2020 Headliners

Yasser Abdel-Latif is a writer and poet from Cairo, Egypt. He has lived and worked in Edmonton since 2010. He has published four fiction books, two poetry collections, and translated many literary works from French and English into Arabic. He writes mainly in Arabic although his works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. He has participated in literary events and festivals in France, Spain, Colombia, Germany, Netherland, Malta, and United Arab Emirates. Abdel-Latif was a resident of the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa in 2009. His debut novel, Law of Inheritance (2002), won the Sawiris Prize in 2005 in the young writers’ category. His collection of short stories, Jonah in the Belly of the Whale, won the same prize in the category of prominent writers in 2011.

Jordan Abel is a Nisga’a writer from Vancouver. He is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize). Abel’s latest project NISHGA (forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart in 2021) is a deeply personal and autobiographical book that attempts to address the complications of contemporary Indigenous existence and the often invisible intergenerational impact of residential schools. Abel recently completed a PhD at Simon Fraser University, and is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta where he teaches Indigenous Literatures and Creative Writing.

Karrie Auger is a thirty-four-year-old nehiyaw iskwew, originally from Treaty 8 territory, Wabasca, Bigstone Cree Nation. She has lived in amiskwaciy for most of her life. She spends most of her days thinking about how we can all learn to be better relatives to each other. She cares deeply about all her relations, and is dedicated to dismantling colonial systems and being a part of the remembering of our nehiyaw ways. When she was born, her uncle Gabe gave her a Cree name because she was so brown. Her nehiyawewin name is oweskwasikîs. She was told by her mom that this speaks to part of the moosehide tanning process, where the hide is given its rich colour.

Billy-Ray Belcourt (he/him) is a poet, author, and scholar from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection, This Wound Is a World, which was also a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Belcourt is a recipient of the prestigious Rhodes scholarship and an Indspire Award, the highest honour the Indigenous community bestows on its leaders. He is currently working on his PhD at the University of Alberta and will join UBC’s Creative Writing Program as an Assistant Professor in Indigenous Creative Writing in January 2020.

Mary Berg is the winner of MasterChef Canada Season 3, and the star of Mary’s Kitchen Crush, as well as a cooking expert on CTV’s Your Morning, The Social, and The Marilyn Denis Show. After degrees in history, English, and information studies, Mary detoured into a career in insurance for 5 years, before being convinced by her family to audition for MasterChef Canada and ultimately stealing the show! She has since launched her cooking career full time, and never looked back. Mary lives and cooks in Toronto. Her first word was “cheese.” Kitchen Party is her first cookbook.

David Berry is a writer and cultural critic. His work has appeared in The Globe & Mail, Hazlitt, Toronto Life, and elsewhere, and he was an arts and culture columnist for the National Post for five years. On Nostalgia is his first book. David currently lives in Edmonton.

Mila Bongco-Philipzig was born in Manila, Philippines and arrived in Edmonton in 1984 with a grant for graduate studies at the University of Alberta. After completing her master’s, she moved to Germany on a scholarship towards a PhD. In Munich, she met her husband and they have one son. Mila and her family have lived in various places around the globe, preferring to be on the road experiencing various cultures and perspectives rather than being tied down with a mortgage. This changed in 2007 when they decided to call Edmonton home in order to provide a more predictable environment for their son, and to enable him to form long-term friendships. Mila works at Stantec and is active in the community. In 2016, she published two bilingual children’s books (Pilipino and English), both reflecting her interests in family, travel, multiculturalism, and diversity.

Leilei Chen 莫譯 (she/her) (pronounced as muo-yee meaning “no translation”) lectures in the Department of English and Film Studies of the University of Alberta. She authored Re-orienting China: Travel Writing and Cross-cultural Understanding, the Mandarin versions of Margaret Laurence’s short stories, and the traditional and simplified Chinese versions of Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction. She translates contemporary Chinese ecological writing, women’s writings, and poetry. Her translation of poet MA Hui (马辉), I Have Forsaken Heaven and Earth, but Never Forsaken You, is a Frontenac House 2023 Quartet book.

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

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

Liam Coady’s work is special for its ability to foreground the human possibilities of social unity, personal resilience, love and enduring hopefulness. A member of the 2011 National Slam Champion Team and a 2-time finalist for the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam, Liam has performed and toured cross Canada and internationally.

