Issues
No. 233 Winter 2025
Buy Issue 233: Print Edition
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Cover · Contents · Book Reviews · Contributor Notes
Contents:
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| Creative Nonfiction |
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| Contributor Notes |
Instagram: @meadowllark Facebook: @Meadowllark LAREINA ABBOTT pens Métis‐themed speculative fiction and memoir. She received Writers’ Guild of Alberta literary awards for short story (2023) and essay (2025), has twice won the Guild’s Kemosa scholarship, and is an Audible Indigenous Writers’ Circle alumna. Originally from northern BC, she now writes in Calgary/Mohkinstsis. Instagram: @boneblackstories JENNIFER ADESE is otipemisiwak/Métis (Manitoba Métis Federation) and a creative writer and professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in ARC Poetry, Arboreal, and Room. She is the author of Aboriginal™: The Cultural and Economic Politics of Recognition (2022). website: www.utm.utoronto.ca/sociology/people/jennifer-adese JENN ASHTON is an award‐winning Sḵwwú7mesh author, historian, visual artist, and filmmaker located in stelk’aya, BC. She is currently a Postgraduate in History at Edinburgh University School of Divinity and an Authenticity Reader for Penguin/Random House USA. website: JenniferAshton.ca ODETTE AUGER (Sagamok Anishnawbek) is an award‐winning journalist and storyteller. Her first novel, Eyebright, will be published in 2027. She’s grateful for the heart‐full mentorship that has supported her path from reporting to literary fiction. website: authory.com/OdetteAuger MANAHIL BANDUKWALA is the author of Heliotropia (2024) and MONUMENT (2022). website: manahilbandukwala.com CRYSTAL BEHN is of Dene and Carrier ancestry with her maternal roots from Fort Nelson, BC and her paternal roots from Fort St. James, BC. Crystal has dedicated her journey to learning the traditional ways of harvesting meat and fur and the art of beading and moccasin‐making so she can pass on the generations of knowledge. Instagram: @inherfootstepsdenedesigns JOELY BIGEAGLE-KEQUAHTOOWAY is a multi‐hyphenate, place‐based buffalo artist and co‐founder of the Buffalo People Arts Institute. Nakota/Cree/Saulteaux from the White Bear First Nations, she has degrees in civil engineering, a BSc in mathematics, and an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Art. Instagram: @tatangadesigns Facebook: @joely.bigeagle [and] @buffalopeopleartinstitute BRANDON BOBB is just a Nlaka’pamux guy living his best life in Spuzzum. By day he’s an Indigenous Support worker for SD78. By night he jumps from hobby to hobby, finding inspiration in the most random of places. Instagram: @byprovencher SAM BOLLINGER is an editor, children’s author, and reviewer. Her writing has appeared in ARC Poetry, The Malahat Review, Canthius, and elsewhere. DAYNE BRELYN is a Métis, Mexican, and Jewish writer whose works usually explore the complexities of her identity and heritage. A recent graduate of UVic (English Honours and Writing), she is following her love of videogames and interactive narrative by continuing her education at UBC in computer science. KRISTI BRIDGEMAN is a Métis artist working in the traditional territories of the Songhees, Xʷsepsəm, and SÁNEĆ Peoples. Her Métis ancestors are from Red River, MB, St. Albert and Jasper, AB. Kristi’s artistic focus is a merging of environmental, social, and familial‐ancestral Métis designs. The experience of laying down patterns similar to those of her ancestors gives a sense of connection to them. website: www.kristibridgeman.com/ MICHELLE POIRIER BROWN is a Métis poet. Her poetry appears in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her debut book You Might Be Sorry You Read This and her chapbook Intimacies were both published in 2022. website: https://michellepoirierbrown.ca/ JAYMIE CAMPBELL is a Michi‐Saagiig Anishnaabe artist and writer from Curve Lake First Nation currently residing on unceded Sinixt territory in BC. Inspired by story, the land, and family, she explores connection through visual arts and writing. She won the 2021 Federation of BC Writers Creative Nonfiction Contest and has been published in Yellow Medicine Review, The Malahat Review, and Porter House Review. website: whiteotterdesignco.com/ CATHI CHARLES WHERRY is Deer Dodem, Anishinaabe. She belongs to Georgina Island and Mnjikaning and is a member of Chippewas of Rama, her father’s birthplace. Her mother’s ancestors trace to England and northern Europe. Cathi grows food, flowers, poems, and her Anishinaabemowin in WJOTLEP, SÁNEĆ, where she lives with her husband Andy Paul, and their adult children nearby. JESSIE CONRAD