andrea bennett
Alumni, andrea bennett Laurie Laird Alumni, andrea bennett Laurie Laird

andrea bennett

andrea bennett is a National Magazine Award–winning writer and editor and the author of two travel guides, one book of poetry, and, most recently, the essay collection Like a Boy but Not a Boy: Navigating Life, Mental Health, and Parenthood Outside the Gender Binary (Arsenal Pulp Press), a CBC Books’ pick for the top Canadian nonfiction of the year, and one of Autostraddle’s best queer books of 2020.

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Norma Barsness
Norma Barsness, Alumni Safira Lachapelle Norma Barsness, Alumni Safira Lachapelle

Norma Barsness

Artist Norma Barsness is a landscape contemporary painter with a unique vision. Norma resides in Calgary and paints scenes familiar to her. She works to induce emotion and attain a particular aesthetic, rather than portray a specific place. Viewers are drawn in by her brilliant colors and bold brushstrokes that define her signature style. Norma’s work has been exhibited widely in many Alberta shows and galleries.

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Danica Klewchuk
Danica Klewchuk, Alumni Safira Lachapelle Danica Klewchuk, Alumni Safira Lachapelle

Danica Klewchuk

April 2021

Danica Klewchuk is based in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2020, she was a mentee of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Mentorship program. Her work has appeared in Event and The Gateway Review, and is forthcoming in Crazyhorse.

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Jeff Wilson
Alumni, Jeff Wilson Safira Lachapelle Alumni, Jeff Wilson Safira Lachapelle

Jeff Wilson

Jeff Wilson grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Jeff produces painting collections that exhibit in public galleries in BC, Alberta and WA State. Jeff has received a number of awards. Jeff has completed residencies at the Booth in Shetland, Parks Canada’s Art in the Park and the Wallace Stegner House. Jeff Wilson lives and works in Vancouver.

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Kent Tate
Alumni, Kent Tate Safira Lachapelle Alumni, Kent Tate Safira Lachapelle

Kent Tate

Kent Tate is an award winning Canadian artist/filmmaker whose work explores the dichotomy between tranquility and activity in our natural and manufactured worlds. Born in Rivers, Manitoba, Kent Tate is currently based in British Columbia.

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Diana Chabros
Alumni, Diana Chabros Safira Lachapelle Alumni, Diana Chabros Safira Lachapelle

Diana Chabros

In 2012, Diana Chabros relocated from Regina to Val Marie, a village in deep southwest Saskatchewan at the cusp of Grasslands National Park. Moved by the power of the land - its subtle energy, palette, geology, and sentience as a biological living entity - Diana documents, through paint, her dialogue with the area’s rich mix of cultures, stories, and sentient beings. An adjunct to her own professional art practice, Diana serves as a consultant/manager for her busy life partner, a senior interdisciplinary artist and nêhiyaw/Cree knowledge keeper, Joseph Naytowhow from Treaty Six. She also delivers Nature in Me© Intuitive Painting Retreats, cares for many Val Marie cats, and and operates a small bed & breakfast.

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Barbara Meneley
Alumni, Barbara Meneley Safira Lachapelle Alumni, Barbara Meneley Safira Lachapelle

Barbara Meneley

February/March 2021

Barbara Meneley is a prairie-based intermedia artist. Her art practice operates through performance, media, cartography, writing, installation, and dialogic engagement. Through these forms, she engages with the landscapes and foundations of contemporary society and culture to develop site-responsive projects that investigate Canadian national imaginaries and her own position as a contemporary settler/settler descendent/treaty person on this land.

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Tara Dawn Solheim
Wallace Stegner Wallace Stegner

Tara Dawn Solheim

January 2021

Tara Dawn Solheim works across genres, her original creations integrate poetry and melody in performance. Tara Dawn spent a year in the UK and later five years in Japan where she performed extensively and wrote for a number of music groups. Her experiences have led her to explore the physicality of the voice. She is currently working on a new collection of performance poetry pieces.

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Anne Laurel Carter
Alumni, Anne Laurel Carter Safira Lachapelle Alumni, Anne Laurel Carter Safira Lachapelle

Anne Laurel Carter

Anne Laurel Carter grew up in Don Mills. She’s been a librarian, an ESL and FSL teacher, and milked cows in a dairy. The ideas for her 19 books came from her experiences, interviews of interesting people or from her imagination. She divides her time between Toronto Island and Nova Scotia and if she’s not reading or walking a beach, she’s out for a bike ride or playing the ukulele.

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Victor Enns
Alumni, Victor Enns Safira Lachapelle Alumni, Victor Enns Safira Lachapelle

Victor Enns

Victor Enns was born in Winnipeg and raised in southern Manitoba. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a History/English major. A founding Board member of the Manitoba Writer’s Guild, he was the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, and founder of Windscript magazine. He spent the next 20 years in arts administration, including 4 years as the Executive Director of the Manitoba Arts Council, while raising a family. He founded Rhubarb magazine. Lucky Man, (Hagios, 2005) was nominated for the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award.

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