Issue 23 Contributors

Padmaja Battani writes poems, book reviews and sometimes fiction. She has received an MA in English Literature. Her work has appeared in Sierra Poetry Festival, Trouvaille Review, Poetry Pause (LCP), CanLit Magazine, Bitchin' Kitsch, Tarot Poetry Review, Black Cat Magazine and elsewhere. Her latest passion is hiking. She is currently working on a poetry collection.

Sharon Berg is a poet, a fiction author, and an historian of First Nations education in Canada. She's published her poetry in periodicals across Canada, as well as in the USA, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India, and Australia. Her first two books were poetry published by Borealis Press (To a Young Horse, 1979) and Coach House Press (The Body Labyrinth, 1984). This was followed by two audio cassette tapes from Gallery 101 (Tape 5, 1985) and Public Energies (Black Moths 1986). She also published three chapbooks with Big Pond Rumours Press in 2006, 2016 & 2017. Her fiction appeared in journals in Canada and the USA. Porcupine's Quill released her debut fiction collection Naming the Shadows in the Fall of 2019. Her cross-genre history The Name Unspoken: Wandering Spirit Survival School was published in 2019 by Big Pond Rumours Press and received a Bronze 2020 IPPY Award for Best Regional Nonfiction in Canada East. She lives in Charlottetown, Newfoundland, Canada.

Isaac Campos is a writer-poet and student at Florida International University. His writing has previously appeared in The Lit Quarterly and Witch Craft Mag.

Twitter: @Isaac43711367

[sarah] Cavar is a PhD student, writer, and critically Mad transgender-about-town. Their debut novel, Failure to Comply, is forthcoming with featherproof books (2024). Cavar is editor-in-chief of Stone of Madness press, and has had work published in CRAFT Literary, Split Lip Magazine, Electric Lit, and elsewhere. More at www.cavar.club, zirk.us/@cavar, and @cavarsarah on twitter.

Author photo by Raquel Simões

MLA Chernoff is a Toronto-based poet, performance artist, meme enthusiast, and recovering academic. Their debut full-length poetry collection, [SQUELCH PROCEDURES], was released by Gordon Hill Press in 2021. MLA is also the author of several chapbooks, including delet this (Bad Books, 2018), TERSE THIRSTY (Gap Riot Press, 2019), I'M LIKE THE GREAT GRANDCHILD OF MARX & COCA-COLA (BUT NON-BINEY) (845 Press, 2022), and ESTRO FLUNKY (above/ground press, 2023).

Twitter: @mitzvah_tankie

Jeff Dupuis is a writer, editor and podcaster based in Toronto. He is the co-founder of The Quarantine Review and the author of three novels. His most recent book, Umboi Island, was released in March of 2022 by Dundurn Press.

Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her most recent book of poems is Emptying the Ocean (Frontenac House, 2022). Kim is the First Vice-Chair of The Writers' Union of Canada (2023-25), a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights' Guild of Canada. She is currently working on completing her second novel, The Painted Birds. Kim may be reached via www.kimfahner.com

Ashanthi Francis is a writer based in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Lake Effect, MUSE Magazine, Quilt, and The Queen’s Journal, and was recently shortlisted for the The Fiddlehead’s creative non-fiction prize. She is currently studying creative writing at the University of Toronto, where she will complete her first manuscript.

Neal Hoskins works in publishing. His fictions have appeared in Stinging Fly, Ambit and Richard Skinner’s 14 magazine. He is currently at work on a novel in verse based around the life of Joseph Wilson Swan. He posts on Instagram @wingedchariot.

Salma Hussain (she/her) is a former lawyer who now writes fiction for children and adults. Her short stories and poems have appeared in filling Station, Line, Other Voices, The Humber Literary Review, Fiddlehead, and in the chapbook anthology, Homebound: Muslim Women Poetry Collection (Outburst Press). Her novel for kids and kids-at-heart, THE SECRET DIARY OF MONA HASAN was published by Penguin Random House in May 2022.

Noora Kamar (she/her) is an emerging Indian writer based in settler Canada. She has been writing and facilitating writer-friendly spaces for 11 years—as a creative writing coach, and previously as a content writer, editor and reviewer, and lecturer of Literature. She has an M. A. in English Literature from The English and Foreign Languages University, India. Her short story has appeared in Augur Magazine and she has read from her work-in-progress novel at the Emerging Writers Reading Series in Toronto. Find her craft talks on Instagram @noorakamar_

Michelle Lin is a poet, born and raised in the buzzing metropolis of Toronto. Her work focuses on matriarchal family relations, diaspora, girlhood, and monstrosity. Michelle's spoken word poetry is featured on Button Poetry, and her other work is in The Offing and Contemporary Verse 2, among others.