Jennifer Cockrall-King is a Canadian writer and author based in Naramata, in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. She writes about food, drinks, cooking, and nature, and is a contributing editor and columnist for the award-winning Canadian narrative journalism magazine Eighteen Bridges.

For the past several years, Jennifer has been writing about urban issues such as food culture, food security, urban planning and urban agriculture. Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and The New Food Revolution (Prometheus Books, 2012) is her first book. It is in translation in French, Japanese, and Korean.

Food Artisans of the Okanagan: Your Guide to Locally Crafted Fare (TouchWood Editions, 2016) is her second book. It includes over 125 interviews with farm-to-table chefs, bakers, beekeepers, orchardists, farmers, market gardeners, butchers and charcutiers, fisherpeople, coffee roasters, distillers, craft brewers, chocolatiers, millers, foragers, cheesemakers, fishmongers, and producers of fine craft food products. It won the 2017 Taste Canada Gold Award for Culinary Narratives.

She has co-authored a cookbook called Tawaw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine with her friend chef Shane Chartrand,  published by House of Anansi Press.

Jennifer is also working on a book about seed banks and seed savers around the world, tentatively titled Going to Seed: Racing to Save the World’s Food Supply.

Desmond Cole is the author of the number one bestseller THE SKIN WE’RE IN: A Year of Black Resistance and Power. He is an award-winning journalist, radio host, and activist whose writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Walrus, NOW Magazine, Ethnic Aisle, Torontoist, BuzzFeed, and the Ottawa Citizen. Desmond Cole is based in Toronto.

Christa Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer and broadcaster. She is also proudly Indigenous (mixed Cree and Scandinavian), queer, and a mom. Her seventh album Safe Harbour was released on Coax Records in 2020. As a writer and storyteller, she has been published in Room, Shameless, and Augur magazines, and on cbc.ca. In 2018, her CBC article and photos on disability and pregnancy went viral. Couture is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio and is currently the weekday after host on 106.5 elmnt fm in Toronto. Couture lived for many years in Vancouver, BC, but now calls Toronto home. Her first book, How to Lose Everything, publishes in September 2020 with Douglas & McIntyre.

Lorna Crozier is the author of seventeen books of poetry, including God of Shadows, which was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, What the Soul Doesn’t Want, The Wrong Cat, Small Mechanics, The Blue Hour of the Day: Selected Poems, and Whetstone. She is also the author of The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things and the memoir Small Beneath the Sky. She won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for Inventing the Hawk and three additional collections were finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. She has received the Canadian Authors Association Award, three Pat Lowther Memorial Awards, and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. She is a Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria and an Officer of the Order of Canada, and she has received five honorary doctorates for her contributions to Canadian literature. Born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, she now lives in British Columbia.

Torbjørn Ekelund is an author and editor of the Norwegian online nature magazine, Harvest Magazine. He is a dedicated outdoors person and avid walker, who, after being diagnosed with epilepsy several years ago, hung up his car keys for good. In all of his works, he explores and writes about the small things in nature that surround us every day. In this poignant, meandering book, Ekelund interweaves the literature and history of paths with his own stories from the trail. If we still “understand ourselves in relation to the landscape,” Ekelund asks, then what do we lose in an era of car travel and navigation apps? And what will we gain from taking to paths once again? Ekelund lives and walks the paths in Oslo, Norway.

Luciana Erregue is a Canadian-Argentinian art historian, writer, and editor. Her poetry and creative non-fiction essays have appeared in the anthologies Looking Back, Moving Forward (Mawenzi House, 2018), Relatos Entrecruzados (Editorial Mapalé, 2020), and in blogs and literary magazines worldwide. Luciana guest edited The Polyglot magazine’s ekphrastic issue, “CanLit: Curating our Canons” (Spring 2018). In 2019, Luciana was the Edmonton Arts Council Artist in Residence, and was selected as part of the Literary Arts cohort at the Banff Centre. Luciana writes on her blog, SpectatorCurator, about her life as an art historian. This volume is her first endeavour as part of her activism, for diversity in Canadian publishing, Laberinto Press.

Ann Friedman is a journalist, essayist, and media entrepreneur. She is a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman. Every Friday, she sends a popular email newsletter. Ann lives in Los Angeles.

