2013 Headliners

Mohamed Abdi is a Somali-Canadian journalist engaged in advocacy journalism. He is also an emerging writer and a film maker with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies from Athabasca University. He has also authored two books, the second of which is a work of fiction called: Mother Somalia-Stories of Hope. SKIPS is his first film.

Whether performing to thousands at the Royal Albert Hall or the lucky few who made it inside the packed past capacity speakeasy, C.R. Avery is a unique, raw and dynamic performer. His genius lies in many genres – blues, hip-hop, spoken word and rock & roll. He is a one-man band, but one for this generation; with the rare ability to sing poetic verse while beatboxing simultaneously while pounding the piano and adding harmonica like a plot twist. A multi-talented front man for his Legal Tender String Quartet; a crazed lead singer/harp player for his rock & roll band The Special Interest Group; a lyrical dynamo & the musical backbone of the spoken word trio Tons of Fun University.

From musical beginnings in his late teens, C.R. Avery has recorded over fifteen albums as well as writing & directing six hip-hop operas, which were mounted and performed from New York’s Bowery to L.A.’s South Central. He has toured throughout Canada (including almost every major folk festival) the USA and Europe (headlining or opening for Billy Bragg, Buck 65, and Sage Francis) and garnered the attention of music peers the likes of Tom Waits (”…he’s blowin’ my mind”); blues harp trail blazer Charlie Musselwhite (”…no one plays harmonica like him…no one…”); and folk legend Utah Phillips (”…raw talent”).

His incredible live performances have been described as Bob Dylan in the body of Iggy Pop; colliding with Little Walter, the Beastie Boys and Allen Ginsberg. Every show is all or nothing and his fearless approach to all genres of music both on stage and in the studio proves the longevity of this talented, astonishing creator has so much more to come.

For more information – http://www.cravery.com

Douglas Barbour is Professor emeritus, Department of English & Film Studies, University of Alberta. His books include Visible Visions: The Selected Poems of Douglas Barbour (NeWest Press; winner of the Stephan G. Stephansson Award); Story for a Saskatchewan Night (rdc press);  Fragmenting Body etc (NeWest Press), Breath Takes (Wolsac & Wynn),  Continuations & Continuations 2 (University of Alberta Press); the critical texts, Michael Ondaatje (Twayne Publishers); Lyric / Anti-lyric: essays on contemporary poetry (NeWest Press). The University of Alberta Press has just published his latest book of poems, Listen. If in Spring 2017. He was inducted into the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame in 2003. Eclectic Ruckus is his review blog: https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/.

Nuala: a fable is Kimmy Beach’s sixth book. Her second, Alarum Within: theatre poems (Turnstone Press, 2003), has been adapted twice as a stage play. The Last Temptation of Bond (UAP, 2013) was featured on CBC’s The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers, and was chosen as one of the top five books of the year at Quill & Quire’s Readers’ Poll. Kimmy has served as a mentor, teacher, workshop facilitator, and writer-in-residence for over a dozen provincial and national writing organizations and schools. She is currently writing a novel about 1970s romance comics and the music of Tom Jones. Kimmy lives in a creaky old house in Red Deer, Alberta, with Stu, her husband of thirty years.

Astrid Blodgett’s short stories have appeared in The Journey Prize Anthology, Meltwater: Fiction and Poetry from the Banff Centre for the Arts, and several Canadian literary magazines. She was short-listed for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story, and her collection, You Haven’t Changed a Bit, was long-listed for a ReLit Award, a runner up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and a finalist for the High Plains Book Award for Short Stories. She writes an occasional poem every few years.

E.D. Blodgett (1935–2018) published numerous books of poetry as well as literary history and translations. He was Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta. His books won the Governor General’s Award twice, for poetry and translation. From 2007 to 2009 he was Edmonton’s Poet Laureate.

Thea Bowering’s collection of short stories is called Love at Last Sight (NeWest Press, 2013). In 2022, she and Jody Shenkarek were artists-in-residence at Yorath House, Edmonton, where they wrote about living alongside the North Saskatchewan River.

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For more info check out their website:
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Born in Tanzania, Sam Bukambu moved to the US for computer information studies. He now lives in Edmonton as a self employed entrepreneur. He is happily married to Aurora, with whom he is raising three boys. At APAAD, he and Tololwa Mollel will perform in Kiswahili, the national language of Tanzania and Kenya, and Maasai, one of many ethnic languages in those two countries.

Jenna Butler is the author of three books of poetry and ten short collections with small presses. Butler teaches creative writing and eco-criticism at Red Deer College. In the summer, she and her husband live on a small organic farm near the historic Grizzly Trail in Alberta’s north country.

Kevan Anthony Cameron, also known as Scruffmouth is a scribe, spoken poet, performer and proud co-editor of The Great Black North. He is a veteran of the poetry slam scene in North America and aims to “edutain” with his work that focuses on knowledge of self, identity and vocalizing the stories of people of African descent at home and abroad. Kevan was born in Edmonton Alberta to Jamaican parents. He received his bachelor’s degree in General Studies from Simon Fraser University.

His poems have been published in We Have A Voice: An Anthology of African and Caribbean Student Writing in BC; Blood Ink: A University of Alberta Literary Journal, and Sudden Thunder: Spring 2011 Anthology. He has appeared on the ABC Family Television Movie Event Fallen, the Universal Pictures feature film, Love Happens, and the Mostly Harmless Productions internet web series, _White Collar Poet_.  Scruffmouth is working on his debut album of spoken word and dub poetry to be released in 2012.

As creative director for Black Dot Roots and Culture Collective (BDRCC); Kevan is responsible for the education of young people and adults through the spoken word, the creation of original forms of artistic expression and the celebration of the heritage of peoples of African descent. He has also contributed to the boards of the Black Canadian Studies Association as the elder youth representative and Spoken Word Canada as the Vancouver representative. He facilitates workshops with BDRCC and the WordPlay: Poetry in the Classroom program of the Vancouver Poetry House.

