Issue 35 Contributors

​Abdulrahman Mohammed Abu-Yaman is a Nigerian writer, artist and sojourner who grew up in the cosmopolitan Lagos Island. He currently resides around the River Niger regions of the country and alternates between neighbouring cities like Abuja, Kaduna and Ilorin for arts pleasure. He is a fellow of Ebedi International Writers' Residency and former on-air personality as host of 'Literature Today' at Ultimate FM Campus Radio in Minna. His short story emerged the joint winner of the inaugural BCD/UTULU Prize for Literature in 2025. Also winner of the Hysteria Writing Competition in the flash category (2021). Some of his works have appeared on platforms like Afritondo, Brittle Paper, Tuck Magazine, London Grip Magazine, The Lagos Review, Southwark Libraries, North Dakota Quarterly, Blue Minaret, Neurological Journal, The Metaphysical Review, Spotify, Cult Culture Magazine, ExistOtherwise and elsewhere. When he is not writing, he loves painting landscapes and has exhibited few collections during some books and art festivals. His X/Instagram handle is @abuu_yaman

​Nawal Ali is a Somali-Swedish writer living in the Netherlands. Her short stories explore identity, culture, and belonging. Her work has appeared in Avalon Review and Barely Southern Review, among others. When she’s not out with her children exploring flora and fauna, she can be found in bed, nose glued to a paperback. Ali is currently working on a short story collection.

​bonnyCD lives and works in rural Alberta (Treaty 7 territory). They are a proud founder of the reading series Feud Court (@feudcourt), alongside Jimmy T. Cahill and MLA Chernoff. Their recent books include The Repoetic: After Saint-Pol-Roux (Gordon Hill), GLADDENER (Anstruther), and Banazir Galbasi Doubtfiring with the Farmerettes (solipCYST). They are the most recent winner of the Grain Hybrid Experimental contest, and a previous winner of Geist’s Short Long-Distance Writing contest. They are currently at work on a short pamphlet advocating for wage transparency amongst writers, plus evil, purple short fictions.

​Andy Boyle is a Chicago-based writer whose work has been in Esquire, NPR, NBC News, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and more. His short story, “The Lord God Bird,” was included in Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2026, edited by Tess Gerritsen. The author of two non-fiction books with Penguin Random House, his fiction has appeared in Uncharted Magazine, MetaStellar, Philadelphia Stories, Cold Caller Magazine, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine and more. His journalism has won a Pulitzer Prize and he was the 2023 Mystery Writers of America Midwest's Hugh Holton award winner.

​Charlotte Bruckner writes about cowards, queers, and losers. His short fiction and poetry have appeared in Redivider, Vagabond City Lit, Broken Antler Magazine, Nowhere Girl Collective, and elsewhere. When not writing, he works in theatrical costume design.

​Morrigan Byalin received her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Boston University and is pursuing her PhD in English Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the recipient of the Leslie Epstein Global Fellowship, the Blanche Colton Williams Fellowship, the Audre Lorde Award, and the Mary M. Fay Award in Poetry. Her work is published in Bending Genres, the Lowestoft Chronicle, Spoon Knife Anthology, and elsewhere. Read more from her at morriganbyalin.com ​

​Micaela Cárcamo is a writer and editor in Creative Writing and Publishing at Sheridan College. As an editor, she has worked on a memoir and translated for Grafos y Maquinaciones S.A.C. in Peru, and is currently working as Prose Editor for B222 Journal in Canada. As a writer, Micaela focuses on nonfiction, exploring themes of her Peruvian heritage, her upbringing, and her newfound cultural exchanges and experiences as an international student living in Canada.

Renee Cronley is a writer from Manitoba.  She studied psychology and English at Brandon University and nursing at Assiniboine Community College.  Having stepped away from nursing to prioritize her children, she has been channeling her knowledge and experiences into a poetry book about nursing burnout.  Renee can be found at https://www.reneecronley.com/

​Qurat Dar is the author of Non-Prophet (Goose Lane Editions 2025), winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She was the City of Mississauga’s Youth Poet Laureate from 2021-2023 and the 2020 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam National Champion. Qurat’s poems have appeared in Augur, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, and across the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) network. 

​Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews has written several collections of poetry and two non-fiction books. Her work appears in various journals and anthologies, including Canadian Literature, The Malahat Review, Descant, The Canada Literary Review, Acta Victoriana, Canadian Poetry Review, The Blue Nib and Lothlorien, among others. Her poetry won first prize in the 2023 International Poetry Prize in Rome’s Antonio De Ferraris contest. Her poem “The First Time I Heard Leonard Cohen'' was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her latest book of poems, A Nomenclature for Light, was released September 2025 by Mosaic Press. Josie is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, the Ontario Poetry Society, the Italian Canadian Writers Association and The Heliconian Club for Women in the Literary Arts. She teaches workshops for Poetry in Voice and is the host & coordinator of The Oakville Literary Cafe series. 

Photo credit: Jim Johnstone

​Amanda Earl (she/her) writes, edits, mentors, publishes, reviews and makes vispo on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Peoples. Earl offers a 12-hour poetry mentorship program, and thanks to a patron, one scholarship is available. Earl is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the editor of Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry.  Please visit AmandaEarl.com for more information or subscribe to Amanda Thru the Looking Glass for musings on finding joy in difficult times.

​Salma Hussain writes poetry and prose, and her writing has appeared in various literary magazines. Her debut chapbook of poetry, What If Maybe & Other Poems, was published by Baseline Press last summer. Her upcoming young adult novel, It's Not Over Yet, will be published by Penguin Random House Canada later this year. She lives in Toronto.

​A. Jenson is a non-binary writer, artist, and farmer living in the United States. Their work most recently appears in issues of San Antonio Review, Breakwater Review, and Bellevue Literary Review. They were awarded the Bicoastal Review poetry prize in 2025 and are featured in the Washington Queer Poetry Anthology. You can (sometimes) find them on Instagram at @adotjenson.

Gitura Kihuria is an award-winning writer. His short story, “A Dove From No Where Land,” won the Open Forum competition of the Standard newspaper of 30th August, 2008. He also comments on social issues in newspapers and other news sources when compelled to do so. He loves taking nature walks, is a chess and fitness junkie, and is an eclectic reader of different genres, including memoirs. He currently lives and works in Doha, Qatar.

Aaron Kreuter is the author of six books, including the poetry collection Shifting Baseline Syndrome, a 2022 finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. His most recent book is the novel Lake Burntshore, set at a Jewish summer camp. He lives in Toronto and teaches literature and creative writing at Trent University. Aaron is currently editing an anthology of antizionist Jewish fiction for Baraka Books.

​Anson Leung is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Commerce program. He is an Alberta-based writer who loves all forms of writing, including poetry and article writing. In his spare time, he loves playing tennis and board games.

​Kathryn MacDonald’s poems have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Ireland and India. Her reviews have also been published in journals across Canada and on her website (https://kathrynmacdonald.com). Her newest poetry collection, The Blue Gate, will be published by Frontenac Press, Spring 2026. She is a co-author of Liminal Spaces (Glentula Press, 2025) and is the author of Far Side of the Shadow Moon (Glentula Press, 2024), A Breeze You Whisper: Poems (HBP, 2011), and Calla & Édourd (fiction, HBP, 2009).

MA|DE (est. 2018) is a composite creature, a unity of two voices fused into a single, poetic third; it is the name given to the joint authorship of Mark Laliberte and Jade Wallace. MA|DE is the author of four chapbooks, including the bpNichol Award-shortlisted A Trip to the ZZOO from Collusion Books. MA|DE's first full-length poetry collection, ZZOO, came out with Palimpsest Press in early 2025. A subsequent collection, Detourism, will be out with Palimpsest in 2028. Subsequent collections Alphabeticals (Popnoir Editions, 2027) and Detourism (Palimpsest Press, 2028) are forthcoming. More info at: ma-de.ca

​Maria Meindl is the author of a memoir, Outside the Box, a novel, The Work, and many short fiction and non-fiction pieces, including in The Temz Review. In 2005, she founded the Draft Reading Series, which is still going strong after 20 years. She teaches Feldenkrais movement classes, and runs a webinar series called The Work, Straight Talk on Craft and Method, about the history of wellness, fitness and performer-training methods.