Shimelis Gebremichael moved to Canada about four years ago. Shimelis is originally from Ethiopia where he practiced journalism in both print and electronic mediums. He is currently a Master of Arts in Communications and Technology (MACT) prospective graduate at the University of Alberta. He also did his MA in Journalism and Communications and BA in Foreign Language and Literature (majoring in English) at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Over the last four years, he has volunteered for CJSR, Centre for Family Literacy, and his church in Edmonton. He is passionate about making a difference in the community through his literary works (poems, prose, and other forms). He also aspires to continue his journalism career in both English and Amharic languages. Shimelis is married and blessed with two beautiful kids.

Stephanie Giroux (Sage) is an Indigenous Metis woman residing in Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) Alberta on treaty 6 land. She has been featured in the Edmonton Poetry Festival, the Edmonton Indigenous Poets Society, The Polyglot, The Stroll of Poets Anthology, The Heart of the City, and Tipi Confessions. Sage tends to write about her life experiences as an Indigenous French Metis woman.

In addition to maintaining her own blog, Tazeen Hasan regularly contributes hard news, investigative pieces, and editorials on topics ranging from science and technology to geopolitics and entertainment for a variety of online and print news outlets. For several years, she contributed travel and history pieces to Asharq-al-Awsat group of newspapers in the Middle East, and Jang and Nawa-e-Waqt groups in Pakistan. She has traveled extensively in the Middle East, Western Europe, parts of South Asia, Africa, and North America with a focus on exploring history and culture. She is fluent in both written and spoken English and Urdu, with a working knowledge of Arabic, Punjabi, and Hindi. In 2020, Tazeen completed her studies of Journalism at Harvard University Extension School.

Isael Huard is a sound designer and recording engineer. He has a degree in music composition from the University of Alberta where he specialized in music technologies. He works as a foley mixer at Alberta’s only dedicated foley stage Little Hook Sound and as a sound designer at indie game studio Caldera Interactive. You may hear his work on Netflix’s series Wu Assassins and francophone historical podcast, La place. isaelhuard.com to learn more.

Zoë Johnson is a queer transgender non-binary writer living mid-Michigan. They are an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and a current graduate student in the creative writing MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Their fiction has been shortlisted for PRISM International’s 2019 Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction and was a finalist for the 2018 Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction. Their work has been published by Sonora Review, Plentitude Magazine, PULP Literature, and been anthologized in Public Poetry’s 2019 finalists anthology, ENOUGH. Their writing is forthcoming in the Lascaux Prize Vol 6 Anthology and the second edition of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves (Oxford University Press, 2021). When not writing, Zoë spends their time doting on their cat Strawberry, learning and practicing their tribal language of Anishinaabemowin, and getting far too invested in podcasts.

K’alii is an Indigenous organizer, poet and ecology student from the Nisga’a Nation in BC. Their artwork frequently focuses on exploring aspects of identity and overcoming intergenerational trauma.

Ian Keteku is a poet, writer, multimedia artist and educator living in Toronto. He is the 2010 World Poetry Slam Champion. His work is committed to using words as both an interpretation and cure for the human condition. He conducts poetry, writing and performance workshops for students of all ages, inspiring people to accept the power of their own voice. His debut poetry book Black Abacus is published by Write Bloody North (2019).

His works in multimedia communicate a wide array of emotions and messages. He has written and produced a number of animated poems and web-series attempting to give a voice to newcomer and immigrant youth. His award winning short films and cinepoems (spoken word and film) integrate film, dance, sound design and music.

He teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. In his courses students explore writing practices in multiple genres which have been successful in engaging community ideas, critiquing society, and addressing issues at the artistic and activist levels. Utilizing artistic tools as a catalyst of social change and action.

As an arts educator, he has conducted workshops in hundreds of schools within Canada, working with tens of thousands of students.

As a facilitator in such diverse settings he adapts his teaching techniques to accommodate students with different learning styles and readiness. He is interested in creating spaces where students are able to experience vulnerability while also feeling honoured. To enable storytelling centered on the transformative power of community and personal growth.

Alexis Kienlen is a poet, journalist and novelist who lives on Treaty 6, Edmonton. She currently works as an agricultural journalist with Alberta Farmer newspaper. She is the author of 2 books of poetry, She dreams in Red and 13, and has also written a biography about a Sikh civil rights activist. Her first novel, Mad Cow, was released in April 2020, during the global pandemic.

Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Nehiyaw, and mixed Euro- descent woman living in Fort St. John, British Columbia. In 2016, Helen was one of sixteen global change makers featured by the Nobel Women’s Initiative for being committed to end gender- based violence. Helen was selected as a 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Author. In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience is her first book.