writes creative nonfiction, dark fiction, and, most recently, contemporary fiction. She credits her Dënesųłıné elders for inspiration. “The Sinkhole,” which explores society’s strained relationships with our environment, the unhoused, and unseen forces that shape our world, is her third publication. Instagram: @jessieceline22 Facebook: @jessie.c.conrad FRANCINE CUNNINGHAM, a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, who is also Métis and has settler family roots from as far away as Ireland and Belgium, is an award‐winning writer, artist, and educator. Her debut book of stories, God Isn’t Here Today (2022), was shortlisted for a 2023 Indigenous Voices Award and won the 2023 ReLit Award for short fiction. She currently resides in Alberta. website: www.francinecunningham.ca/ JUSTINA ELIAS is the author of the prose poem series “To Do,” nominated for a Canadian National Magazine Award, and “Hard Cut,” a Notable Essay in Best American Sports Writing. Twice nominated for the CBC Short Story Prize, she holds an MFA in creative writing from the U of Guelph and works as an editor on the west coast. website: https://www.justinaelias.com/ MARION ERICKSON, daughter of teacher Susan Erickson and artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, is a member of the Lhts’umusyoo (Beaver Clan) of the Dakelh Nation and has become an artist who teaches. She is a PhD Health Sciences student at the University of Northern British Columbia. SAMANTHA ERRON GIBBON is an otipemisiwak and nehiyaw iskwew from Amiskwaciywaskahikan. A resident physician training to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, she enjoys writing, creating a variety of art, and doing traditional crafting and sewing with her two young daughters. GIIWEDINONGKWE (HALLE WARD-GRIGNON) is a disabled, queer artist and poet of mixed (Irish, French, Algonquin) ancestry from the Kichi Sibi (Ottawa River) on Omàmìwininìwaki (Algonquin land). She is pursuing education, with the goal of decolonizing learning through story and land. giiwedinongkwe is Anishinaabemowin for going‐home‐star woman. website: https://www.waagoshmediacompany.com/ Instagram: @giiwedinongkwe HALI HEAVY SHIELD, NATO’YI’KINA’SOYI (Holy Light that Shines Bright) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, author, and curator from the Blood Tribe (Kainai), Blackfoot Confederacy. Her work illuminates Blackfoot stories, landscapes, womxn’s strength, and futurisms, weaving vibrant, symbolic narratives that inspire reconciliation, collective healing, and creative transformation within communities. Instagram: @hali.heavyshield Facebook: @hali.heavyshield HENRY HEAVYSHIELD, a Blackfoot reader and writer from Kainai (Blood Tribe First Nation), was a Writers’ Trust Bronwen Wallace Award finalist (2024) and an Indigenous Voices Awards finalist for short fiction (2023 and 2024). His poetry has appeared in Capilano Review, Riddle Fence, ARC Poetry, and Best Canadian Poetry 2025. MARSHALL HILL is a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames living in Kingston, ON, where he teaches in the departments of English and Indigenous Studies at Queen’s University. A critic, theorist, and writer, he engages the literatures and histories of the Americas with a focus on contemporary Black and Indigenous poetics. MIKA LAFOND, a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 Territory, is a mother, teacher, author, and Director of the iyinîsiwin Story Institute Incorporated. MICHAEL J. LEEB is a visual artist, poet & writer, and historian of Chippewa Cree (Mille Lacs, MN) and German settler heritage. Michael currently resides in Lethbridge, AB, where he enjoys singing sacred music in the St. Martha’s Choir. ANNIE MACKILLICAN is a writer and researcher from Tkaronto and a member of Mattawa‐North Bay Algonquin First Nation. Annie’s work has appeared in Grain, Ex‐Puritan, PRISM International, The Malahat Review, and elsewhere. When not writing, Annie can be found learning how to figure skate. website: https://www.anniemackillican.com/ MASON MANTLA is a Tłchǫ writer, comedian, and safety guy from Behchok, NWT. He writes about fatherhood, shame, and survival in the North. “Reverse Don’t Work” is his first published short story. Instagram: @masonmantla TikTok: @masonmantla SAMANTHA MARTIN-BIRD is a citizen of Peguis First Nation, currently writing poems from Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg. Instagram: @littlebird_artwork VICTOR HUGO MENDEVIL is a Native American (Blackfoot) poet based in Boston. Originally from Seattle, he holds an MFA in creative writing from Hofstra University and is pursuing a PhD in English at Northeastern University. Instagram: @victorhugomendevil