Jes Battis teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Regina. They are the author of The Winter Knight and the Occult Special Investigator series, as well as the poetry book I Hate Parties, which won the Saskatchewan Book Award. Their work has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Sunburst Award, and the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, and they are the winner of an Independent Publisher's Award and an Indie Foreword Award.
S. Bear Bergman is an author, storyteller, educator and the founder and publisher of children’s book publisher Flamingo Rampant, which makes feminist, culturally-diverse children’s picture books celebrating LGBT2Q+ kids and families. He writes creative non-fiction for grown-ups, fiction for children, and gives parenting advice for both on CBC Radio. These days, he spends most of his time making trans cultural competency interventions anyway he can and trying to avoid stepping on Lego. His forthcoming book is THE FIRST JEW IN CANADA: A TRANS TALE, from Arsenal Pulp in Spring 2027.
Lori Deets is a Métis-Cree Sixties Scoop survivor from Pinehouse, Saskatchewan, as a result of that displacement, Lori now calls the Treaty 4 area home. She is a recent graduate from the First Nations University of Canada with a degree in Indigenous journalism and communications. Her work and advocacy focus on storytelling, public narrative, community wellbeing, and housing justice.
Kim Fahner lives, writes, and teaches in Sudbury, Ontario. Her sixth book of poems is The Pollination Field (Turnstone Press, 2025), and her debut novel is The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46, 2024). She is the Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada (2025-2027), and was the fourth Poet Laureate for the City of Greater Sudbury (2016-18). Kim may be reached via her author website www.kimfahner.com
Anne Fleming is the author of six books of fiction and poetry, including, most recently, the novel Curiosities, as well as Gay Dwarves of America, poemw, and The Goat, a novel for children. Anne’s writing has been shortlisted for many nice awards, including the Governor-General’s Award, the Journey Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, Italy’s Premio Strega children’s prize, and the Giller. The Goat was named one of the ten best children’s books of the year by The Wall Street Journal and the New York Public Library.
Kate Gies is a writer and educator living in Toronto. She teaches creative nonfiction and expressive arts at George Brown College. Her writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, The Malahat Review, The Humber Literary Review, Hobart, and the Best Canadian Essays 2024 Anthology. Her memoir, It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished, about her childhood medical experiences related to a missing ear, is out now with Simon & Schuster Canada.
Michelle Good is a Cree writer, obtained a law degree & advocate for residential school survivors. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at U of BC. Her 1st novel, 'Five Little Indians' won the Harper Collins/UBC Best New Fiction Prize, Amazon First Novel Award, Governor General's Literary Award & Canada Reads 2022. Also longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, a finalist for Writer's Trust Award. Her new work, 'Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada released in 2023. She was shortlisted in 2024 for the Sask Book Awards, the Indigenous Voices award & won the High Plains award. In 2024/25, was named a U of Calgary Distinguished writer. She is also a winner of the 2025 Inspire award in the Arts category.
Tanisha Khan is a writer living on Treaty 4 territory and the Homeland of the Métis, in Regina (oskana kâ-asastêki). She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon, and her fiction and poetry have appeared in a handful of publications. Her writing often focuses on family, memory, the supernatural, and the way myths interact with the shuffle of daily life. When not writing, she’s painting or on walks, petting all the cats and dogs in her neighbourhood.
Lydia Kwa (she/her) has published three books of poetry (The Colours of Heroines, 1992; sinuous, 2013; from time to new, 2024) and five novels (This Place Called Absence, 2000; The Walking Boy, 2005 and 2019; Pulse, 2010 and 2014; Oracle Bone, 2017; A Dream Wants Waking, 2023). She is currently writing a neo-noir speculative fiction novel.
As a queer Southeast Asian person of mixed heritage who grew up in Singapore, she has lived and worked since 1992 on the unceded and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples.
Rachel Laverdiere is a writer and potter based in Saskatoon. Her work has earned recognition in Wigleaf's Top 50 and the Longridge Review’s Barnhill Prize, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. Her stories appear in North American anthologies and literary journals such as Grain, The New Quarterly, Anti-Heroin Chic, Pithead Chapel, and Sundog Literary. Rachel’s writing explores themes of safety, healing from childhood trauma, and the intricacies of human relationships. For more, visit rachellaverdiere.com or connect with her on X @r_laverdiere or Bluesky @rachellaverdiere.bsky.social.
Judy I. Lin (she/her) is the #1 New York Times-bestselling and award-winning author of fantasy and horror books for young adults, including The Book of Tea duology, Song of the Six Realms, The Dark Becomes Her and Avatar Legends: City of Echoes. She writes stories inspired by the legends and myths she grew up with in Taiwan and currently lives on the Canadian prairies.
Bruce Rice is a previous Saskatchewan Poet Laureate, an editor and essayist. In addition to six poetry collections, his first nonfiction book, Standstill: A Hopewell Earthworks Daybook and Other Essays (Long Road Press 2024), asks how we can respond authentically to these ancient Indigenous places. He is a documentarian whose characters “live in the world” and speak with what the Winnipeg Free Press called “a tour de force of voice.” Art and the urban and natural landscapes we live in have become more and more present with each book. He says, “I became a better poet when I surrendered to beauty.”