Gina Rae La Cerva is a geographer, environmental anthropologist, writer and painter. She holds advanced degrees from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor’s degree from Vassar College. In her debut book, Feasting Wild, La Cerva examines the relationship between the grand sweep of cuisine, colonialism, conservation, and the little histories of our disconnections from landscapes and seasons. Like a feminist John Muir or a punk Michael Pollan, La Cerva chronicles her travels to our most untamed places, in which she becomes a naturalist of the anthropogenic wilds and the feral domesticates. La Cerva divides her time between New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Amanda Leduc‘s essays and stories have appeared in publications across Canada, the US, and the UK. She is the author of the novels The Miracles of Ordinary Men and the forthcoming The Centaur’s Wife. She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where she works as the Communications Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), Canada’s first festival for diverse authors and stories.

Wendy McGrath is a writer and artist who works in multiple genres. Her poetry/photography collaboration with Danny Miles, drummer for July Talk and Tongue Helmet, is trying to find a home. McGrath’s most recent spoken word project, BEFORE WE KNEW is her second CD with Sascha Liebrand. Her first project with Liebrand, BOX, is an adaptation of her eponymous long poem with the group Quarto & Sound. “MOVEMENT 1” from the CD was nominated for a 2018 City of Edmonton Music Award in the Jazz Recording of the Year category. McGrath continues her artistic practice in visual art—including printmaking and artist’s books.

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).

Lauren McKeon’s critically acclaimed first book, F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism, was a finalist for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and was selected by the Hill Times as a book of the year and by the Feminist Book Club as one of their top five feminist books ever. McKeon is the winner of several National Magazine Awards, including a Gold in the Personal Journalism category. Her writing has appeared in Hazlitt, Flare, Chatelaine, and Best Canadian Essays, on TVO.org, and in the book Whatever Gets You Through: Twelve Survivors on Life After Sexual Assault. McKeon has taught long-form writing at Humber College and holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College. She was the editor of This Magazine from 2011 to 2016 and the digital editor at The Walrus from 2017 to 2020, and she is currently a contributing editor at Toronto Life and the deputy editor of Reader’s Digest.

Marco Melfi joined the Edmonton Poetry Festival Board in 2019. His poems have appeared in The Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, The Arc Award of Awesomeness, Funicular, and FreeFall. His chapbook, In between trains, was published in 2014.

Francine Merasty is a Nehithaw Iskwew, Opawikoschikanek ochi, a reserve in Northern Saskatchewan. She is a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and a fluent Cree speaker. She is a mother to one son, Benjamin Clarke, and is part of a large family consisting of two sisters and eight brothers. Francine began writing poetry in the winter of 2017 while working for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls as both a statement taker and legal counsel. The intense emotional work needed an outlet, and poetry became her means of expression. Francine writes about contemporary Indigenous social issues, memories from childhood, the women that influenced her life and nature, among other things. Her poetry is written in English and translated into her first language, Woodland Cree.

Peter Midgley is the author of several books of poetry, children’s literature, and plays. He lives in Edmonton.

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

Amina Mohamed was born and raised in Amiskwacîwâskahikan. She is a community organizer and a poet that works towards reconciling her culture with who she has become. Amina is a writer of words, a student of history, and is committed to changing the world around her.

tānisi kahkiyaw! Randy Morin nitisihkāson is from the Big River First Nation, Treaty 6, located in central Saskatchewan. He currently lives in Saskatoon with his partner Lindsay Knight (also known as Eekwol) and two children, Keesik (11) and Kisay (7). He also has a twenty-two-year-old daughter who lives in Prince Albert with her partner. His western education consists of a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies from the University of Regina, a Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Master’s Degree from the University of Victoria in Indigenous Language Revitalization. His Cree education systems consist of having a lifetime of traditional Plains Cree teachings. He is an oskāpēwis (helper) for many people in and around the community. He believes in living a healthy lifestyle in order to be a role model for youth, as well as a strong supporter of maintaining and teaching his Cree language and culture. He shares this knowledge and teachings at the University of Saskatchewan, where he currently works as a lecturer. He thanks his grandparents and parents for teaching him the Cree language, and he thanks all that he meets that continues to teach him about his culture. He has been a Storyteller and a language and culture activist for many years—some say since he was able to walk and speak. He is also an author of two Cree children’s books, with more books to be published in the future. He has worked in many Cree animation projects with APTN and Blue Hills Productions over the years, including Wapos Bay and Guardians Evolution. His passion is teaching and sharing the beauty of the Cree/nēhiyaw language and culture in fun, creative, ways. ēkosi pitama. kinānāskomitināwāw, hiy hiy.

