Contributors
Featured
Lauren Allen is a social media marketer, theatre artist, and professional pet sitter. Originally from Saskatoon, Canada, she now lives in Paris, France. She is a Hufflepuff, cat person, and puzzle collector. She helps entrepreneurs find their footing on social media.
Elise Pallagi is a poet and multi-disciplinary performance artist and a member of the 2017 Saskatoon Poetry Slam Team. Elise’s work focuses on her personal experience and struggles as a transgender woman growing up and living in the Canadian prairie. As a performer, Elise has been a featured artist at The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, Regina Word Up, Tonight it’s Poetry, The Saskatoon Pride Festival and The Ness Creek Music Festival and has performed at numerous shows and open mics across Canada. Combining elements of Vaudeville, Burlesque, subversive politics and roller derby with slam poetry, she likes to convey emotional authenticity and relatability in her work, that both moves audiences and touches hearts and minds.
Originally from Uganda, Iryn Tushabe is a writer and independent journalist living in Saskatchewan. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in several magazines includingBriarpatch Magazine and Prairies North. Her short fiction has been published in book seven of the Carter V. Cooper short fiction anthology (Fall 2017). She is at work on her first novel, a work of literary fiction that explores the moment when a young woman steps away from her family to make her own way — disastrously, tragically, but ultimately with renewed compassion — into adulthood.
Cassi Smith was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in 2013 with a Double Major in Political Studies and English, In 2017 she graduated from the U of S with an Masters of Fine Arts in Writing after successfully completing a collection of nonfiction short stories based on interviews with Saskatchewan’s First Nations Elders. Cassi is the the fourth recipient of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award (2017). She currently lives and writes in Saskatoon.
Aidan Morgan is a writer and photographer based out of Regina. A household name across his household, Aidan Morgan wakes up every morning before his alarm because the cats want breakfast in the dark. He can't remember what he did last week but he remembers the first time he ever ate Arby's. It was 1988 and it was horrible. And it was in the middle of rehearsals for "Grease". Ask your doctor if Aidan Morgan is a prescription drug in the first place.
Sabrina Materie has been waking up early to look at the stars for as long as she can remember. You can follow her on instagram @materies.
(photo credit: Sarah Molder)
Nickita Longman is from the George Gordon First Nation on Treaty 4 but has spent most of her life in Regina. Nickita graduated from the First Nations University of Canada with a BA in English in 2013. She is the Indigenous Program Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, a freelance writer, and a Briarpatch board member.
Elan Morgan is a web designer, writer, and feminist activist. They’ve spoken across North America at various conferences, on tv and radio, and at TEDx, and they’ve been seen in the Globe & Mail, Best Health, Woman’s Day, and Flow magazines. A personal blogger since 2003 with an interest in online privacy and culture, Elan’s stepped back from speaking to concentrate on writing poetry and contemplating connection and love in online spaces that are specifically built to foster and sensationalize division. Find Elan on Twitter, and check out their Five Star Blog Roundup and Grace in Small Things group on Facebook.
Kaitlin recently graduated with a Psychology degree and is currently working on her second degree in Fine Arts. She loves Saskatchewan skies, photography, and design. She also can’t stop talking about Singapore and Japan as she prepares to embark on a study abroad trip this summer in July and August!
You can find her online at instagram.com/kaitlinwong.
Maia Stark is a Canadian artist living and working in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Stark works primarily in painting, drawing, and illustration, with new focus in sculptural and functional ceramics
Stark graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in 2014. Her thesis, SelfSame, was nominated for the WAGS Distinguished Master's Thesis Award, competing with theses across Arts & Science Graduate departments. She didn't win, that's okay.
An invested interest in body politics, particularly of the female-gendered body, led to various research outlets; eventually focusing on concepts of the Grotesque and the Uncanny. Stark's recent work has dealt with Doubles: doppelgängers, twins, and clones.
Photo credit: Maki Fotos
Rolli is the author of numerous books for children and adults. He’s a regular cartoonist for The
Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest (US Edition), Harvard Business Review and other popular
outlets. Visits his webworld (rollistuff.com) and follow him on Twitter @rolliwrites.
Ian Campbell is a filmmaker and illustrator who works in video, drawing and performance art. His short films have been screened across Canada at film
and experimental media festivals such as Festival Du Nouveau Cinema (Montreal), WNDX (Winnipeg), Antimatter (Victoria), 8Fest (Toronto) and others in Europe and the US. He has presented performance work using live improvised projected video at artist run centres and performance venues across western Canada. He is currently based in Saskatchewan where he teaches film at the University of Regina.