Neal McLeod defines himself as half Cree (having grown up on the James Smith reserve in Saskatchewan) and half Swedish, and has studied at the Swedish Art Academy at Umeå .
In poetry circles, Michael Barnholden is best known for his highly active involvement with the Kootenay School of Writing, an internationally recognized locus of experimental writing. Barnholden published many early KSW chapbooks under the imprint of Tsunami Editions, and with Andrew Klobucar, he is the co-editor of Writing Class: The Kootenay School of Writing Anthology. Based in Vancouver, BC, Barnholden has made and continues to make important contributions to foster and encourage innovative new writing, through his founding of a book review periodical called The Rain Review of Books in 2003, and more recently, as managing editor of West Coast Line and publisher of the exciting micropress LINEBooks.
Natalie Simpson lives in Calgary, Alberta and is the author of accrete or crumble and Thrum. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including Shy, The Best Canadian Poetry in English, Ground Rules, Shift & Switch, and Post-Prairie. Simpson curates filling Station magazine’s flywheel reading series and is highly active in the Calgary poetry scene.
Jeanette Lynes is from Hanover, Ontario and is the author of six collections of poetry and one novel, The Factory Voice, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the ReLit Award. Lynes has taught creative writing at the Banff Centre, the Sage Hill Writing Experience, St. Francis Xavier University, and the University of Manitoba. She is a former editor at The Antigonish Review, and is currently Coordinator of the new MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan.
Weyman Chan was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1963, to immigrant parents from China. Chan has published poems and short stories in a wide variety of literary journals and anthologies. He won the 2003 Alberta Book Award for his first book of poetry, Before a Blue Sky Moon and his second book, Noise From the Laundry, was a finalist for the 2008 Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the 2009 Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry. Chan’s most recent collection Chinese Blue draws on more than two thousand years of ancient Chinese tradition that present diverse philosophical modes of being in contemporary times.