Antoine Mountain is Shetaot’ineh, Mountain Dene, originally from Radelie Koe, Fort Good Hope, NWT. His earlies were twelve years in residential schools. He worked in the Indian Brotherhood, later Dene Nation, and has since obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master’s in Environmental Studies, and is currently working towards a PhD in Indigenous Studies.

Juliana Neufeld is a Toronto based children’s book illustrator and artist, known for her work on Treasure Hunters, the best selling middle grade series by James Patterson, as well as her collaborations with noted Canadian multidisciplinary artist, Vivek Shraya. Juliana’s work is inspired by picture book art of the 1950’s, our connection to nature and small moments of humour and resiliency in everyday life. You can find more of her work at juliana-neufeld.com.

Stan Nochasak is forty-five years old and originally from Nain, Nunatsiavut (“Our Beautiful Land” in Inuktitut, located in northern Labrador) , but currently lives in St. John’s since 1994. There, he initially attended Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is now enrolled in the Faculty of Education, in a special five-year program titled, “Native and Northern,” studying (though currently on hiatus) to become a primary school teacher. He is a visual artist who works in drawing, painting, writing, poetry, traditional Inuit drum dancing, storytelling, acting, and motivational speaking. His parents Eva and Paul live in Nain, he has three brothers and five sisters, and is an uncle twenty times over (all of whom he greatly loves). He has acted in five documentary films— including The Nature of Things with David Suzuki— Republic of Doyle, Frontier, Hudson and Rex, and an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, directed by Jean Lambermont-Morey, as a Beothuk.

Adriana Oniță is a Romanian-Canadian poet, founder of The Polyglot, a multilingual magazine of poetry and art. She writes poetry in English, Spanish, Romanian, French, and Italian. Her passion for languages has led her to pursue a PhD in second language education. She is the author of the ekphrastic chapbook Conjugated Light (Glass Buffalo, 2019). She is a recipient of a Killam Scholarship and is a PhD candidate in Educational Policy with the University of Alberta.

Adrienne Pan is the host of CBC Edmonton’s afternoon drive show, Radio Active.

Adrienne moved to radio after six years anchoring CBC Edmonton TV News at 6 in her hometown, and 15 years in television news. Previously, she worked in Winnipeg from 2003 until 2011. During this time she worked as a TV and radio reporter at CBC Manitoba, and launched the late night newscast as Host/Producer. She also did reporting and hosting for Global Winnipeg. Before that, she worked for Global in Lethbridge and for A-Channel in Edmonton.

One of Adrienne’s proudest moments is winning the national Radio Television News Directors Award in the Best Long Feature category for her documentary Saving Grace: The Harry Lehotsky Story. Lehotsky, a fierce advocate for Winnipeg’s disadvantaged, devoted his life to helping others and improving his challenged neighbourhood. The 49-year old was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in May 2006, and died that Remembrance Day. During that six-month period, Lehotsky and his family gave Adrienne unlimited access to their lives. His courage and incredible accomplishments inspired everyone who met him.

Adrienne Pan considers herself a huge foodie, and spends much of her free-time checking out the ever increasing number of places to eat and drink in Edmonton.

She also loves travelling whenever she gets the chance, recently exploring Iceland and Panama. She lived in Montreal while attending McGill University and the city remains a favourite destination of hers.

Adrienne lives in south Edmonton with her husband Ben. Feel free to say hi while she’s walking her dog, Otis, around the Summerside neighbourhood or at her favourite off-leash park in Terwillegar.

Michelle Parise is an award-winning journalist, writer and performer. She’s worked for the CBC for more than two decades, in everything from radio news, children’s television, music programming, and at the helm of many national radio programs. She’s also a soccer player, parent, and champion campfire builder. Alone: A Love Story is her first book. Prior to publication, she adapted it into a multi-award winning CBC Podcast of the same name. Michelle lives in her hometown of Toronto with her daughter and her small-town Albertan fiancé.

Nisha Patel is an award-winning queer and disabled spoken word artist. She was the City of Edmonton’s 8th Poet Laureate, and is a Canadian Individual Slam Champion. Her debut collection COCONUT is available at Glass Bookshop. You can find her at nishapatel.ca.

