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Elena Bentley is a multi-genre writer, poet, editor, and proud Métis aunty. In 2024, she was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Her poetry chapbook, taliped, was a finalist in the 2022 Vallum Chapbook Award and published in 2023 by 845 Press. She is the co-poet of the forthcoming chapbook collaboration with Michael Russell, Split Jawed (Collusion Books). Her poems have been included in Arc Poetry, The Malahat Review, Poetry Pause, PRISM international, and Room, among others. She is the author of two children’s picture books: The Pickle in Grandma’s Fridge (YNWP, 2022) and I Love My Aunty Because (GDI Press, 2026). In 2023, she was shortlisted for CANSCAIP’s Writing for Children Competition (YA category). Most recently, Elena was accepted for and participated in a two-week residency program, Early Writers of YA and Children’s Books, at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, mentored by Métis author Jen Ferguson. Elena is the Editor for Grain Magazine.

A member of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild (SWG), the Saskatchewan Ânskohk Writers’ Circle Inc. (SAWCI), and the Indigenous Editors Association (IEA), she is currently a board member for SAWCI.

When she’s not reading, editing, or writing, Elena is either cuddling with her two precious-but-naughty cats or zooming around in her mobility scooter—catch her if you can.

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Netta Johnson is Publisher and Managing Editor at Stonehouse Publishing. She loves coffee, tea and a story well told. In her fleeting free time, you will find her curled up with a novel, putting everything else on hold until she has finished. Aside from being a writer, editor, reader and lover of literature, she dabbles in bread-making and stone masonry. Recently, Netta has served as Vice-President of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta and before that, she served on the board of the Waldorf Education Society of Edmonton in various executive positions over the span of 21 years.

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Caitilin has served hundreds of writers over the past decade, first as Program Manager and now as Executive Director for Sage Hill Writing, a non-profit that helps professional and emerging writers create and refine new work. 

Her previous roles include Associate Editor and then Co-Editor in Chief of the University of Saskatchewan Undergraduate Research Journal (USURJ), volunteer coordinator, and bookseller.  She has held various non-profit board executive positions, juried arts and culture grants, and has a long history of volunteerism. She was recently accepted into Leadership Saskatoon’s 2025-26 flagship program, which focuses on fostering collaborative community leaders.

Caitilin grew up among community-engaged artists and educators who actively impacted and enriched the lives of others; she is similarly committed to providing exceptional development experiences to writers. Current interests include creating knowledge-sharing and mentorship opportunities within the arts sector.  Caitilin enjoys writing, collaborative storytelling, and spending time in nature.  She lives on Treaty 6 land in Saskatoon.

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Rosemary Griebel is an Alberta writer and professional librarian with a passion for community building, nature, and story. Growing up on the prairies she developed a deep respect for the language of the land and its inhabitants. Her award-winning poetry has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, as well as on CBC Radio, literary magazines, anthologies, chapbooks, and on public buses. Her collection of poetry, Yes (2011), was short-listed for the Gerald Lampert and the Pat Lowther awards, as well as the Stephan G. Stephansson award. Recently, her essays have appeared in Reimagining Fire: The Future of Energy (2023) and Ascenti: Humans Opening to AI (2024). In 2019 one of her poems was chosen for Alberta’s first literary landmark, as part of Project Bookmark Canada’sCanLit Trail.  Rosemary received an MA from King’s College London, and an MLS from the University of British Columbia. She lives by the majestic Bow River in a century old house with her husband and cat.

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Wendy McGrath is a Métis writer and artist living in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Winner of the inaugural Prairie Grindstone Prize, McGrath’s writing embraces multiple genres. Her latest poetry collection, The Beauty of Vultures (NeWest Press, April 2025), is inspired by and includes the bird/wildlife photography of Danny Miles, drummer for the band ‘July Talk.’ Her most recent chapbook/artist’s book, The Orange Scribbler  (Jack Pine Press, 2023) is a hybrid work inspired by heirloom family recipes. She has collaborated with visual artists and musicians, exploring the relationships between genres.

McGrath has published four novels, two poetry collections, and two chapbooks/artist’s books which explore a range of forms and approaches. Broke City, the final book in her Santa Rosa Trilogy, continues her exploration of the prairie gothic.

She is a board member of NeWest Press. 