Jillian Christmas is an artist, creative facilitator, curator, consultant, and advocate in the arts community. She is the longtime spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest, and former artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. Jillian has performed and facilitated workshops across North America. She is the winner of the Writers Trust of Canada 2021 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers, and winner of the League of Canadian Poets 2021 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for spoken word poetry. She is the author of The Gospel of Breaking (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), and the forthcoming children’s book The Magic Shell  (Flamingo Rampant, 2021). She lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver,  BC). 

Alison Clarke is a writer/artist who also enjoys painting and drawing. She also experiences life as a spoken word artist. She is the author of The Sisterhood, a young adult fantasy novel about a sorceress’ daughter, and her best friend who is a dragon, and the journey they go on to save the universe. The Sisterhood is book one of The Sisterhood Series. For Alison, life is an interesting journey. Whether she is immersing herself in poetry, prose, or visual art, Alison is at home.

Celebrated author and scholar George Elliott Clarke has been named Toronto’s fourth poet laureate. He has published in a variety of genres: verse collections, Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues (1983), and Lush Dreams, Blue Exile (1994), a verse-novel, Whylah Falls (1990 & 2000), two verse plays, Whylah Falls: The Play (1999 & 2000), and Beatrice Chancy (1999).

His opera Beatrice Chancy, with music by James Rolfe, has had four stage productions and a broadcast on CBC television. This powerful opera about slavery in the Nova Scotia of the early 1800s won great reviews and enthusiastic audiences. He wrote the screenplay for the feature film, One Heart Broken Into Song (Dir. Clement Virgo, 1999). The verse play, Whylah Falls, was staged in Venice in Italian (2002). Clarke continues to publish poetry with Provençal Songs (1993 & 1997), Gold Indigoes (2000), Blue (2001) and Illuminated Verse (2005). His E_xecution Poems_ (2001) won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

He was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1960, a seventh-generation Canadian of African-American and Mi’kmaq Amerindian heritage. His seemingly endless distinctions include a National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), appointment to the Order of Canada (2008), and eight honorary doctorates.

Simon Crowley was born in 1984 in a former tuberculosis sanatorium. His poems have appeared on Post-it Notes, bus transfers, and bar bills across Canada, as well as in a series of limited-edition chapbooks; the most recent, Catastrophe and Tense, was released in 2012. His first play, Captain Hook vs. the Zombies, was co-written with Mike Young and staged at the 2009 Fringe Festival. He lives in Edmonton at the edge of a ravine, among other things.

Ryan Cunningham is a board member of the national arts service organization, IPAA (Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance) and a National Working Group member of NANAA (National Aboriginal Network of Arts Administrators). He has been very active in the creation and production of new Aboriginal works across Canada for the last 10 years. He has been working professionally on the stage and screen for nearly two decades. Most recently Ryan played the role of Oswald in the All Aboriginal cast of King Lear at the National Arts Centre of Canada. He is a founding member of The Agokwe Collective and co-producer of the 2012-2013 National Tour of the 6 Dora award-winning production; Agokwe by Waawaate Fobister. As an actor he has been involved in the creation, workshop and initial productions of four published Canadian Aboriginal plays; Dreary & Izzy by Tara Beagan, Stretching Hide by Dale Lakevold and Darrell Racine, Suicide Notes by Ken Williams and Annie Mae’s Movement by Yvette Nolan (and one non-Aboriginal play; Next Years Man Of Steel by David Belke). Over the last 14 years Ryan has co-produced and co-directed a number of plays and founded a successful promotions and event company in Toronto called Kimosabee Productions (2000-2006). Ryan can be seen later this year in the third season of the award winning APTN television series, Blackstone, reprising his role as Darcy Douglas. Also for TV & Film: Mixed Blessings, Earth: Final Contact, Blue Murder, Spinning Out Of Control, Sirr Parker, Hiding, Mentors, and I Think I Do.

Pat is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting and MFA Directing programs has been an actor/performer in Edmonton for many years. Upon completion of her MFA Pat attended York University where she studied Voice and Speech with acclaimed voice teacher David Smukler. Pat continues projects as an actor, director and writer as well she has taught voice and acting as a sessional at the University of Alberta and at Concordia University College.

Tanya Davis is wrapping up her term as poet laureate for Halifax. Poet, storyteller, musician and singer-songwriter, she fuses these elements together in a refreshing matrimony of language and sound, side-stepping genre and captivating audiences in the process.

Tanya has been performing as a poet since 2000, shortly after seeing her first spoken word performance in downtown Vancouver, in an art space aptly named ‘The Church of Pointless Hysteria’. Since then, she has picked up multiple award nominations, including one for her sophomore release, Gorgeous Morning (for the 2009 ECMA Female Recording of the Year). She is a two-time winner in the CBC National Poetry Face-off as well as the Canadian Winner of the 2008 Mountain Stage NewSong contest.

In 2009, with support from Bravo, she collaborated with independent filmmaker Andrea Dorfman to produce a short videopoem entitled How to Be Alone; the short has since been featured at numerous film festivals, including The Vancouver Film Fest, The Worldwide Short Film Festival, and the VideoPoetry Festival (Berlin). It also has 1.8 million views on Youtube.

She also recently completed a feature-length show based in music and performance poetry, as funded by The Canada Council for the Arts; it debuted in 2011. Her first book , At First, Lonely, was published in June 2011 by Acorn Press.

Kris Demeanor was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada right about the time of the first moon landing, the son of a Swedish beauty queen and a German General Proficiency award winner. He’s a songwriter and performer who writes and sings about the funny, dark, absurd, maddening, and the joyful for people who like to think, dance, laugh, cry and party.

Kris has put out six CDs of original music, a couple of award winning videos, created and performed for the theatre, and toured clubs and folk festivals around Canada, Australia and Europe, both solo and with his Crack Band.

His music draws on classic folk story telling, spoken word/rap, and shamelessly hooky pop, which both complicates things for all involved and makes them more interesting.

Kris loves his fellow Canadian songwriters, and has toured and recorded with the likes of Geoff Berner, Carolyn Mark, Nathan, Ford Pier, Dave Lang, Veda Hille, Wendy McNeill and Kim Barlow.