Tamara (Baldhead) Pearl is a Nēhiyaw iskwew from One Arrow First Nation, Saskatchewan, located in Treaty 6 territory and the traditional homeland of the Métis. She is a proud single mother of a ten-year-old daughter. Growing up in the core neighbourhoods of Saskatoon with strong ties to her family on reserve, Tamara has volunteered and worked in community engagement her whole life in various capacities, especially with Indigenous youth. Tamara has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Juris Doctor from the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan. She has worked as the executive assistant for one of the commissioners with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. She is currently a publications research officer at the Indigenous Law Centre and is soon completing a Master’s of Law program. The focus of her thesis is on how we can decolonize and Indigenize academic institutions. Tamara proposes to interrupt colonized attitudes through a process of deconstruction and self-reflection by providing lived-experience connections to communities without the typical power imbalances.

Daniel Poitras is a half-breed poet from the Paul First Nation. Currently residing in Edmonton, he writes about the challenges that Indigenous and Metis people face today. He has been published in the Home and Away anthology (House of Blue Skies, 2009), The Malahat Review, Grain Magazine, The Polyglot and in the Edmonton Poetry Festival’s Poetry Moves on Transit program.

Michael Posner is an award-winning writer, playwright, journalist, and the author of seven books. These include the Mordecai Richler biography, The Last Honest Man, and the Anne Murray biography, All of Me, both of which were national bestsellers. He was Washington Bureau Chief for Maclean’s magazine, and later served as its national, foreign, and assistant managing editor. He was also managing editor of the Financial Times of Canada for three years. He later spent sixteen years as a senior writer with The Globe and Mail.

James Raffan is a prolific writer, speaker, and geographer, and the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Circling the Midnight Sun; Emperor of the North; Bark, Skin and Cedar; and Fire in the Bones. He has written for a variety of media outlets, including National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Up Here, Explore and The Globe and Mail, and produced radio and television documentaries for CBC Radio and the Discovery Channel. His work has taken him all over the world. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club, a past chair of the Arctic Institute of North America, and a fellow and past governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, service for which he was awarded many medals, including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. From 2010 to 2013, he traveled through the Arctic Circle, spending time in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, as he researched and wrote on culture and climate change in the North. He lives in Seeley’s Bay, Ontario. Visit him at JamesRaffan.ca or follow him on Twitter @raffjam.

Namitha Rathinappillai (she/her) is a Tamil-Canadian spoken word poet, artist, and writer who has entered the poetry community in 2017. She has been involved with Urban Legends Poetry Collective (ULPC) ever since her engagement with the Ottawa arts community, and made ULPC history as the first female and youngest director. She is a two-time Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) team member with Urban Legends Poetry Collective, and she published her first chapbook titled Dirty Laundry with Battleaxe Press in November of 2018. She has been involved as a performer and a workshop facilitator within the Ottawa community at spaces such as Tell em Girl, Youth Ottawa, the Artistic Mentorship Program, Carleton Art Collective, The Fembassy, Youth Services Bureau, and more.

Jennifer Reeser is the author of six collections. Her most recent is Indigenous from Able Muse Press. She is a biracial writer of Anglo-Amerindian ancestry, Native through both parents. Her family is part of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Country, Oklahoma, her own former home. She speaks the Cherokee language, having studied it from Native speakers of the tribe, including the tribe’s head linguist, Dr. Durbin Feeling, and translator and teacher, Sam Hider. Her translations of Cherokee and various Indigenous languages have appeared in such publications as Rattle, Life and Legends, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and IthacaLit. Her website is jenniferreeser.com.

Emily Riddle (Okimâw Pipikwan Iskwêw) is Nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation (Kipohtakaw). She is a writer, textile artist, and policy iskwew based in Amisko Waciw Wâskahikan (Edmonton, Canada). In 2022, she released her first full length poetry collection, The Big Melt which won the Griffin Poetry Prize Canadian first book award. Her writing has been published in The Malahat Review, The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, among others. Emily Riddle is a dedicated Treaty 6 descendant and a semi-dedicated Edmonton Oilers fan.

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Corinne Riedel is an auntie spirit, a member of the Stroll of Poets Society in Edmonton, and lives in Old Strathcona near Mill Creek Ravine in Edmonton with many relatives. She’s a sun chaser and a moon howler. You can find her floating in some body of water, hangin’ with friends in her hood, or chillin’ at home with her beads, makin’ sure all her friends are decorated with what she can craft. She is passionate about wellness for Indigenous students and is working as an advisor to students who want to teach their Indigenous languages so that our cultures can be revitalized and preserved.

