Fitness instructor. She is a poet at heart and writes in English & Hindi. She has a YouTube channel ‘You Me and Chai’ to showcase her poetry. She enjoys dancing, reading, writing and connecting with people.

Marco Melfi (he/him) joined the Edmonton Poetry Festival Board in 2019. He received The Fiddlehead’s 2021 Ralph Gustafson Prize and has had poems published in Arc Poetry Magazine, EVENT, The Literary Review of Canada, PRISM, The New Quarterly, and Prairie Fire. His debut poetry collection, Routine Maintenance, was published in 2025 by Gaspereau Press. He lives in Edmonton on Treaty 6 Territory.

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!). Alice has published 12 award-winning collections of poetry, including The Office Tower Tales (which won the Pat Lowther award) and Memory’s Daughter (which received the Stephan G. Stephansson Prize). Her recent book Welcome to the Anthropocene was nominated for three major awards. Her 12th collection is Knife on Snow, released by Turnstone Press in Spring 2023. Other awards include the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. Her website is here.

Alecto Brandt (she/her) is a multidisciplinary settler artist, poet, and writer who joined the Edmonton Poetry Festival Board in 2025. With a background in the non-profit sector and a long-standing commitment to community service, she brings a passion for arts accessibility, creative collaboration, and building stronger connections between arts organizations and the public. She is working on a poetry manuscript and frequents Edmonton’s open mic scene.

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.

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.

Steve Pirot (aka Unkl Stiv) has been a partner in Edmonton’s ecology of Arts Festivals for over 30 years including 16 years as Festival Director for The Nextfest Arts Company. Coming from a background in theatre, he has been active in Edmonton’s poetry scene for 15 years. His spoken-word show Unkl Stiv’s Looping Machine premiered at Clarkeland’s Patio in Whitehorse in 2023 followed by a run at the 2023 & 2024 Edmonton Fringe.