2024/25 Manuscript Reviewers
Let us guide you on your path to publication and get your book and
stories publication and reader ready.
stories publication and reader ready.
literary, fantasy, historical fiction (short stories and novels), creative non-fiction
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Alex Benarzi is a writer, editor, and educator in Calgary, AB. He is passionate about accessibility in writing and fascinated by the little absurdities that make the mundane extraordinary. Alex has had several short stories published in anthologies and online journals, including "The Lies We Tell" with the Selkie Review in 2021, and "Nerium" with Coffin Hop Press in 2019. Alex received his editing certification from SFU in 2022.
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poetry (all forms); short form (articles, columns, blog posts, creative non-fiction, short stories); long form (mainstream fiction, Women's, YA, MG); cartoon captioning (compressed narrative).
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Growing up in Southern Ontario gave Dorothy Bentley a love of nature, books, and scribbling words. Transplanted to Alberta, she is a freelance writer and workshop presenter. Her picture book, Summer North Coming, was published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside in 2019, her YA novel, Escape from the Wildfire, was published by Lorimer Kids & Teens, 2022; and her poetry was included in the M(othering) Anthology, Inanna Press, 2022. In the time period BC (before children), she won the WBRL Excuses Excuses contest. Recently, she was a winner of the RMWB Words in Motion poetry contest (2016), and she was short-listed for an Excellence in the Arts Award, Literary Arts category, by Arts Council Wood Buffalo (2022). She lives with her family in the Alberta Foothills which are never too quiet with their excitable sheltie, Clay, and a cat named Whitney Mewston who likes to sing.
Website: dorothybentley.ca |
speculative/fantasy fiction, general fiction
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Falon Fayant is a Metis writer. Her main focus is young adult fantasy fiction and everything magical. (What is life without a bit of whimsy?) She also dabbles in adult and middle grade fiction, always with a speculative or magical realism element. Falon lives in Redwater, a small town North of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with her boyfriend, their four children, two dogs, and two cats. When Falon is not writing, she works in municipal finance and human resources. (Math. Eww!) It fuels the household and her vehicle, but not her soul. Cue the writing. Falon is currently working on completing her Creative Writing Certificate through the University of Calgary’s Continuing Education program, and is a member and past treasurer for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. She is currently on the board of the Redwater Public Library. Falon’s unpublished young adult fantasy novel, Shadow of the Moon, was short-listed for ECW Press’s Best New Speculative Fiction Novel in 2022. In June 2019, she was short-listed for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Jon Whyte Memorial Essay literary award. In 2023 and 2019, she won first place in Annual Kemosa Scholarship for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Mothers Who Write. Shadow of the Moon was also short-listed in 2017 for the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators, and Performers (CANSCAIP) Writing for Children Competition. Website: www.falonfayant.com
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poetry, fiction (long and short), creative non-fiction, graphic novels
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Richard Harrison has published seven books of poetry, including the Governor General's Award winning On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood (Wolsak & Wynn 2016). He is currently Professor Emeritus at Mount Royal University, where he taught courses in Essay and Creative Writing, Literature, and Comics & Graphic Novels for the past 25 years. He is also the moderator for the "Thursday Group" poetry workshop, which has met weekly for 20 years; taken together, members of the group have published their poetry in a multitude of journals and anthologies, including prize-winners in open competitons, as well as a total of 17 books of poetry.
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literary or literary speculative fiction (short stories, novels, novellas) "Experimental" pieces also welcomed; memoirs and creative nonfiction.
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A writer, songwriter, and child of Vietnamese refugees, ViNa Nguyễn (she/they) embodies queer diasporic joy, abundance, nostalgia, melancholy, and grief through stories that verge on or enter the hyperreal. Raised on Treaty 7 territory, they were shortlisted in Room’s 2022 short forms contest and won Prairie Fire’s 2021 fiction award and Briarpatch’s 2020 creative nonfiction contest. They’re grateful to these journals and to anti-lang., Augur, Plenitude, Polyglot, The Ex-Puritan, The New Quarterly, The Selkie, and others for publishing their non/fiction and poetry.
As an editor/reviewer, ViNa practices what Matthew Salesses sets out in his book, Craft in the Real World; she understands that certain craft choices are not better but influenced by western cultural expectations and takes great care in helping shape a piece of work. You can find their words and music at writerfluid.com or say hello @ambidextrous_pencil (IG) or @vina_ish (Twitter). |
picture books (non-rhyming), adult fiction (women's fiction, general commercial fiction)
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Joy Norstrom (she/her) is a fiction writer and social worker residing in Treaty 7 Territory, Calgary Alberta. Her picture book, Marjorie Magic (Dixi Books Ltd) was released in 2023. Joy also writes short stories and novel length work. Her books Flying the Nest (2020) and Out of Play (2016) feature quirky characters and contemporary settings. Joy enjoys supporting writers with picture book manuscripts designed to engage young readers. She specializes in non-rhyming/prose.
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poetry, literary fiction, nonfiction
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Matthew Stepanic (he/she/they) is a queer writer who lives and works on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton. They edit and design chapbooks for the recently launched Agatha Press. They are a co-author of Project Compass (Monto Books, 2017) and the author of Relying on that Body (Glass Buffalo, 2018). Their work has appeared in Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp, 2022), Plenitude, FreeFall, and others. They host VERS/E, a queer poetry open mic that runs the first Wednesday of the month at Felice Cafe from September to April. Visit them online at matthewstepanic.com and follow them on Instagram and Twitter @mlstepanic
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