Astrid Blodgett

Astrid Blodgett is the author of the short story collections This Is How You Start to Disappear and You Haven’t Changed a Bit. Her stories have appeared in many Canadian literary magazines, in translation in Inostrannaya Literatura, a Russian journal that publishes foreign writers, and in the Danish Royal Ministry of Education’s English exams. Her first collection was short- or long-listed for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story, the ReLit Award, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and the High Plains Book Award for Short Stories. Her second collection is a finalist in this year’s WGA Short Story Collection category, and one of the stories is shortlisted for the Howard O’Hagan Award. For many years she co-hosted a literary salon in her home. Astrid also loves multi-day river trips and very long walks. She lives in Edmonton / amiskwaciwâskahikan.

Kevin Chong

Kevin Chong is the author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently the novel The Double Life of Benson Yu, which was a finalist for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize and named a Best Book of Canadian Fiction by the CBC. His creative nonfiction and journalism have recently appeared in Time Magazine, Literary Hub, Montecristo, and the Globe and Mail. An associate professor at the UBC Okanagan, he lives in Vancouver with his family.

Lori Hahnel

Lori Hahnel is the award-winning author of five books of fiction. Her latest novel, Flicker, was published in the University of Calgary Press’ Brave & Brilliant Series in 2023. Vermin: Stories shortlisted for several awards and won a 2022 Alberta Literary Award. Her other books are the novels Love Minus Zero and After You’ve Gone, and the story collection Nothing Sacred, which was a finalist for an Alberta Literary Award. Her work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and CKUA Radio, and published in The Fiddlehead, Joyland, The Saturday Evening Post, The Hingston & Olsen Short Story Advent Calendar and many other journals and anthologies.