Dr. Aaron Tucker is the author of seven books, including the novels Soldiers Hunters Not Cowboys (Coach House Books, 2023) and Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos (Coach House Books, 2018); Y was translated into French and published by Éditions La Peuplade in 2020. His writing and new media pieces have been published and exhibited across Canada, the United States, and Europe. In addition, his scholarly work on facial recognition technologies won the Governor General’s Gold Medal and is the subject of the forthcoming Flexible Faces: The History, Software, and Politics of Facial Recognition (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2026). He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English & Communication and Media Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, where he serves as the Program Director of the Creative Writing Diploma.

Oana Avasilichioaei (www.oanalab.com) works in the porous spaces between poetry, sound, performance, photography, and translation, exploring how language tunes and shapes voices, histories, modes of thinking and listening. Interested in polyphonic and plurilingual structures, she investigates tactile expression and the tension between the pitched and the unpitched in performance/sound works that mix electronics, ambient textures, noise, and vocal play. Avasilichioaei has published seven collections of poetry hybrids, including Chambersonic (Talonbooks, 2024), Eight Track (Talonbooks, 2019) and Limbinal (Talonbooks, 2015), and written a libretto for a one-act opera Cells of Wind (FAWN Chamber Collective, 2022). Based in Montréal/Tiohtià:ke, she performs regularly in theatres, art centres, and festivals in Quebec, Canada, USA, and Europe and has been a poet and artist in residence at the University of Calgary, Green College, UBC, Simon Fraser University, OBORO, and Rhizome, among others. She has been awarded the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry (2012), the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation (2017), the Cole Foundation Prize for Translation (2019), and the Bernard Heidsieck Centre Pompidou International Literature Prize (2025) for her intermedia work.

Steph is a filmmaker, arts administrator, and creative collaborator with a passion for storytelling and digital arts. A graduate of Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production, her creative practice is rooted in documentary filmmaking and exploring the stories that connect people and place.

Living and working in the Canadian Rockies, Steph is continually inspired by the intersection of landscape, art, and community. Working at Banff Centre allows her to engage with artists from around the world, enriching her understanding of creative practice across disciplines and holding space for artists to experiment, collaborate, and grow.

Whether behind the camera or supporting artists behind the scenes, she is driven by a belief in the power of digital storytelling to inspire curiosity, foster connection, and create meaningful cultural experiences.

Alaya Dawn Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and the author of eight novels for adults and young adults. Her most recent novel, The Library of Broken Worlds, was a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin prize. Her novel Trouble the Saints won the 2021 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Her debut short story collection, Reconstruction, was an Ignyte Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and been nominated for the Nebula, Ignyte, Locus and Sturgeon awards. She lives in Mexico.

Anuja Varghese is an award-winning writer of literary fiction, fantasy, and erotica/romance where women of color get leading roles! Anuja’s short story collection, titled Chrysalis (House of Anansi, 2023), explores South Asian diaspora experience through a feminist, queer, speculative lens. In 2023, Chrysalis won the Writer’s Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2024, it was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Fiction, among others. Anuja’s work has also been featured in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), and Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food (Dundurn Press, 2025). Anuja’s debut novel, A Kiss of Crimson Ash (Penguin Random House, 2026), is a medieval India-inspired fantasy romance, and the first book in a lush new trilogy pitched as Dungeons & Dragons quest meets Bollywood love story. Anuja holds a degree in English Literature from McGill University and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University of Toronto. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her partner, two kids, and two cats.

Peggy Burns and Tom Devlin moved to Canada over twenty years ago to work for Drawn & Quarterly with Burns as Marketing Director and Devlin as Creative Director. Each made incisive business decisions to help D+Q grow into one of Canada's internationally renowned arts companies. Previously, Burns used to direct publicity at DC Comics and was a fashion and lifestyle publicist in NYC. Devlin was the publisher of Highwater Books, a groundbreaking art-first comic book company in the early aughts. He has also worked at Harvard University Press, Diamond Comics and the legendary Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square. In 2023, Burns and Devlin became majority owners of D+Q.

Jillian Tamaki is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and cartoonist who makes books for people of all different ages–from picture books to YA comics to adult graphic novels. Her webcomic-turned-graphic novel, SuperMutant Magic Academy, is currently being adapted for television by Cartoon Network. As an instructor she has taught at the School of Visual and Arts, The New School, and has conducted several private mentorships with an emphasis on those with non-traditional art backgrounds. A Calgary native, she currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Jesse Lonergan is a comic book artist living in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His comic work is known for its experimental layouts and innovative page compositions, playing with the formal elements of the comics medium to tell stories in new and original ways. He works with both mainstream and indie publishers, as well as dabbling in self-publishing. His wordless comic HEDRA was nominated for an Eisner for best single issue in 2020, and his graphic novel DROME was featured on many best-of-the-year lists in 2025. He likes tiny-tiled floors, distorted guitars, junk food, old maps, and movies about sad robots.
 

Brooklyn-based cartoonist Gabrielle Bell has contributed to The New Yorker, The Paris Review, McSweeneys, The Believer, and Vice Magazine. Her first full-length graphic memoir, Everything Is Flammable, was named one of 2017’s best graphic novels by Entertainment Weekly, Paste, and Publisher’s Weekly. Her most recent project, What Is the Deal With Gabrielle Bell (2026), is an autobiographical series exploring different mental health modalities.

Dasha Tereshchenko is a Canadian mezzo-soprano praised as “most impressive” by The New York Times and possessing “star quality to spare” by Blogcritics. She is a Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Encouragement Award winner, a recipient of the Domaine Forget Prize at the 2025 Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Competition, and an Opéra de Montréal National Auditions Finalist. Recent roles include Silvia Lombardi in the U.S. premiere of Korngold’s The Silent Serenade (Mannes Opera), Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Music on Site), and the title role in Handel’s Silla (Chicago Summer Opera). She holds degrees from Mannes School of Music and the University of Toronto, and is pursuing a Graduate Diploma at The Juilliard School in the coming 26/27 academic year.