Trisia Eddy Woods (she/her) grew up exploring Alberta and Manitoba on horseback. Her artwork has been exhibited both close to home and internationally, and is held in the special collection of the Herron Art Library. A former editor for Red Nettle Press, Trisia’s writing has appeared in a variety of literary journals and chapbooks across North America, including Contemporary Verse 2, The Garneau Review, and New American Writing. She currently lives in Edmonton / amiskwaciywâskahikan with her family, which includes an array of four-legged companions. A Road Map for Finding Wild Horses is her first full-length collection.

Follow on IG: @prairiedarkroom 

For more info check out their website(s):
www.rednettlepress.com and https://prairiedarkroom.com/

Jannie Edwards writes from her chosen city of Edmonton amiskwacîwâskahikan (ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ). An Emeritus of MacEwan University, she has published three collections of poetry and has collaborated on many multidisciplinary artistic projects and literary mentorships. Most recently, Learning Their Names: Letters from the Home Place (Collusion Books, 2022), a decade-long “slow art” collaboration with visual artist Sydney Lancaster, explores their connection with a beloved five-acre homestead near the historic Victoria Trail in northeastern Alberta. During a year of the pandemic, Sydney and Jannie exchanged poetic letters across the country (Jannie in Edmonton, Sydney in Nova Scotia) that deepened their thinking about history, stewardship, responsibility and the aliveness of every living thing.

Mohamed received the B.S. degree (first-class honours) in computer engineering from High Institute of Engineering, Egypt, in 2000. He received his M.E. degree in electrical engineering with a scholarship from Charles Darwin University, Australia in 2006. In the same year, he was the recipient of Australian Government International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and received his PhD in biomedical engineering in May 2012. During 2010-2012, he was working as a research associate at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Currently, Dr. Elgendi is working as a postdoc fellow at University of Alberta, Canada. At APAAD, Mohamed Elgendi will perform in Arabic, the main language in Egypt and North Africa. More info on Mohamed Elgendi here.

Latoya Farrell was born in Fort McMurray, and raised by Caribbean parents. Her work has appeared in exhibitions such as InFuse 2 at the Garvey Cultural Centre and 5 Artists, 1 Love at the Alberta Gallery of Art. She is influenced by artists like Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall and Khinde Wiley, Latoya’s work explores how social conventions have defined the term “black” and how these notions have influenced her own concept of identity.

She writes: “Essentially my work is three-pronged in its content, representing elements of black history, personal history, and art history. I choose to use found family photographs as it forces me to engage in a dialogue with something I feel estranged from. With the death of my ancestors, the stories of my heritage have faded from the foreground, leaving only glimpses into the past. By integrating these personal elements with traditionally iconic images, I am able to make my own experiences contextually relevant.”

Her work is also concerned with the manipulation of space and place; pushing the boundaries of presence and absence and the gray areas in between.

Florent is originally from Cameroon. He now lives in Edmonton as an applied economist. Imbued with an in-born passion for writing poetry, Florent has written hundreds of poems and won awards in many poetry competitions. Writing poetry to him is a way to express gratitude to deserving people and for deserving events. His passion for writing poetry began when he was 18. He has written poems in French, in his native Cameroonian language of Yemba, in English and in German. At APAAD, Florent will share his poetry in French and in Yemba, one of numerous ethnic languages in Cameroon.

Eric Folsom is a resident of Kingston, Ontario and currently serves as that city’s Poet Laureate. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Icon Driven from Wolsak and Wynn and Northeastern “Anti-ghazals” from above/ground press.

Eric has done school workshops from about Grade 4 to 12. “As long as I have time to prepare I can work up some exercises, or do a modest little lesson, for anything from ten minutes to an hour. I can also simply read, and have no qualms about reading poems by other poets. The main point is to expose the kids to the good stuff.”

Christine Sokaymoh Frederick is the co-founder/co-director of Alberta Aboriginal Arts, and is the Aboriginal Leadership Academy Coordinator for the Centre for Race & Culture. She is a Métis, Edmonton-based artist with many years experience as an actor, writer, singer/musician, dancer, community developer, facilitator and producer, and she has an arts & cultural administration background with many connections to the local and traditional community in and around Alberta.

She has consulted for the Edmonton’s cultural plan The Art of Living (Edmonton Arts Council) and on the 2005 draft of Alberta’s Cultural Policy for the Ministry of Alberta’s Community Development. Christine is the recipient of the 2007 Esquao Award in Arts & Entertainment. Her children’s book, Minosis Gathers Hope is in development including adaptations to the stage for Full Circle Performance’s Talking Stick Festival in Vancouver and Edmonton’s Concrete Theatre’s Sprouts Festival. Christine dedicates herself to promoting and supporting the tender network of Aboriginal artists across Turtle Island.

Francisco was born in Angola. He came to Canada in 1999. He writes in Portuguese and English. Writing became to him a path to dream loudly. Through it, he has found a way to heal himself from past wounds. Writing poetry is drinking from different rivers. At APAAD, Fwallah will perform in Portuguese, the European lingua franca in Angola.

As the daughter of an artist and a journalist, Kasia is drawn to the symbiotic relationship between words and images, and enjoys mixing poetry with visual art, collage, and photographs. Her work is confessional in nature and draws on her experiences of sex, love, heartbreak, loss, grief, anger, and human relationships.

Kasia’s poetry practice dates back to her high school years. She discovered an interest in creative writing performance during her time as a student at the University of Alberta, where she majored in English Lit. She was a contributor to Fait Accomplit, the Comparative Literature Students Association magazine, and was also active in their poetry slam nights. After graduating from U of A, Kasia pursued a career in marketing communications and website development. Kasia renewed her interest in Edmonton’s creative writing scene when she and Jason Lee Norman founded the Words with Friends (aka yegwords) creative writing collective in the summer of 2011. She released her self-published retrospective poetry collection, the mourning after, in October of the same year.

Marty Gervais is an award-winning journalist, photographer, poet, playwright, historian, editor and teacher. Among his poetry awards are the Milton Acorn “People’s Poetry Award” for his book, Tearing into a Summer Day. He also writes fiction and non-fiction, including a book of essays, Seeds In The Wilderness, based on his interviews with notable religious leaders such as Mother Theresa and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

He has also been the recipient of nearly 20 Newspaper Awards for journalism. His most recent involved his work in Iraq in 2005. But he also records the people and industry of his home city of Windsor, where he is poet laureate. In high schools, he loves to deal with history, and storytelling, and drama as well as working with the combination of words and photography.

