Betsy Warland is the author of fourteen books of creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry, and has been a manuscript consultant and editor for more than 30 years. Betsy is an established figure in the Canadian literary community and is deeply committed to community and collaboration. Throughout her career, she has been dedicated to emerging writers. In 2011, She received Pandora's Literary Festival BC Writer Mentor Award. Betsy founded and was the previous Director of The Writers Studio at SFU and the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, and continues to teach in both programs. She received the City of Vancouver Mayor's Award for Literary Excellence in 2016. In 2022, an annual national prize, The VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award, was launched. Betsy has significant experience editing collections of writing, including literary anthologies (e.g., InVersions: Writing by Dykes, Queers, and Lesbians) and special issues of literary journals (e.g., The Malahat Review - Queer Perspectives Issue guest editor).
Seema Shah is a self-taught visual artist and writer with lived experience of mental health issues. Her creative nonfiction has been published in literary journals and anthologies, shortlisted for the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives' Narrative Essay Contest and twice for the Surrey International Writers' Conference Contest, and longlisted for the Susan Crean Award for Nonfiction 2023. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries in Canada, the US, and the UK, and she was a recipient of The Beaumont Studios' Artist To Watch Award 2022. Alongside her own creative practice, Seema is the organizer of Professional Artistic Growth Made Accessible, a project that offers free professional development opportunities to Vancouver artists and writers with lived experience of mental health and/or substance use issues, including workshops and consultations. This project laid the groundwork for Off the Map. As part of the project, Seema has co-curated four gallery exhibitions with Yuri Arajs, Director and Curator at Outsiders and Others in Vancouver. seemashahart.com
Kate Bird's creative nonfiction has been published in Queen's Quarterly, The Sun, Prairie Fire, The Humber Literary Review, and other literary journals. She recently received a Professional Development grant from Access Copyright to work on a collection of personal essays. A professional librarian with a master's degree in Library and Information Science, Kate has been the researcher for numerous books, including Making Headlines: 100 Years of The Vancouver Sun, which won the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award at the 2013 BC Book Prizes, and Lilies and Fireweed: Frontier Women of British Columbia. She is the author of three books of newspaper photography, including the bestselling Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos from A Decade That Changed the City, which was nominated for the 2016 British Columbia Historical Writing Award, as well as City On Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots and Strikes and Magic Moments in BC Sports: A Century in Photos. You can find Kate at katebird.ca