AUTUMN MOOSEHUNTER is Plains Cree from Sturgeon Lake First Nation on Treaty 6 Territory. A teacher in Northern Saskatchewan, she is working towards an MFA in creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Instagram: @takwakin JASON PEARCE’s short stories have appeared in Grain, Flash Fiction Online, and The Deadlands. A proud alumnus of the Audible Indigenous Writers’ Circle, Jason is of Mi’kmaw and English descent. He is currently finishing a novel set in his home territory of Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay of Islands, Newfoundland). website: https://www.jasonpearcefiction.com/ SHANTELL POWELL is a swamp hag/elder goth (Inuk/Mi’kmaw/settler) raised in an apocalyptic cult on the land and off the grid. A Brave New Weird winner (2024) and CSFFA Aurora Awards finalist, she writes, wrangles chinchillas, and gets filthy in the woods. Her work appears in Augur Magazine, The Deadlands, On Spec, and more. website: https://shanmonster.dreamwidth.org/ Bluesky: @shanmonster.bsky.social Mastodon: @Shanmonster DALY QUINTAL is a Métis writer from Lac la Biche, AB who recently graduated from the University of Alberta with a BA in English and is now attending Simon Fraser University for a master’s degree in the Master of Publishing program. Instagram: @dquin58 HEATHER RAMPANEN is a Métis artist and photographer on Vancouver Island. She explores abstract, macro, street photography, and intentional camera movement and is learning encaustic art, blending her photography prints into these two genres. KIERAN KALLS RICE is a writer of Coast Salish (Snuneymuxw First Nation) and Scottish settler descent who is an MA candidate in creative writing at the U of Toronto. An excerpt of his novel won the 2025 Indigenous Voices Award for unpublished prose. ATHENA SERBOURNE is a Métis poet from London, ON, on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron. She is a BFA creative writing student at the University of British Columbia. RAYMOND SEWELL is a poet, musician, and English professor from Pabineau First Nation living in Bedford, NS and teaching at Saint Mary’s University. Instagram: @rockinawesome1 LAURA TANSLEY is the author of Notes to Self (2017), a collection of visual poems. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland. Instagram: @lauratansley SYNDEL THOMAS KOZAR is a Two‐spirit, neurodivergent, nêhiyaw/white settler artist, storyteller, and community advocate from Melfort, SK. Rooted in relationship and reciprocity, their work weaves themes of healing, intergenerational memory, and reclamation. website: https://www.syndelthomaskozar.ca/ JENNA TIMMONS-OIKAWA is an emerging poet and creative nonfiction writer working on a collection of essays exploring disability and identity. She lives on the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation, near Ottawa, ON. DÉLANI VALIN is neurodivergent and Métis with nêhiyaw, Saulteaux, French‐Canadian, and Czech ancestry. Her first collection of poems is Shapeshifters (2023). She lives on traditional and unceded Snuneymuxw territory (Nanaimo, BC). RICHARD VAN CAMP, a recipient of the Order of the Northwest Territories and an internationally renowned storyteller and award‐winning author of thirty books for all ages, is a proud Tlicho Dene from Fort Smith, NWT, now living in Edmonton: Treaty 6 Territory with his family. His novel The Lesser Blessed is now a feature film on Prime Video, and his graphic novel with Neiva Mateus, Three Feathers, is now a feature film on APTN. A mentor with the Audible Indigenous Writers’ Circle, he is the University of Victoria’s Indigenous Storyteller in Residence. His new novel, BEAST, was a finalist for the 2025 Governor General’s Award. website: www.richardvancamp.com STACIE VANEVERY, a member of Alderville First Nation in Ontario, has an MFA in popular fiction and works as a teacher at an Indigenous high school. She enjoys writing stories that are light‐hearted but also address contemporary issues facing Indigenous people. PAUL DB WATKINS is a professor of English at Vancouver Island University. His Soundin’ Canaan (2025) demonstrates how music in Black Canadian poetry is not solely aesthetic, but a form of social, ethical, and political expression. website: https://pauldbwatkins.com/ Soundin' Canaan website: https://soundincanaan.com/ JAYLI WOLF is a Cree/Dane poet, musician, and filmmaker. A JUNO‐nominated artist and mental‐health advocate, she creates from a place of lived experience. Blending sound, word, and spirit into stories of resistance, her work explores reclamation, identity, and healing. website: https://www.jayliwolf.com/ Instagram: @jayliwolf | |
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