Amber McMillan is a teacher and writer living on Protection Island B.C. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Cv2, Forget Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Capilano Review and others. We Can't Ever Do This Again is her first collection of poetry out this month with Wolsak and Wynn.
Andrew Forbes’s stories have appeared in The Feathertale Review, Found Press, PRISM international, The New Quarterly, Scrivener Creative Review, This Magazine, Hobart, and The Puritan. “In the Foothills,” which appears in What You Need, was nominated for the Journey Prize and appeared in The Journey Prize Stories 25. He lives in Peterborough, Ontario.
Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg writer. Her second collection of poetry, Stowaways, was launched in spring 2014. Recently, she won Kalamalka Press' inaugural John Lent Poetry-Prose Award. When not being bookish, Ariel likes tromping through the woods and taking macro photographs of mushrooms. She blogs at janedayreader.blogspot.ca
Michael e. Casteels has self-published over a dozen chapbooks of poetry and artwork. His poetry has recently appeared in: The Puritan, The Rusty Toque, and Lemon Hound. He has work forthcoming in Arc, and Filling Station. In 2012 he was nominated for the emerging artist award in The Premier's Awards for Excellence in the Arts. He lives in Kingston, Ontario where he runs Puddles of Sky Press.
Nicholas Papaxanthos grew up in Lefkosia, Cyprus, near a playground with mannequins in the sandpit. His work has appeared in various magazines, including Illiterature, The New Chief Tongue, and This Magazine. He recently won the John Lent Poetry-Prose Award, and a collection of poetry is forthcoming from Mansfield Press.
Patrick Friesen, formerly of Winnipeg, lives on Vancouver Island. He writes poetry, drama, songs, and text for dance and music. In 1994 Blasphemer’s Wheel (Turnstone Press) won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in Manitoba. A Broken Bowl was short-listed for the Governor General’s Award in 1996. He has also been short-listed twice for the Dorothy Livesay Award in the BC Book Awards. Friesen has also collaborated with Marilyn Lerner in jazz and literary festivals and on two CDs of spoken word and improv piano. His most recent book is A Short History of Crazy Bone from Mother Tongue Publishing.
Valerie Nielsen facilitates The Writers' Circle at First Unitarian Church. She leads writing workshops at her lakeshore home, and 5 day retreats at a Unitarian camp where she was Writer in Residence. She is past president of The Tower Poetry Society, and is regularly featured in their publications. Her book, Romantic Pilgrimage, contains selections of her parents' love letters, and her poetry collection is called Green Light. She currently teaches a memoir course in Grimsby. Her feature work tonight, Over The Top tells her grandmother's story of her rocky courtship and marriage to a soldier in World War One.