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Jeremy has served in many roles in Saskatchewan since coming from Nova Scotia in 1989. He began his work in the province as the General Manager of the Saskatchewan Council of Cultural Organizations. Subsequently he was the founding Chief Executive of Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

From 1999-2010 he was the CEO of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and during those years developed an understanding of the province’s literary ecosystem and its contribution to the broader writing community. Since 2010 he has maintained a cultural consultancy with a diverse range of clients and multi-year roles as Interim Director of the MacKenzie Art Gallery and of the University of Saskatchewan Art Galleries and Art Collection. Jeremy has served as a board member for local and national non-profit organizations, including the Saskatoon Open Door Society.

He has received a number of public honours from municipal, provincial and national bodies, a Diefenbaker Fellowship at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School for Public Policy, at the Universities of Saskatchewan and Regina, and an Honorary Award at the Saskatchewan Arts Board’s 2022 Arts Awards.

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Levi Binnema is an aspiring writer, currently working as a manager at Edmonton's landmark independent bookstore Audreys Books. Levi received a Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree in English with a focus on Canadian Literature. He also completed his MFA in poetry from UVic in 2018 and is working on a lyric exploration of his hometown, Edmonton. Some of his accomplishments include poetry published in the Glass Buffalo literary magazine and being long listed for the CBC Short Story Prize in 2013. At Audreys, Levi plays a key role in organizing events and helps foster interest and attention for local writers.

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Karen spent 16 years as a full-time publisher with Purich Publishing Ltd. in Saskatoon SK, which specialized in books on Indigenous and social justice issues, law, and Western history for the academic and reference market. She sat on the executive board of SaskBooks for several years during that time. She practiced law for 19 years before working part-time in each of law and publishing. As a publisher, she negotiated contracts with authors, editors, printers, distributors, and sales reps, as well as worked in acquisitions. She also did substantive editing of manuscripts, proofreading, and marketing. The Purich publishing program was sold to UBC Press in November 2015. In 2019, Karen became a Senior Justice of the Peace, whose work involved case management in Small Claims actions. She fully retired in 2022.
Karen was born on Treaty 4 land and currently lives on Treaty 6 territory, also the homeland of the Métis. She has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember.

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Prior to entering library work, Shelagh McDonald spent over 20 years as a bookseller employed by several local businesses before establishing (in partnership) titles bookstore – a quality independent – which earned national recognition for providing a carefully curated selection of literature to the readers of Saskatoon. The store also dedicated substantial exhibition space to the university’s BFA students, as well as emerging and established members of the visual arts community. She has volunteered for several organizations and served two terms as a board member of the AKA – one of the oldest, artist-run centres in Canada. She is the current president of Word on the Street Saskatoon, a non-profit annual festival which champions literacy and provides access, for free, to a wide range of exceptional literary talent. Shelagh holds a BA in political studies from the University of Saskatchewan, and resides in Treaty 6 Territory (Saskatoon.)

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Aritha van Herk has published five novels, seven works of non-fiction, and most recently, Stampede and the Westness of West (Frontenac Press), a volume of prose-poetry. It seeks to unsettle history, erasure, and the idea of westness as a version of mass impulse and unquestioning destination. Her textual accompaniments to the work of photographer George Webber, In This Place: Calgary 2004-2011 and Prairie Gothic develop the idea of geographical and historical temperament as tonal accompaniment to landscape. She is currently writing a creative place-biography of Robert Kroetsch, and an anti-historical anatomy of history. She teaches Creative Writing and Canadian Literature at the University of Calgary in Alberta. She has served on dozens of juries, including the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Saskatchewan Book Awards, the Gabrielle Roy Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

Photo credit: Trudie Lee Photography

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Tomas Jonsson is a curator, writer and visual artist whose diverse practice focuses on the socially engaged, collaborative nature of the artmaking process. He received a BFA in 2000 at the University of Calgary, and an MFA at the University of British Columbia Okanogan in 2018. He has curated, presented, and performed work in Canada and internationally, including Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto), Suvilahti Cultural Centre (Helsinki, Finland), and MoKS Artist run space (Mooste, Estonia). He currently resides in Treaty 4 Territory (Regina), where he is Curator of Moving Image and Performance at the Dunlop Art Gallery.

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Carol is the past executive director of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta and was previously the director of Literary Arts at Banff Centre. She has served on the boards of LitFest, the Edmonton-based nonfiction festival, and the Calgary-based, WordFest. She has been shortlisted for the Rozsa Award for Excellence in Arts Management, awarded a Queen Elizabeth 11 Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022, and recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Book Publishers of Alberta. She is an active member of the literary community and a lifelong reader.