Michael Gravel is a poet, writer, emcee, publisher, and tea afficionado. He believes that art, design, and poetry strive for the same ideal: to say the most with the least. His poetry chapbooks include The Fast Places (2008), Corduroy Forecast (2010), and We Need You (2014). He designs and publishes books at The Rasp and the Wine. He was the frontman of the Raving Poets from 2003 – 2010. His other skills include poetic performance, event emceeing, lecturing, and teaching. 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.

Medgeen Guillet was born in Haiti, and raised in Montreal when her family immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. Initially studying Marketing Management at McGill University, Guillet’s creative instincts prompted her to switch gears, and registered for Art Classes at CEGEP du Vieux Montreal. She then decided to study Art History and Fine Arts at the University du Quebec a Montreal, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree.

Guillet’s landscape paintings are influenced by the old masters such as Eugene Boutin and capture the tranquility of nature. Her abstract décollage incorporates her photographs into acrylic paintings to create rich textures and surprising details. Guillet currently lives in Calgary, Alberta. Medgeen is available for commissioned work. More here →.

Writer, Student, Research Assistant, Artist, Impresario, Agnostic Christian Anarchist Marxist Humanist, Edmontonian, Somnambulist, Life-Amateur, hopefully one of the good guys.

Richard Harrison’s eight books include the Governor General’s Award–finalist Big Breath of a Wish, and Hero of the Play, the first book of poetry launched at the Hockey Hall of Fame. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, a position he took up after being the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary in 1995. His work has been published, broadcast and displayed around the world, and his poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic. In On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood, Richard reflects on his father’s death, the Alberta Flood and what poetry offers a life lived around it.

Andrea House comes to the Poetry Festival as a veteran of Edmonton’s theatre and musical communities; as an actor with Edmonton theatre companies such as Teatro La Quindicina, the Citadel Theatre, and Theatre Network, and as a singer-songwriter, opening for the Blind Boys of Alabama at the Winspear Centre, and performing at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival with such artists as Linda Tillery, Rose Cousins, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Andrea is honoured to be reading at the Edmonton Poetry Festival this year. www.andreahouse.com.

pj johnson was formally invested as the Yukon’s first Poet Laureate on Canada Day, 1994 by Yukon Commissioner Kenneth McKinnon during a ceremony held in Whitehorse at Rotary Park. Sometimes called “the Raven Lady”, johnson’s personal symbol of office is a locally carved ‘Talking Stick’, adorned with a northern raven and a beaver. The raven was chosen to reflect the Yukon’s official territorial bird and the beaver as an official symbol of Canada.

The daughter of a Yukon trapper, johnson is also a singer/songwriter, actress, playwright, and storyteller with a passion for sharing the beauty, history, and excitement that is the Canadian North.

Saskatchewan’s poet laureate, Don Kerr, has published ten books of poetry and as well as fiction and one teen novel. He is also a dramatist who has written for the Fringe and for CBC radio. He taught English at the University of Saskatchewan for forty years, specializing in classes of drama and film. Throughout his distinguished career, he has written on the history and culture of the prairie west. As well as preserving it in his writing, he has been a force to galvanize heritage preservation.

Don is available to work with grades six through 12, and can help students integrate poetry into history or drama.

Robert is a master Togolese musician and active member of Wajjo African Drummers and Kekeli African Dancers. He was born in Ghana and grew up in Togo, West Africa. Robert has performed in cultural festivals and traditional ceremonies since the age of 17. In 1986 he went to St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, where he obtained his BA in May 1989 and studied in Education program for two years. In 1992 Robert moved to Edmonton, where he pursued a Master’s degree at the Newman Theological College. Robert currently works at W.P. Wagner High School in the Special Needs Students program. He recently toured with Wajjo throughout Western Canada and the US. Robert currently directs the West African Music Ensemble. He will provide the ‘African drum language’ for our APAAD afternoon.

Amélie Lanctôt est originaire de Sherbrooke au Québec. Elle détient une maîtrise en création littéraire de l’Université de Sherbrooke et un D.E.C en Théâtre. Elle a publié quelques poèmes dans divers numéros de la revue Jet d’encre ainsi qu’un court essai sur la poète Josée Yvon dans la revue Chameaux. Elle explore actuellement la poésie à travers le chant.

Amélie Lanctôt is from Sherbrooke, Québec. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Sherbrooke and a diploma in Theatre. She has published several poems in various issues of the journal Jet d’encre and a short essay on poet Josée Yvon in the journal Chameaux. She is currently exploring poetry through song.

Evelyn Lau is the author of ten books, including five volumes of poetry. Her work has received the Milton Acorn Award, a Governor-General’s nomination, and a National Magazine Award for Poetry. Her most recent book, Living Under Plastic (Oolichan, 2010) won the Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry by a woman in Canada. Evelyn is the 2011-2014 Poet Laureate of Vancouver.

Deborah Lawson is an Edmonton-based freelance editor and writer. She’s been writing poetry for many years, and in 2003 she began to take part in Edmonton’s vibrant poetry community and work with some of this city’s many noted poets. She began with observation and listening, then moved on to honing her work through workshopping and public performance. In 2013, Frontenac House published her début collection, Reckless Toward Blossoming. Several literary magazines and anthologies have also published her work, including Other Voices magazine, which awarded Deborah its 20th anniversary Poetry Grand Prize for her poem Dead Nun’s Underwear.

When not working or writing poetry, she sings with the Richard Eaton Singers, volunteers for writing-related organizations and works in her garden.

Deborah is the mother of three adult children—a daughter and two sons—and is “Moogie” to an amazing grandson whose birth she was honoured to attend in 2013.

Her idea of perfection is a poet in a canoe. Her idea of profound has yet to be adequately defined. But through poetry, she’s beginning to discern how the profound encompasses both the mundane and the glorious.