David A. Robertson is the author of numerous books for young readers including When We Were Alone, which won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award and was nominated for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award.  A sought-after speaker and educator, David is a member of the Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg. His latest books are a middle-grade fantasy novel, The Barren Grounds (Tundra Books), and the memoir, Black Water (HarperCollins Canada).

Jade Roberts is an Indigenous educator, podcaster, and artist who enjoys working with and mentoring youth and helping others share their personal stories.. She is Woodland Cree from La Ronge, SK in Treaty 6 territory currently living in Saskatoon, SK.

After graduating in 2018 from the University of Saskatchewan Indian Teacher Education Program (ITEP), Jade taught for a year in the core neighbourhood of Saskatoon as a Cree language and culture teacher. She currently works as a substitute teacher with Saskatoon Public School Division, and has taken time away from being a full-time classroom teacher in order to explore more of her creativity and find other avenues of working in education and art.

Ana Ruiz Aguirre is a Cuban-Canadian cultural researcher and development strategist. Born in Santiago de Cuba and currently based in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, AB), her work focuses on the development of cultural equity through research, writing, and curating.

Maitham Salman was born in Iraq and came to Canada in 1998 as a political refugee. He has published a novel, Husks as Big as My Country, and a collection of short stories, The Dirhams of Caliphate, in Arabic, as well as many articles and short stories in Arabic and Canadian newspapers and magazines.

Born in Prince Rupert, BC, and a member of the Gitga’at community, Tsimshian folk artist Saltwater Hank resurrects stories of the land, loss, and absurd circumstances and shines them through a sepia lens, witnessing ageless characters with hearts and lives on the line. Jeremy Pahl di waayu. ‘Wah Pdeegu. Kxeen di wil dzogu. Txałgiyu di wil waatgu. Tsmsyenu. (My name is Jeremy Pahl. I have no clan/crest. I live in Prince Rupert. I come from Hartley Bay. I am Tsimshian.)

Asma Sayed is Canada Research Chair in South Asian Literary and Cultural Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She is a multilingual writer, translator, and academic originally from India. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta, and writes regularly on issues of social justice in literature, film, and media. Her publications include five books and numerous essays, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translations in periodicals, anthologies, and academic journals. In 2016-17, she was one of the authors selected for Edmonton’s Borderlines Writers Circle hosted by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.

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:
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Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was her­ald­ed by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel,” and her album with Queer Songbook Orchestra, Part‑Time Woman, was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. She is also the founder of the publishing imprint VS. Books. A six-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Vivek was a Pride Toronto Grand Marshal and has featured on The Globe and Mail’s Best Dressed list. She is a director on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Calgary, and is currently adapting her debut play, How To Fail As A Popstar, into a television pilot script with the support of CBC.

Harnarayan Singh is a co-host and play-by-play announcer, having called over 700 NHL games for Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi, along with becoming a host in English with Sportsnet for select national games. Having previously worked for CBC and TSN, Harnarayan also produces a segment in Calgary called Flames TV Punjabi and serves on the Board of Directors for HEROS Hockey, a charity empowering marginalized youth through mentorship. In 2018, Harnarayan was the recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada for his contributions to Canadian society. He also serves as an ambassador for the NHL’s Hockey Is For Everyone program and Chevrolet Canada’s Good Deeds Cup.

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.

Aminatou Sow is a writer, interviewer, and cultural commentator. She is a frequent public speaker whose talks and interviews lead to candid conversations about ambition, money, and power. Aminatou lives in Brooklyn.

Mark Spector is a sports journalist for Sportsnet and has been reporting for the Canadian media for over thirty years. His career spans multiple mediums, from having hosted The Mark Spector Show on TEAM 1260, to being an Oilers beat reporter for the Edmonton Journal, to writing a national sports column for the National Post. He has interviewed some of the biggest sporting names of our generation, from Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier to Alex Rodriguez and Ichiro Suzuki, and he is the bestselling author of The Battle of Alberta. Mark lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Dorothy Thunder is a Plains Cree (nêhiyawiskwêw) from Little Pine First Nation, Saskatchewan and full-time Cree instructor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She is a Language Keeper, educator, and an Aboriginal woman who practices the traditional way of life. Her passion for the Cree language began at the U of A, where she completed her BA in Native Studies in June 2002 and MSc in Linguistics in December 2015. She co-authored the book, Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country, which won the Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year in June 2011. In March 2011, she received the Graduate Studies Teaching Award in recognition of excellence in the performance of teaching duties in the Faculty of Native Studies. Being a fluent nêhiyawêwin speaker and instructor has inspired her to continue in developing resource materials and promoting nêhiyawêwin language programs. Her purpose is to assist in strengthening confidence and competence in Cree language skills by supporting educators and nehiyawewin language learners. As an advocator of nehiyawewin, she shares various methodologies to strengthen existing or new Indigenous programs. Her main focus is integrating nehiyaw language and literacy strategies from cultural perspectives of First Nations teachings and the inclusion of Aboriginal stories and teachings.

