JESSICA BEBENEK is a Toronto poet and writer with work appearing in Prairie Fire, Grain, The Puritan, and Little Brother, among other places. She is the founder of the micro-press Grow & Grow and the author of three chapbooks, most recently Kettle Song. This fall, she will begin an MA in English & Creative Writing at Concordia University to continue work on her first full collection of poetry, tentatively titled No One Knows Us There. But mainly right now she knits.
JC BOUCHARD was born in Elliot Lake, a former mining town in northern Ontario. His poetry has appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, In/Words, (parenthetical), Rappahannock Review, Ditch, and Control Literary Magazine. In 2013, one of his poems was long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize and another received Honourable Mention for the John Newlove Poetry Award from Bywords. He is the author of two chapbooks: “Portraits” (In/Words Press) in 2014, and “Wool Water” (Words(on)Pages), forthcoming in 2015. He lives in Toronto.
dalton derkson is a punk poet from the prairies, currently residing in Toronto. He runs Hurtin’ Crüe Press, a D.I.Y. collective through which he promotes fellow Canadian poets and self-publishes too many chapbooks. Upon arriving in the city, he was superkicked by The Party Animal and quite frankly, his poems haven’t been the same since. For proof, check out his recent work in ottawater, SPANK the CARP, and In/Words Magazine or find him on Twitter @dirtyderk.
JM FRANCHETEAU is a rural transplant based in Ottawa, ON. He is currently Reviews Editor with Arc Poetry Magazine and co-organizer of the Ottawa Zine Off! series, and his writing has most recently appeared in CV2, ottawater and a chapbook, A pack of lies (Dog Bites Cameron, 2013). https://jmfrancheteau.wordpress.com
JULIE MANNELL is a Montreal-based writer of prose, poetry, and essays, originally from Fonthill, Ontario. Mannell currently writes for The Huffington Post, and her work has appeared in several journals, magazines, and textbooks. She is the recipient of the Lionel Shapiro Award for Excellency in Creative Writing and The Mona Adilman Poetry Prize. Mannell founded the McGill Creative Writing Society where she facilitated workshops and panels for three years. In 2012 Roseanne Barr gave Mannell the Vagenius Award.
SOREN STOCKMAN was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His writing has appeared in Narrative Magazine, St. Petersburg Review, Playboy, H.O.W. Young Poets, Tiferet Journal, Scrivener Creative Review, La Fovea, and others. Singing Saw Press published 100 broadsides of his piece, “Witness,” a collaboration with printmaker Anne Marie O’Neill, in 2013. He works as International Poetry Editor for Washington Square Review and Program Coordinator for the Summer Literary Seminars program in Vilnius, Lithuania.