John B. Lee was appointed Poet Laureate of Brantford in Perpetuity in 2004 and Poet Laureate of Norfolk County (2011-2014).  The author of over seventy published books, his work has appeared internationally in over five hundred publications.  He lives in a lakeside house in Port Dover on the shores of Lake Erie.  His latest books are You Can Always Eat the Dogs: The Hockeyness of Ordinary Men, (a memoir, Black Moss Press, 2012); An Unfinished War: poems and stories on the War of 1812 (Black Moss Press, 2012), and Let Us Be Silent Here, (Sanbun Publishing, 2012).

A seasoned bilingual actress, director, and coach as well as a Spoken Word Poet and past Edmonton Slam Champion, this season Giselle initiated Poetry Strip Tease…Poets Go Paperless, a Workshop Series on memorization and performance. Through this effort, Giselle hopes to see more and more passionate paperless poetry performances springing up throughout the city for all kinds of events.

John Leppard is an active member of the Edmonton poetry scene, performing his unique style of spoken word in a variety of venues. A respected leader in the poetry community, John brings abundant experience and skill to the role of performance facilitator.

Liz Lochhead was appointed Scots Makar – the National Poet for Scotland – in 2011, after serving as the Poet Laureate for Glasgow. A poet and playwright, she is described as “both transgressive and popular.” The female voices that she creates in her monologues and many of her poems draw on a Scottish oral tradition that goes right back to the ballads, is subverted by the music-hall, and takes pleasure in a distinctive West of Scotland tradition of storytelling and humour.

She began her writing career whilst working as an art teacher in Glasgow. Her first collection of poems, Memo for Spring, won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award which turned out to be the first of many awards she would earn throughout her career. Since then, poetry has been published in a number of collections including Penguin Modern Poets 4 and, most recently, her selected poems, A Choosing.

Her plays include an adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe, Mary Queen of Scots Got her Head Chopped Off and Medea. Liz has worked as Writer in Residence at both Edinburgh University and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

She first came to Canada in 1978, after being selected for the first Scottish-Canadian Writers Exchange Fellowship.

Erika Luckert is an Edmonton writer, photographer, and student of the arts. Erika’s work has been featured in numerous local publications such as DailyHaiga, Glass Buffalo, Notebook Magazine, and 40 Below: Edmonton’s Winter Anthology. Currently, Erika is completing a BA Honours in English and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta. She also works as the Writer/Researcher in Residence for the Westglen History Project (www.westglenhistoryproject.ca).

Kath MacLean is a multi media artist and educator living in Edmonton. She writes poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, critical reviews, performance poetry, drama & film and has performed her work throughout Canada and the United States. The most unusual and challenging location, however, remains an old WWII bomb shelter on a mountainside in Slovakia she visited as a guest of the Katherine Mansfield Society in the spring of 2012.

Her most recent work is Kat Among the Tigers (2011), poetry based on the journals & correspondence of Katherine Mansfield, & its accompanying poetryvideo, Doo-Da-Doo-Da, which won her the “Best of Fest” at its first national & international screening. Inspired by the writing of Robert Kroetsch, MacLean’s poetry was short-listed for the Robert Kroetsch Innovative Poetry Award in 2012, the same year she received the inaugural Anne Green Award for her excellence & innovation in film, poetry, & performance. Last winter she was WIR at the Mackie House for Kalamalka Press, and this year she has been awarded a writer in residency at the Al Purdy House in Ontario.

This summer MacLean debuted her new videopoem, The Language of Desire, from her earlier CD of performance poetry, Seed Bone and Hammer (2009) at Visible Verse in Vancouver. In the fall, she shared excerpts from her new manuscript in progress, When Night Comes Riding, a book of creative nonfiction, about the arrival of Spanish flu in Edmonton and Toronto in 1918. A who done it, MacLean explores the myth of Edmonton’s urban legend, Miss Felicia Graham, Westmount Junior High’s infamous ghost. Was Felicia murdered by Bluebeard, a serial killer living close by, or did she take her own life and jump from the bridge? You’ll want to know, but you’ll have to wait.

MacLean’s latest work in progress takes her again back in time to both New England and to Europe during WWI and WWI as Modernist poet, H.D. recalls her memories of Imagism, her relationship with Pound, and her fears about the wars during her new and experimental psychoanalytical sessions with Freud in Vienna during the early 1930s.

Plagued in recent months by ill health, MacLean has had to learned to walk and to breathe again and hopes now the worst of it is over and she can turn her energies again to writing. Keep your fingers crossed. Kathmaclean.com.

Heather Simeney MacLeod grew up throughout various regions of British Columbia, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. A few years ago Heather returned to Canada from Scotland, and she is currently a Ph. D. candidate in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Her dissertation is in contemporary American film and fiction. Heather’s creative nonfiction piece, To Discover the Various Uses of Things was a finalist in the 2011 CBC Literary Competition and went on to win the Malahat Creative Nonfiction prize. She recently published two collections of poetry, The Little Yellow House (McGill University Press) and Intermission (Muses Press). She is a member of the Metis Nation British Columbia.

Lorien Maheu was born in Maui, Hawaii in June of 1988. Five years later he moved to British Columbia with his mother and brother and grew up in Nelson, B.C. He credits his mother, a photographer and collage artist who infused his childhood with art, and his grandmother was also a painter.

His work has appeared in Five Artists, One Love and the Whyte Avenue Gallery Walk. He draws inspiration from the beauty of nature and its bright vivid colors. He says he has been inspired by many artists. “But the ones who have gone off in their own direction, (against the grain) have been the ones who have had a lasting effect on me. Whatever is knocking at the door in my head to come out, now comes out. It’s called cREaTiVity!!” More →

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.

Born and raised in Ethiopia, Roman Gebre Mariam fell in love with the world of literature at an early age. Roman has written collections of hundreds of poems, for which she is seeking a publisher. She has published a few of the poems in Amharic language magazines. She also writes in English. Roman lives in Edmonton, working as a program manager at the Africa Centre. At APAAD, she will present two of her Amharic language poems. Amharic, one of over 80 languages in the country, is the lingua franca of Ethiopia.

Dr. Mason-John is an award winning writer who has done extensive work with schools on issues like bullying and violence as well as workshops on spoken-word poetry. She is the author of four non fiction books, one award winning novel, and a collection of poetry, prose and plays, as well as having several plays produced (including the acclaimed Brown Girl in the Ring at the Edmonton Fringe Festival.) She is also the editor of Great Black North, the first anthology of work by black Canadian poets published in more than three decades.