Raksha Muthukumar is a Tamil queer woman, police abolitionist, and lover of tiny rodents. She has a background as a tech labor organizer and teen sex educator, which she combines now as a journalist in the sex+digital rights space. You can find more of Raksha's fiction, nonfiction, and advocacy work on her website raksha.gay, or follow her on instagram or bluesky.​

​Chiwenite Onyekwelu is a Nigerian pharmacist and author of the poetry chapbook Exiled (Red Bird, 2025). His works appear in Hudson Review, Cincinnati Review, Rattle, Adroit, and elsewhere. He’s a 2026 Gregory Djanikian Finalist and winner of the Blossom Poetry Contest. He was shortlisted for the 2025 Evaristo Prize for African Poetry, the Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize, the Quarterly West Poetry Contest, and the Black Warrior Review Summer Poetry Contest. 

​Salem Paige is a poet and multidisciplinary artist based on traditional Coast Salish territories (so-called Vancouver, British Columbia). Their works revolve around the exploration of identity and discomfort, often through natural and technological worlds, and can be found in their debut collection of poetry The Third Self (2023, Sunday Mornings at the River Press) and their chapbooks miraculous dead things (2025, above/ground press), evolution artificialis (2025, Anstruther Press) and to grow roots (2023, bottlecap press), as well as several dozen literary journals and magazines. They have previously been twice nominated for Best of the Net, shortlisted for the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and the Bridport Poetry Prize, and longlisted for the ROOM Poetry Prize. More on Salem can be found at salempaige.com or @corpseofapoet on the Internet.

​Raphaela Pavlakos is a PhD candidate in McMaster University’s English and Cultural Studies Department. Her dissertation work looks at Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe creative texts in Southern Ontario. She is developing an ethical methodology for settler-scholars to do this work, called Critical Dispositioning.

​Shantell Powell is an elder goth and swamp hag raised in an apocalyptic cult on the land and off the grid. A Brave New Weird winner and an Aurora award finalist, she’s a graduate of the Writers’ Studio at Simon Fraser University, the LGBTQ+ novel immersive at GrubStreet, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s horror residency. Her writing is in Augur, The Deadlands, Nightmare, and dozens more. When she’s not writing or making things, she wrangles chinchillas and gets filthy in the woods.

Josh Quirion is a French-Canadian writer from the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. He holds an M.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from Concordia University. He is the co-founder and original editor-in-chief of Montreal literary magazine, yolk. His writing has appeared in The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, and The Antigonish Review, and others. He is the author of two short story collections: Towners & Other Stories (Shoreline Press, 2020) and Homebound (Shoreline Press, 2025), which was longlisted for the Leacock Medal for Humor. 

​Oliver Reimers is a writer from Sacramento, California. His work has been featured in Prime Number Magazine, Main Squeeze Literary Magazine, Gold Man Review, and elsewhere. His short fiction was awarded the 2025 Albion Review Prize for Fiction.

​Ben Robinson is a poet, musician and librarian. His first book, The Book of Benjamin, an essay on naming, birth, and grief was published by Palimpsest Press in 2023. His poetry collection, As Is, was published by ARP Books in September 2024. He has only ever lived in Hamilton, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas. You can find him online at benrobinson.work.

​E.S. Taillon is a queer, neurodivergent writer based in Tkaronto and former managing editor at PRISM Magazine. Their French-to-English translation of Scenes from the Underground was shortlisted for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. She is currently crocheting new covers for some worn-out chairs.

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Ontario resident Lisa Timpf writes poetry, book reviews, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Her speculative poetry collections Cats and Dogs in Space (2025) and In Days to Come (2022) are available from Hiraeth Publishing in print and electronic formats. Lisa is a member of SF Canada and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. You can find out more about her writing projects at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/. Lisa is also on Bluesky, @lisatimpf.bsky.social

​Lêđức Trọng’s poetry has been published by t’Art, SWERVE, Dream Boy Book Club, and others. Readings of his poems were played at Six Foot Gallery, and Spanish translations of his poems are forthcoming in Rialta.

​Ava Ugolini is on the road.

​Carter Vance is a writer and poet originally from Cobourg, Ontario, currently resident in Gatineau, Quebec. His work has appeared in such publications as The Smart Set, Contemporary Verse 2 and Plentitude, amongst others. His debut novel, Smaller Animals, is now available from Roundfire Books.

​Emmanuel G G Yamba is a Liberian writer and poet. A SprinNG, Ubwali and Obsidian Foundation Fellow 2025. His work has been featured or is forthcoming in A Long House, Poetry Journal, Pepper Coast Mag and elsewhere.