Michelle recently graduated from Kenyon College, where she worked as the social media intern at The Kenyon Review.

Jérôme Melançon writes and teaches and writes and lives in oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina, SK. His most recent chapbook is with above/ground press, Tomorrow’s Going to Be Bright (2022, after 2020’s Coup), and his most recent poetry collection is En d’sous d’la langue (Prise de parole, 2021). He has also published two books of poetry with Éditions des Plaines, De perdre tes pas (2011) and Quelques pas quelque part (2016), as well as one book of philosophy, La politique dans l’adversité (Metispresses, 2018). He has edited books and journal issues, and keeps publishing academic articles that have nothing to do with any of this. He’s on Twitter mostly, and sometimes on Instagram, both at @lethejerome.

Stephen S. Mills (he/him/his) is the author of the Lambda Award-winning book He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices (2012) as well as A History of the Unmarried (2014) and Not Everything Thrown Starts a Revolution (2018) all from Sibling Rivalry Press. His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Columbia Poetry Review, The Antioch Review, PANK, The New York Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, The Rumpus, and others. He is also the winner of the 2008 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Award and the 2014 Christopher Hewitt Award for Fiction. Two of his books were placed on the Over the Rainbow List compiled yearly by the American Library Association. He is also the author of the play Waiting for Manilow. He lives in New York City with his partner and two schnauzers.

Website: http://www.stephensmills.com/

Geoffrey D. Morrison’s debut novel, Falling Hour, was published in February 2023 with Coach House Books. He is also author of the poetry chapbook Blood-Brain Barrier and coauthor of the experimental short fiction collection Archaic Torso of Gumby. He lives on the unceded Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh territory.

Born in France, Eve Naden now lives in the UK, where she studies English at the University of York. She writes everything from short stories to poems, screenplays, and very long novels about very angry women. Passionate about her working-class roots, she wishes to one day tell the story of her ridiculous but wonderful family. Her work has featured in the Roadrunner Review, the Elmbridge Literary Magazine, and the Cheshire Literature Anthology. She likes to write worryingly honest stories about the difficulties of being a functional adult. At some point, she hopes to become a published novelist.

Ryotaro Oda (he/him) is a Japanese haiku poet. He usually writes haiku in Japanese and publishes his works in Japanese haiku magazines. He won the "9th Haiku Shiki Newcomer Award" from the Japanese haiku magazine Haiku Shiki. He is currently searching for ways to create works that are relevant to the times and that will appeal to overseas readers, based on Japanese haiku-style expressions.

hailey o'gorman (they/she) is a writer from Belfast, living in Cornwall. They write fiction and creative non-fiction around the transsexual experience, the anthropocene and trading card games. She has been previously published in Stone of Madness press (https://stoneofmadnesspress.com/hailey-ogorman) and Short Vine Journal (Fall 2021 edition). They are studying for a Masters degree in Professional Writing from Falmouth University, graduating with a BA in Creative Writing in 2022. You can find her Twitter @regret_mech. As a living person, hailey is really good at yugioh.

Augustine Okam is a Nigerian writer. His writing has appeared in Jellyfish Review and A Coup of Owls, among others. He is currently a student at Ebonyi State University where he is pursuing his MBBS degree.

Kelly Piggott (she/her) is a lesbian writer and professor based in Atlanta, and holds an MFA in Fiction from Georgia College and State University. Her writing has been published with If There’s Anyone Left, Defunct, Eclectica Magazine, Exist Otherwise, and elsewhere. She can be found on twitter @kellbellhells and Instagram @kellbellhells.

Shangrila Plaza (any/all) is a first-generation Filipinx-Canadian immigrant who lives on the traditional unceded, unsurrendered territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples. They are an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University, where they study English and Creative Writing.

Jordan Redekop-Jones is a mixed-Indigenous writer from Vancouver BC. She is an English student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, where she was the recent winner of the JoAnne Ward Creative Writing Award. As well, she has work in Canthius and Pinhole Poetry. Growing up, Jordan spent most of her time travelling the world, which she hopes to write more about one day. Currently, she lives in Vancouver BC with her family and her mini goldendoodle India.

Instagram: j.r.jones__

Aaron Schneider is a Founding Editor at The /tƐmz/ Review, the publisher at the chapbook press 845 Press, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing Studies at Western University. His stories have appeared in The Danforth Review, Filling Station, The Puritan, Hamilton Arts and Letters, Pro-Lit, The Chattahoochee Review, BULL, Long Con, The Malahat Review and The Windsor Review. His stories have been nominated for The Journey Prize and The Pushcart Prize. His novella, Grass-Fed (Quattro Books), was published in Fall 2018. His collection of experimental short fiction, What We Think We Know (Gordon Hill Press), was published in Fall 2021. The Supply Chain (Crowsnest Books) is his first novel.