Born and raised in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), Naomi McIlwraith is a Métis writer, poet, and teacher who honours her parents and grandparents through her life’s work. She is the author of the bilingual poetry book, kiyâm (AU Press, 2012), and she studied Cree under Dorothy Thunder. Alongside Dorothy, she worked with Dr. Patricia Demers on the English and Cree translation of a prayer book titled The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country: A Facsimile Edition & Translation of a Prayer Book in Cree Syllabics by Father Émile Grouard, OMI (U of A Press, 2010).

Driven to write from an early age, Lynett McKell weaves tales from her life’s truth and sends them our way, wrapped in melody from deep within. A self taught musician, her music carries a raw light, inviting listeners to reflect, relate and enjoy. After a successful four year run with Edmonton’s  harmony darlings, The Low Flying Planes, Lynett is armed with inspiration to continue down her musical path, offering an honest uniqueness which invites us all to hear again, for the first time.

Jérôme Melançon habite Camrose avec son épouse, ses deux enfants et son chat. Il y est arrivé par la Saskatchewan, la France, l’Ontario, le Québec, et le Nouveau-Brunswick. Il enseigne la philosophie, la politique canadienne, autochtone, et chinoise, ainsi que, parfois, la sociologie et la création littéraire, au campus Augustana de l’Université de l’Alberta. Il est l’auteur de deux recueils de poésie, De perdre tes pas (2011) et Quelques pas quelque part (tous deux aux éditions des Plaines), de nombreux brouillons, et d’un projet de poésie bilingue semi-continuel sur Twitter. Il a aussi publié des articles académiques sur la démocratie, la dissidence, et l’anticolonialisme; sur le rôle des intellectuels et sur la culture; sur la musique de Radiohead, Pink Floyd, et Tarmac; et sur la littérature.

Jérôme Melançon lives in Camrose with his wife, their two children and their cat. He arrived there through Saskatchewan, France, Ontario, Québec, and New-Brunswick. He teaches philosophy, as well as Canadian, Indigenous, and Chiense politics, and sometimes even sociology and creative writing, at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. He is the author of two books of poetry, De perdre tes pas (2011) and Quelques pas quelque part (both with Éditions des Plaines), many drafts, and a semi-continuous bilingual poetry project on Twitter. He has also published academic articles on democracy, dissent, and anticolonialism; on the role of intellectuals and on culture; on the music of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, and Tarmac; and on literature.

Bruce Meyer is the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Barrie. He is author of 34 books, 13 of them poetry, with six more books in the works. He is professor of English at Georgian College and teaches for Laurentian University. His broadcasts, The Great Books, A Novel Idea, and Great Poetry: Poetry is Life and Vice Versa with Michael Enright for CBC Radio One are the network’s bestselling spoken word audio cd series.

Bruce works with junior high and high school students on a variety of poetry subjects such as form, imagery, getting started, getting published and group poetry writing for the younger students.

Edmonton’s Brett Miles is one of Canada’s premiere saxophonists and a funk/jazz musician. The youngest son of Edmonton Eskimos great, Rollie Miles, Brett has also been creating visual art for the last 21 years. As well as being involved with the Five Artists, One Love show two years ago, this self-taught artist has had exhibits at Centre d’arts visuels de l’Alberta, the Artwalk Exhibit at The Paint Spot Gallery, and the Melting Pot Resturant. Brett also participated in The City of Edmonton Whyte Ave Power box Mural Project (alley 105st south of Whyte) and he has a mural in the green room at The Yardbird Suite Jazz Club. He has done The Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Projects 2011 and 2012 which has sent his art on tour through America. Brett is the leader of Magilla Funk Conduit, SeraphicSitter and the Brett Miles Quartet (all available on Itunes). Mr. Miles also has fiction available there and on Kindle.

​​Tololwa Mollel is an author of internationally published children’s books, a playwright, storyteller, and performer. His children’s books have won the Governor General’s Award and Alberta Literary Awards. He has also published adult nonfiction and short stories, and his work has been translated into various Asian, European, and African languages. Tololwa loves to share his passion for story, writing, performance, and creative work with all ages.

Jeune auteure-compositrice-interprète, musicienne, comédienne, et depuis peu directrice artistique, Mireille Moquin est une artiste complète. Avant de sortir son premier album intitulé Aurevoir Princesse, en 2011, Mireille Moquin a été lauréate du Gala albertain de la chanson, du Chant’Ouest et demi-finaliste du Festival de la chanson de Granby. En 2011, elle a fait la première partie de la tournée estivale du Roseq de Luc de Larochellière tandis qu’en février 2013 elle a fait la première partie d’Ariane Moffatt à Edmonton. Mireille Moquin fait aussi partie du groupe franco-albertain Allez Ouest et tient les rênes de la direction artistique de la nouvelle mouture du Gala albertain de la chanson, polyfonik 24.

Mireille Moquin has been a hard working actor and singer-songwriter in Edmonton and Western Canada for the better part of a decade. In 2005, she won the Gala albertain de la chanson, and was a semi-finalist in the Festival Internationale de la chanson de Granby (Québec) in 2005 and once again in 2010. Mireille adds the feminine touch to the Franco-Albertan roots band Allez Ouest, which launched its début album, Hybride in 2008. Between 2008 – 2009, she teamed up with Franco-Manitoban producer and songwriter Benoit Morier to form the Country duo Ben & Mimi, performing across Canada. In 2011, Mireille travelled across Québec as the opening act for the iconic Luc de Larochellière as part of a tour sponsored by ROSEQ. As a solo artist, Mireille Moquinʼs music is simple and honest, with a Prairie sensibilty and a purity of sound that is folk/country. In September 2011, she released her first solo album, Aurevoir Princesse, produced by Shawn Sasyniukand nominated for Francophone album of the year at the 2012 Western Canadian Music Awards. Please visit www.mireillemoquin.com for more.

