Kyle Flemmer
December 2023
Kyle Flemmer is an author, editor, and publisher from Calgary in Treaty 7 territory. He recently completed an MA in English Literature at the University of Calgary, where he researched digital poetics. Kyle founded The Blasted Tree Publishing Company in 2014 and served as Managing Editor of filling Station magazine from 2018-2020. He has published several chapbooks, most recently Little Songs by No Press and The Heavy Crown by nOIR:Z. Kyle's first book, Barcode Poetry, was published by The Blasted Tree in 2021. Please find more information at @kyleflemmer on Twitter or kyle_flemmer on Instagram
Benj Gallander
September 2023
Benj is the author of three best-selling books. Some have been translated into other languages. He writes for The Globe and Mail and various other publications in Canada and the United States. Six of his plays have seen the stage across Canada. He is a co-founder of one of Canada’s largest performance festivals, SummerWorks, started in 1991 and continuing to thrive. Speaking engagements, which he loves, have included Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Palm Springs, South Africa and many universities. Benj has traveled to over 35 countries, working in many of them. This included a stint with the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) doing anti-poverty work in Nepal; teaching in Czechoslovakia soon after the Velvet Revolution and working in the Middle East and France. All the roads were a set-up to the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatchewan!!!
Carol Williams
October 2023
A cultural historian, Carol Williams taught for eleven years as an itinerant sessional across Canada and the western United States before having the good fortune and privilege to secure a permanent position at the University of Lethbridge in the traditional territory of the Siksikaitsiitapi. Originally trained as an interdisciplinary artist at Simon Fraser University, Williams was one of the founders of two artist-run centres in the late 1980s: Worksite: A Feminist Collective and the Association for (N)On Commercial Culture. She has published on Canadian-based contemporary artists including on Lorna Brown, Jin Me Yoon, Marion Penner Bancroft, Dagmar Dahle, Lorna Russell, Rebecca Burke, among others.
Ayaz Pirani
November 2023
Ayaz’s books include Happy You Are Here, Kabir’s Jacket Has a Thousand Pockets and How Beautiful People Are. His work recently appeared in ARC Poetry Magazine, The Antigonish Review, Guest 16 and The Malahat Review. His books have been reviewed in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, ARC Poetry Magazine, Qwerty Magazine, The Dalhousie Review, The Ampersand Review, and HA&L Hamilton Arts and Letters.
Laura Kassar
August 2023
Laura Kassar holds an M.A in Philosophy from the University of Montreal and is now a Ph.D candidate in the department of Religious Sciences. Her doctoral research is funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She is a member of the Quebec inter-university feminist studies network (RéQEF). In recent years, she has also taught French as a second language in Germany and has been involved with an inclusive and alternative welding coop in Montreal called La Coulée, where she has learned to experiment with metalworking techniques. She is currently interested in reflecting upon the relationships between sculptural and interpretive practices.
Félix Lamarche
August 2023
Félix Lamarche is a Montreal-based independent filmmaker exploring the possibilities of the documentary praxis. "Far Away Lands", his first feature, was released in 2017 and won the Pierre and Yolande Perrault award the same year for best first documentary feature. Since then, he directed and produced a string of short films which were screened at film festivals in Canada and abroad. In 2021, he participated in an intensive 11 days international workshop with filmmaker Werner Herzog, which led to the completion of a short fiction film. "A Night Song", his most recent documentary, had its world premiere at Dok Leipzig in Germany in October 2022. His work deals with relationships between humans and the landscape through an exploration of subjective visions, as well as the many strange facets reality can take. He is interested in both traditional and experimental film language and is currently working on his second documentary feature.
Amanda Hale
July 2023
Amanda Hale is a multi-genre Canadian writer with four novels, two collections of short fiction, and two poetry chapbooks published. She won the Prism International prize for creative non-fiction and has twice been a finalist for the Relit Fiction award. She is the librettist for Pomegranate, an opera to be toured by the Canadian Opera Company in 2023, based on her poetry collection - Pomegranate: A Tale of Remembering. For more information about Amanda check here: www.amandahale.com
Emilie Smith
June 2023
Emilie Teresa Smith is an Argentine-born, Canadian-raised Anglican priest who has dedicated her life to the defense of our sacred planet home. Since the age of seven she has loved writing, crafting her first book (with illustrations) called The Poor Snake. Since then she has written several books, for adults and for children. She has also published numerous articles and essays, especially about her work in Latin America, where she has lived on-and-off for several years. Emilie believes that NOW is the time for us to take hold of what it means to be human creatures, part of this wide web of life, and to rediscover the power of radical love for one another.
Barb Snyder
May 2023
I studied and practiced visual arts and creative writing alongside a 38 year career as a fisheries biologist in the Pacific Northwest. For 30 years, I have been a printmaker in Vancouver winning best local printmaker at the Biennial International Mini Print show in 2008. I exhibit new print art annually at our Granville Island studio. My photographic art has been shown in a number of publications and reviews of my printmaking have appeared in the Vancouver Sun, Galleries West/BC Living and Pacific Rim Magazine.
Wallace Stegner’s novels conjure memories of my family history immersed in prairie life. A stay at Wallace Stegner house appeals to me as a biologist, birder, printmaker, photographer and as a poet. I am especially grateful to be spending time at Eastend during a transition season to observe the environment as one season gives way to the next and spring bird migration begins. Here, where prairie and foothills meet, I can explore the unique geology, topography and biology of the area. I will adopt the ancient Japanese calendar of 72 seasons, making detailed observations across creative disciplines to explore a close connection to, and collaboration with, the landscape. I would like to speak to residents for their views on both seasonal change and any longer term changes observed. Knowing that Wallace Stegner was also an environmentalist resonates with me.
Megan Cole
March 2023
Megan Cole is a tattooed food enthusiast with an obsessive reading habit. As a journalist Megan has worked for community newspapers, CBC Radio, and Canadian Press. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in The Puritan, Invisiblog, untethered, Hungry Zine, Chatelaine, and The Fiddlehead. Megan is working on her first creative nonfiction book titled Nice Boys Don’t Kiss Like That: Womanhood Explored through ‘90s Rom-Coms, MSN Messenger, and First Loves. When Megan isn’t writing, reading, knitting or cooking, she’s working as the director of programming and communications for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. She lives and works on the territory of the Tla'amin Nation in BC. For more about Megan visit her website at megancolewriter.com