Sticks & Stones

Nikki is a writer of genre-bending fiction, a science communicator, and an informal educator from the heavily forested lands of Treaty 8 territory. Now living in the Pacific Northwest, she tries her best to impersonate a sea sponge by enjoying a simple life while soaking up all the knowledge and experiences that float her way. Unlike a sponge, she’s a gifted storyteller and has performed her work for spoken word audiences, Science Slam events, and scientific conferences across North America. She is a collector of hobbies, and often enjoy mixing watercolours, cuddling her leonberger, and obsessing over her plants.

Rose is an emerging writer living on the Lekwungen people’s territory/Victoria. Her work explores women's health, resilience, and agency. She’s had pieces shortlisted in contests by Room Magazine and Flash Fiction Magazine. Other than writing, Rose spends her time chauffeuring her children and transporting books to and from the library. Find her on Instagram @rosecamarawrites 

Andrea Marcelino is an interdisciplinary artist born and based out of Tkaronto/Toronto, whose practice includes writing, photography, video, and film. She earned her MFA at EICAR in Paris, France and in 2019, was the recipient of a Canada Council of the Arts grant and a Toronto Arts Council grant for a short film project currently in post-production. Her main artistic focus is to tell impactful stories with complex female characters and demonstrate the importance of female storytelling in our narrative and visual culture.

Cornelia Mars is a writer based north of Montreal. Her writing has been published in The Capra Review, The Keeping Room, and others, and is forthcoming in The Humber Literary Review. She holds a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from Concordia University, and she was selected for the Quebec Writers' Federation's mentorship program in 2023.

E. J. Nash is an Ottawa-based writer. Previous work has been published by CBC, The Globe and Mail, Nature, and Woman’s World. Say hi at ejnashwrites.com or on X @Nash_EJ.

Katrine Raymond lives in Hamilton, ON with her family and is currently completing a diploma in Social Services Work. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, knitting, and writing biographies for the Canadian Encyclopedia. Her plays have been staged in Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival, HamilTEN, Supercrawl, the Beamsville Lamplighter Festival, and the Toronto Fringe. She is the grateful recipient of an Ontario Arts Council grant in support of her nonfiction project “Complicated Anatomies,” which explores the friendship and foeship between Dr. Emily Stowe and Dr. Jennie Trout, the first licensed female doctors in Canada.

Tara K. Ross is a writer, podcaster, and audiobook narrator based in Southern Ontario. She is Publishers' Way Coordinator for the Eden Mills Writers' Festival and co-hosts The Hope Prose Podcast. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Tamarind, Dulcet, and Kaleidoscope, among others. When she's not working as a Speech-Language Pathologist or being all things mom, Tara strives not to kill off wildlife with impossible odds of survival. Follow her writing journey on Instagram @tara.k.ross

 K. R. Wilson is a Toronto-area writer. His novel An Idea About my Dead Uncle won the inaugural Guernica Prize in 2018, and his novel Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millennia was long-listed for the 2022 Leacock Medal. His follow-up novel Stan on Guard: A Two Part Invention will be published by Guernica Editions in 2026 and his SF-noir Tendrils by Palimpsest Press in 2027. His work has appeared in various literary journals and the flash fiction anthology This Will Only Take a Minute. He can be found at www.krwilson.ca and on social media at @krwbooks.