Omar Mouallem is a National Magazine Awards nominated writer and Metro News columnist, who moonlights as Edmonton rapper A.O.K. After four years as Avenue’s associate editor, he recently left to serve as the Edmonton Public Library’s Writer in Residence for 2013, its centennial year. He mentors writers and holds creative workshops, while working on stories that have appeared in enRoute, VICE, The Globe and Mail and Eighteen Bridges.

Jason Lee Norman writes short fiction, edits Funicular Magazine, and published Monto Books. He lives in Edmonton.

Andy Northrup is a singer/songwriter who has also written and acted for the stage and screen. He has recorded three critically acclaimed CDs, Slow Burn Avenue, Cardboard Logic and Making My Way and was the US Stonewall Society’s 2005 Musical Artist of the Year. As an award winning stage actor, Andy has performed widely, including the Edmonton and Winnipeg Fringe Festivals. He is the 2008 winner of the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes award for Male Performance at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. In addition, Andy has been featured in films and commercials. In addition, he has written script and storylines for film/stage and four musicals. A new initiative in Andy’s career is writing text for Allan Gilliland’s Blessed, a classical choral work commissioned by Pro Coro Canada and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Read more at andynorthrup.com.

Komi Olaf is a multitalented Nigerian artist currently living in Toronto. As “Poetic Speed”, he began his career as a spoken word artist in 2006 at “Conscious”, a spoken word play at Carleton University. He is a member of The Recipe, the 2009 Canadian Spoken word champions. He is also a visual artist a whose work has been featured in shows at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the National Arts Centre, and he holds a graduate degree in architecture.

His poetry encourages the audience to look into themselves while learning and absorbing the beauty of other cultures and religions. He is deeply influenced by his African roots.

Holger Petersen has been a record producer, broadcaster, music industry board member, album collector, and serious music fan for over three decades.

He is the founder of Stony Plain Records in Edmonton, which now in its 38th year, has won ten Juno awards and been nominated for four Grammy Awards. Stony Plain was the Independent Record Label of the Year for eight years at the CCMA’s and six years at the Prairie Music Awards. Stony Plain artists, past and present include Ian Tyson, Corb Lund, MonkeyJunk, Maria Muldaur, Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne, Long John Baldry, Jeff Healey, Duke Robillard, Tim Hus and many others.

Holger is also a Founder and past Artistic Director for The Edmonton Folk Music Festival. He continues to host two blues radio shows (Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio and Natch’l Blues on CKUA). He is the recipient of two honorary “Doctor of Letters” Degrees, presented to him by the University Of Athabasca and the University of Alberta in recognition of his contributions to Canadian Culture and Public Broadcasting In 2008 he was presented with a Keeping the Blues Alive award in Memphis for his radio work. Holger has also been named to the Order of Canada.

Mary Pinkoski, 5th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton (2013-2015), is an internationally recognized poet. She has performed on stages across North American and at the 2015 Winter Lights Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland. Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies. She is the 2011 Canadian National Spoken Word Champion and a winner of the 2008 CBC National Poetry Face-off. In 2015, Mary was recognized as an Edmonton Top 40 Under 40 and also awarded a University of Alberta Alumni Horizon Award for her poetry work in the Edmonton community, in particular for facilitating youth poetry workshops and her creation of the City of Edmonton’s Youth Poet Laureate role which she continues to coordinate in partnership with the City of Edmonton Youth Council.

Elsa finally decided to start her art career in November 2005. Up until then, she had focused on producing art prints on t-shirts in an effort to bring the art to the streets of Edmonton. I used to sell my art shirts at the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market and local festivals in Edmonton. This brought recognition and respect for my work from the public, from artists and art organizations.

In 2008, she received a Cultural Diversity in the Arts Award from the City of Edmonton, and decided to take the next step in her career by registering for the Bachelor of Arts degree, with a Major in Art and Design, at the University of Alberta. This was an excellent opportunity to learn more about art in general and to work with different media including acrylic and oil paints, drawing, batik, sculpture and collage.

Her work includes mixed media collage, acrylic, oil and batik paintings. She finds that collage offers an open-endedness of creativity that is equally liberating and challenging. Her work is highly influenced by that of the African-American artist Romare Bearden and by her sense of spirituality. She says, “each piece of art I complete is a challenge, a birthing, a joy!” More here →.

A rabid avant gardener of all things miraculously strange and strangely miraculous, mild-mannered Glenn Robson works across form and medium—word, sound, and image—refining his un-ique poetics. He is one half of the sound poetry duo Tonguebath (with Jeff Carpenter). His first chapbook un, a limited edition, two-set series of experimental haiku, or “unku”, was published by Edmonton’s Red Nettle Press. He has had work appear in Other Voices, Abandon (Edits All Over Press), dailyhaiku.org, and Action Yes Online Quarterly. At the 2011 Edmonton Poetry Festival, Glenn curated the exhibit Synesthesia: Sound & Visual Poetry, at Latitude 53. More recently, Glenn has been in hiding, hooking himself up to machines and making noise.

Janet Marie Rogers is the third Poet Laureate for the city of Victoria (2012-2015). She is a Mohawk/Tuscarora poet, spoken word and performance poet who also works in audio and video poetry. She has three published books and three poetry CDs (Firewater, Got Your Back and 6 Directions). She claims she does not write love poetry, but each poem is a love letter to the land, the culture and the people.

Anna Marie Sewell is a multi-genre author and former Poet Laureate, a founding member of the Stroll of Poets, and  involved with various collaborators in pursuit of beauty, meaningful exchange and reverent foolishness. Her latest novel, Urbane, is a finalist for the City of Edmonton Book Prize. A member of Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation, also of Anishinaabe and Polish heritage, she lives in Edmonton and works globally.

For more info check out their website:
prairiepomes.com.

Yaa Serwaa was born in Ghana, where she worked as teacher, radio presenter and a playwright, after graduating with an education degree in 2001. She moved to Edmonton in 2008. She has self-published eleven books. Four of them are in her mother tongue, Akan. Five are children’s books, and two are non fiction. She has also written and performed poems on various platforms both in Ghana and Canada. In 2011 she started a school in my native village in Ghana, to help children achieve their dreams. At APAAD, she will perform her poetry in Akan, one of the major and of numerous languages in Ghana. Her website is here.

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 is the 9th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton.

