2018-2026
Amy LeBlanc (she/her) is an PhD Candidate in English Literature and creative writing at the University of Calgary. She is the former managing Editor of both Canthius and filling Station magazines. Amy’s second poetry collection “I Used to Live Here” was published by The Porcupine’s Quill in 2024. Her debut poetry collection, I know something you don’t know, was published with Gordon Hill Press in March 2020. Her collection of short stories “Homebodies” was published by Ne West Press in 2022. Her novella “Unlocking” was published by the UCalgary Press in their Brave and Brilliant Series in 2021. Her work has appeared in Room, PRISM International, and the Literary Review of Canada among others. She is a recipient of the 2020 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award.
2025
Ado Nkemka (A.N.) is a pop-rock musician and multidisciplinary writer (theatre, poetry, journalism). Her writing credits include the CBC, artsUnite, Best Health, and Mount Royal University. As a musician, her work serves to improve her relationship to self and the world as well as to channel visceral responses to personal experiences through art. She released her first album “I’m Not Afraid to Die Anymore (INATDA)” November 8th 2024.
A.N. was a part of the 2023-2024 TD Incubator program. She also participated in MacEwan University’s TD Artist in Residence program. In 2024, various singles off her album INATDA received radio support from CBC, CKUA, x92.9, CJSW among other stations across Canada. A.N.’s recent performances include High Performance Rodeo – Beautiful Young Artist cabaret, SoundOff Summit, Sled Island Music Festival, FoundFest – opening for Vivek Shraya, and the Ship and Anchor with Spencer Jo. https://m.soundcloud.com/ado-nkemka
Photo Credit: Francis Willey
2020-2021
Adetola Adedipe AKA aloT of Poetry (She/her) Nigerian roots. Raised in South Africa. A featured artist at events all over YYC from Open mics to Poetry festivals and the November 2019 Calgary Slam Champion. Published In the YYC: POP Anthology by Poet Laureate Emeritus Sheri-D Wilson and the August 2020 issue of Bi -Pan Magazine. An artist mentor for “Black Kid Joy” a program in Calgary that supports Black Youth Artists in Alberta. Her first spoken word video for her poem: “Womxn” (pronounced Woman) was made as a comment on the treatment of “Womxn” in society. By sharing her anxiety, pain, laughter and love she aims to build a community that encourages loving yourself and being unapologetic about it!
2018
Tereasa Maillie (she/her) is a writer, historian and consultant based in Alberta. She has a very un-secret life as a poet, creative non-fiction writer, and playwright. Her current focus is on the history of the LGTBQ+ community in Canada as a form of advocacy and social justice. Tereasa was a runner-up for the Alberta Playwrights Competition 2020 with her new play “How To Make A Metis”.
2018
Melody Griffin Dowdy is a Cree and settler woman residing on Treaty 7 territory (Calgary). She is an OCD and mental health advocate and writer and lover of fiction, in all its forms. She edits fiction at filling station magazine and is the founding editor of Lida Lit. She is currently working on her forthcoming chapbook, Poems for the Matriarch, to be released in Summer/Fall 2021.
https://www.instagram.com/melojwrites/
https://www.melodygriffindowdy.com
2018
Kimberly A. Williams, Community Member-at-Large (she/her) is an award-winning author, teacher, community activist, and engaging public speaker. She is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Women’s & Gender Studies at Mount Royal University where she teaches courses on men and masculinities, feminist, critical race, and queer theories, and global gender issues, including the transnational sex industry, globalization, and health and health care policies and practices.
Her book, Imagining Russia (2012), won the SUNY Press First Book Award in Women’s Studies. Most recently, Kim completed a research project examining the people, processes, and policies of evacuating family pets during the Fort McMurray, AB wildfire in May 2016. Her current book project, currently under contract with Fernwood Publishers, explores the gendered, racialized, and settler colonial dynamics of the annual Calgary Stampede. In the summer months, Kim also offers an historical walking tour of Calgary’s consensual adult industry. Learn more at https://yycsexworkwalkingtour.weebly.com/ and http://www.kawilliamsphd.com/.
In her free time, Kim hangs out with her best girl, a mini mystery mutt named Cricket, with whom she plays agility, climbs mountains, and explores Calgary’s green spaces.
2018
Miranda Krogstad, Community Member-at-Large(she/her) Spoken word poet meets eternal optimist, Miranda’s poetry ranges in topic from child’s play to empowerment, giving life’s obstacles a feel-good finish. A member of the 2016 national wild card team, member of the 2013 Spoken Word Program at the Banff Centre, Calgary Arts Development grant recipient, and a 2-time Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient, she now runs the spoken word network YYSpeak: a communal and supportive space for local spoken word artists. https://www.mirandakrogstad.com
2018
Josephine LoRe’s words have appeared in Canadian, American, British and Japanese print and on-line publications: Asahi Haikuist, the UC Review, Haiku Canada, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Autumn Moon Haiku and Ephemerae. She is a winner of a photo-haiku contest in Japan, a Wax Poetry and Art Contest, and the Norma Epstein Prize for Poetry at the University of Toronto. She has featured at Indie YYC’s New Beat, Pitbull Poetry, Can You Hear Me Now, ShelfLife Books, Poetry at La Pâtisserie, the Flywheel Reading Series, the Single Onion’s Hear’s my Soul, Café Blanca, and Woolf’s Voices. She has read at poetic events ranging from open mics to tributes including Poetry in the Prow, Words That Move Me, the People’s Poetry Festival, ArtWalk, poetry at the Stephansson House, Unspoken, the Single Onion’s Gender-Honouring edition, and Women Echoing Women in Vancouver. Her first chapbook “Unity” was published in 2018. Her second collection of poetry, “The Cowichan Series” published in 2019, was #1 on the Calgary Herald Bestseller List. She has an MA from l’Université de Rouen, France… a pearl in this diamond worldWebsite: https://www.josephinelorepoet.com/
2018
katie o’brien (they/them) is a community worker, queer activist, and Netflix enthusiast living and working in Mohkínstsis (Calgary). They are a recent graduate of Mount Royal University (Dip. Social Work) and the University of Calgary (B.A. in Sociology, minor in Biological Sciences). katie also writes poetry, and has been published in journals such as (parenthetical), Riddle Fence, NōD Magazine, and HYSTERIA. Their third chapbook, a peal of thunder, a moment of, was published by The Blasted Tree in June 2019.
