We have been lucky enough to work with the following authors:
Colleen Addison completed a Master's degree in Creative Writing, followed by a PhD in health information; she then promptly got sick herself. She now lives, writes, and heals on Bowen Island, where there are squirrels and a cougar to keep her company. Her work has been featured in various publications, including Painted Pebble Lit Mag, River Teeth: Beautiful Things, and Micromance. She is a recent winner of the George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest with Third Wednesday.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Kim Bannerman writes novels and short stories from her home in Cumberland, BC. After receiving a BA in Anthropology from UBC, she completed further studies at the London School of Journalism while working as a promotional writer. Her essays have appeared in anthologies like She’s Shameless from St. Martin’s Press and In the Company of Animals from Nimbus Press. She received a Canada Council Grant to complete her historical murder mystery novel Bucket of Blood in 2008, and she is the author of twelve novels, including the Circus Salmagundi Mysteries series and the modern fairy tale The Tattooed Wolf.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic, Small Seasons, Monster Novels, the Circus Salmagundi Mysteries, and The Bucket of Blood Series.
Marie-France Boissonneault, PhD, RCC, is a writer, interdisciplinary scholar, and clinical counsellor based on the West Coast of Canada. Her fiction and essays explore the intersections of memory, landscape, and the unseen histories that shape our sense of belonging. Her recent creative (non)fiction works include Taste in Flight (Spillwords), Corpse Whale (The Liar Literary Zine), and Hiraeth (Boulevard Magazine). She has also written for Harrowsmith Magazine and authored works centred on conservation, including Beauty and the Enchanted Beast: The Narwhal in the Canadian Cultural Landscape (Tamkang Review) and Predator or Scapegoat? The Australian Grey Nurse Shark through the Public Lens (Australian Zoologist).
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Bill Engleson is a retired social worker, pickleball aficionado, novelist, poet, humourist, essayist, and flash fictionista. He was raised in Nanaimo, lived for decades in New Westminster, and retired to Denman Island in 2003. He is the author of two novels, Like a Child to Home, which received an Honourable Mention at the inaugural 2016 Whistler Independent Book Awards, and 2023’s The Life of Gronsky. In 2016, Silver Bow Publishing released his second book, a collection of humorous literary essays entitled Confessions of an Inadvertently Gentrifying Soul.
Deep into Covid’s first and second wave, his poetry appeared in several anthologies including, VIRL’s Alone but Not Alone Poetry in Isolation, Poems and Poets from the Comox Valley, Victoria’s Planet Earth’s The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! the first and at least one subsequent edition of the Van Isle Poetry Collective. In the past few years, his fiction/creative non-fiction has appeared in Island Writer Magazine and Geist. He is currently writing a prequel to his first novel entitled Drawn Towards the Sun and a sequel to The Life of Gronsky tentatively dubbed, The Book of Gronsky.
Contributed to: Small Seasons
Wren Handman is a queer novelist, screenwriter, and video game writer. She has published eight novels, for both adult and teen audiences. She was the lead writer for the award-winning sitcom The Switch, and is a co-founder of Ludic Lemur Entertainment, where she is the Creative Director.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Haley Healey is a high school counsellor, registered clinical counsellor, and the bestselling author of books for all ages about extraordinary historical women. As a self-proclaimed trailblazing woman, she enjoys exploring Vancouver Island’s trails, waters, and wilderness. She has an avid interest in wild places and lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
After leaving the rolling foothills of Alberta thirteen years ago, Bernadette Keenan has never ceased to marvel at the beauty of the Comox Valley. Bernadette graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in English, focusing in Creative Writing, before attaining an Education degree in Secondary English. As an educator and writer, she spends her time encouraging students to immerse themselves in literature and take up the tools of the craft. She is a mother of two and enjoys skiing, cycling, walking the many trails in the Valley forests, swimming in the lakes and rivers, and paddle boarding.
Contributed to: Small Seasons
Kim Letson spent her childhood living in various parts of Canada and Europe with a Canadian military father. She and her husband, Mike Simpson, served twenty-year careers in the Canadian Forces. Retiring in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, they focussed on raising their two sons, Brian and Kyle, pursued second careers as professional ski patrollers on nearby Mount Washington and for a time owned a sea kayaking company based on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Since Mike’s death in 2007, seeking solace and following her nomadic spirit, Kim has indulged her passion for off-the-beaten-path international travel. When at home, she walks with friends, writes and enjoys her unconventional garden.
Contributed to: Small Seasons
A retired educator, Martha Gerow spent her teen years on Hornby Island. She worked in Europe for ten years before returning to Canada to become a middle school teacher and elementary school principal. Martha is a member of the Comox Valley Writers Society and has attended workshops with Jeanette Taylor, Wendy Bancroft, Jessica McDermott, Judy Leblanc, Margo McLoughlin, Jennifer Manual, Tilar Mazzeo and Susan Juby. In addition, she belongs to two small writing support groups which are instrumental in inspiring her to continue telling stories. Her writing focuses on family and growing up on Hornby and Texada Islands. Martha is working on a creative memoir which allows her to go beyond personal experience, giving insight into universal themes that run throughout all family stories, with the aim of learning, understanding and conveying that we are all capable and strong in our own ways.
Contributed to: Small Seasons
Suzanne Malone finds inspiration for her flash fiction and short stories in travel, but also comes from life as a parent, grandparent, healthcare provider and ski coach.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Coreena McBurnie enjoys writing, painting, and exploring around her home in Kamloops, BC and on Hornby Island. Her first novel, Prophecy (which placed in the quarter finals of the Amazon Novel Breakthrough Awards), and in her current novel are retellings based in Greek mythology. You can find some of her stories in the Writerly Curiosities anthology.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Olivia McFarlan is an 18-year-old high school student, but in less than 4 months, she’ll be off to university, majoring in social sciences with a possible minor in writing. Since Grade 10, she’s had the opportunity to take creative writing classes, and now writes stories whenever possible.
Contributed to: Small Seasons
Bryn P.S is an Early Childhood Educator and aspiring author from Northern British Columbia. Bryn spends days crafting, changing diapers, and singing songs about cleaning up our toys, but once 5 o'clock hits, goes straight to reading and writing horrors and thrillers! While Bryn loves running a daycare, her dream is to one day be a full- time author, and hopes that this anthology will be the first step.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Zoe Pigott is an aspiring artist based in Cumberland, BC. She enjoys writing short stories and is working towards becoming an animator, which will allow her to bring her creations to life. After work, she walks in the woods and finds inspiration in dark and mossy corners.
Contributed to: Small Seasons
Nico Silver (they/them) is a queer non-binary writer of fantasy, romance, and horror. They like stories with magic lurking on the edges and tend to write about finding joy in everyday things and sweet-but-spicy stories where two people face down horrors together. They have written novels and short stories in the urban fantasy and epic fantasy genres, plus the romantic versions of both, and dabble in folk horror. They are also an artist and illustrator (as Nik Sylvan), working in linocut, pen & ink, watercolour, and digital media.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic
Janet L Whitehead is writer, artist, and a lifelong advocate for the creative soul. Current publications include her memoir Beyond A! Imaginings and the anthologies Writerly Curiosities and Platypus Tales. In her career and voluntarily, Janet supports people with neurodivergences and people who are creatively inclined. She hosts workshops, retreats, write-a-thons, and a weekly writing group. Janet has trained as a tall ship sailor, travelled extensively, and adores camping and paddling throughout BC, especially when she has her 4 grandchildren in tow.
Contributed to: Cascadia Gothic