Jocelyne Verret is a long-time member of the Stroll of Poets and a past President. She is a published poet, novelist, dramaturge, and essayist. The Works Art and Design Festival of 2017 featured twelve of her poems (French and English) with accompanying artwork by visual artist Father Douglas.

Jocelyne Verret est un membre de longue date de la Stroll of Poets d’Edmonton et une ancienne présidente. Plusieurs oeuvres de cette poétesse, romancière, dramaturge et essayiste ont été publiées. The Works Art and Design Festival de 2017 a présenté douze de ses poèmes (en français et en anglais) avec les toiles accompagnatrices réalisées par le peintre Father Douglas.

Gisèle Villeneuve is a Calgary-based bilingual writer working in multiple genres. As a novelist, short story writer, poet, and translator, she delights in alternating freely between French and English. Rising Abruptly, a collection of stories in English that are a distillation of her mountain experiences, won the Fiction & Poetry Award at the international Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and the Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Trade Fiction category. Her other works include the bilingual novel Visiting Elizabeth; a writer’s notebook in French, nue et crue lettre au poète disparu, in which poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction share the page; and Outsiders, a collection of stories in French. Gisèle has also worked as voice coach, narrator, editor, radio journalist and documentarian, scriptwriter, TV researcher, magazine writer and playwright. Originally from Montréal, she has resided in England and the United States and has travelled five continents. When not at her desk, she can be found roaming the Rockies.

Auteure bilingue de Calgary, Gisèle Villeneuve pratique plusieurs genres littéraires. Romancière, nouvellière, poète et traductrice, elle prend grand plaisir à passer librement du français à l’anglais. Ses œuvres les plus récentes incluent Rising Abruptly, un recueil de nouvelles en anglais couronné de plusieurs prix et dont les textes s’appuient sur son expérience en montagne; nue et crue lettre au poète disparu, un carnet d’écrivain dans lequel la prose et la poésie, la fiction et l’essai partagent la page; Outsiders, un recueil de nouvelles en français; et Visiting Elizabeth, un roman bi-langue. Gisèle fut également coach de voix, narratrice, rédactrice, journaliste et documentariste de radio, scénariste, recherchiste et dramaturge. Originaire de Montréal, elle a habité en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis et elle a voyagé sur cinq continents. Entre ses travaux d’écriture, elle va souvent prendre l’air dans les Rocheuses.

Fred Wah was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 1939, but he grew up in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia. After teaching in the Kootenays and at the University of Calgary, he now lives in Vancouver. He was one of the founding editors of the poetry newsletter TISH in the early 1960s, instigated the writing program at David Thompson University in Nelson, and has been involved since the mid-80s with the Kootenay School of Writing. He has published a number of books of poetry, and his biofiction, Diamond Grill, has been a popular text in the study of racialized writing. A collection of critical writing, Faking It: Poetics and Hybridity (2000) was awarded the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Writing on Canadian literature. Recent books of poetry include Sentenced to Light, is a door, and a selected edited by Louis Cabri titled The False Laws of Narrative. He is Canada’s current Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

For more: http:www.fredwah.org

Brian’s reputation extends nationally and abroad. He is known as an artist, teacher and dance presenter. In 2009, he taught creative process to emerging contemporary South Asian dance artists from Canada, US, UK, India, Singapore and Malaysia. As Artistic Director of the Canada Dance Festival at the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa from 2001 to 2011, he introduced much innovative programming. In HipHop 360 [2007], he introduced bboying [break dancing] to the NAC to huge success and impact. In 2009 he presented Dancing In, Through and Between Cultures, a festival and symposium on diversity in Canadian culture. People from Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities participated in a dialogue that was not afraid to discuss racism in Canadian arts. Brian has been inducted into the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame (2002), and received the Queens Jubilee Medal (2002) and the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), a University of Alberta Alumni Honour Award (2012). Most recently, Brian was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. He believes that artists must be active participants in the community at large.

Arlo Maverick (Marlon Wilson) is an Edmonton-based hip-hop MC whose sound explores Jazz, Reggae, and Soul yet identifies itself as hip-hop. Influenced by his uncle’s multi-genre record collection which ranged from country western, funk, gospel to soul, Maverick’s sound is a reflection of his diverse and rich musical upbringing.

Originally MCing under the handle of PA Brando, Maverick later adopted the moniker of Arlo Maverick to represent his non-conformist approach and his ideological independence in music. He places much emphasis on lyrics and storytelling.

Not only is Maverick one fourth of one of Edmonton’s most successful and respected hip-hop acts – Politic Live – he is also a campus radio DJ, journalist, community activist, youth mentor, spoken word poet, entrepreneur, actor and photographer.
Arlo Maverick has also made a name for himself through his ongoing collaborations with acts like 2010 ECMA Nominee Shiest, 2009 Juno Nominated reggae band Souljah Fyah and his own off-shoot super group Mahogany Public which received a Western Canadian Music Award Nomination for their debut album, JALI Volume 1. More info here.

Elizabeth Withey is a writer, journalist and artist based in Edmonton. She is a 2014 finalist for the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts Awards in the “emerging artist” category. Elizabeth has been on staff at the Edmonton Journal for a decade and has earned a National Newspaper Award citation of merit for arts & entertainment writing, among other prizes. She is the creator of One Hundred Widows (onehundredwidows.tumblr.com), a project about single earrings and solitude, which she transformed into an art installation at Latitude 53 gallery in the fall of 2013. Elizabeth is presently working to publish a memoir about her father, who died in a plane crash when she was a teenager, a project she began under the mentorship of Charlotte Gill at the Banff Centre. She is also the author of Life After Birth: True Stories from the First Year of Parenthood, an 2012 e-book of essays that originally appeared in the Edmonton Journal.

Paul Zits received his MA in English from the University of Calgary in 2010, completing his creative thesis, Massacre Street (UAP 2013) under the supervision of experimental Canadian poet Christian Bök. Since, he has served two terms as Writer-in-the-Schools at Queen Elizabeth High School in Calgary, teaching Creative Writing to students in the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, and taught at the WGA’s WordsWorth Camp at Kamp Kiwanis. Zits is the editor and publisher of the Calgary-based small-press 100 têtes Press and the Managing Editor of Filling Station.