Matthew James Weigel is an award winning Dene and Métis artist and author born and raised in Edmonton. His visual art often represents the many relationships we have with our surroundings, while his scholarly focus hopes to reclaim archival histories. His debut book “Whitemud Walking” recently won the City of Edmonton Book Prize and he is currently finishing his PhD at the University of Alberta.

Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She is the bestselling author of Shrill, a memoir which has been adapted into a Hulu series starring Aidy Bryant (airing on Crave in Canada), and The Witches Are Coming. She lives in Seattle.

Lana Whiskeyjack is a multidisciplinary treaty iskwew artist from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Treaty Six territory, Alberta. She is guided by her grandmother’s advice: “Go to school, travel, and see as much as you can. Then return home to share what you learned, but do not forget where you came from.” After graduating high school, the young mom moved to Red Deer to attain her Art & Design diploma, then moved to Ottawa with her growing family, attaining BA (Honours) and MA (Canadian Studies) degrees. Her story continues with returning to work near her home community and attaining her doctorate degree at University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills (UnBQ) in iyiniw pimâtisiwin kiskeyihtamowin, the first Indigenous-owned and -operated educational institution in Canada. Prior to 1970, UnBQ operated as Blue Quills Indian Residential School, where two generations of her maternal family attended. Lana’s research, writing, and art explores the paradoxes of what it means to be nehiyaw (Cree) and iskwew (woman) in Western culture and society, and how she and other Indigenous peoples are reclaiming, re-gathering, and remembering their ancestral medicine (sacredness and power). Her art is passionate and expressive, born from the deep roots of her culture, history, and intergenerational relations. Through the examination of sometimes difficult subjects, her art reflects the intrinsic beauty of her interconnections with the earth, Cree language, and all living beings. She invites you to join her on the next chapter of her adventure.

Brandon Wint is an Ontario born poet and spoken word artist who uses poetry to attend to the joy and devastation and inequity associated with this era of human and ecological history. Increasingly, his work on the page and in performance casts a tender but robust attention toward the movements and impacts of colonial, capitalist logic, and how they might be undone. In this way, Brandon Wint is devoted to a poetics of world making, world altering and world breaking.

For Brandon, the written and spoken word is a tool for examining and enacting his sense of justice, and imagining less violence futures for himself and the world he has inherited. For more than a decade, Brandon has been a sought-after, touring performer, and has presented his work in the United States, Australia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Jamaica. His poems and essays have been published in national anthologies, including The Great Black North: Contemporary African-Canadian Poetry (Frontenac House, 2013) and Black Writers Matter (University of Regina Press, 2019). Divine Animal is his debut book of poetry.

Julia Zarankin is a writer and self-proclaimed birdsplainer. She has written for media including The Walrus, Antioch Review, Birding Magazine, Ontario Nature and The Globe and Mail. Zarankin won the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival nonfiction prize, been first runner-up for PRISM International’s nonfiction prize, a finalist for the TNQ Edna Staebler Essay Contest and twice longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize. She leads adventurous souls on tours around the world, and teaches courses to lifelong learners about Russian and European culture and literature.Her birding/life aspirations: “To sport the hairdo of a Cedar Waxwing, acquire the wardrobe of a Northern Flicker and develop the confidence of a Ross’s Goose.”

Anya Zoledziowski is an Edmonton-based multimedia reporter who focuses on race, gender, and Indigenous issues. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, VICE, The Tyee, and more. In 2018, she investigated hate crimes in the United States with a team of fellow journalists. The project won multiple awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award, a best feature award from the Native American Journalists Association, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in human rights. Anya currently edits the Media Indigena podcast. She once tried to be a food influencer on Instagram, but forgot the account’s password and gave up.