Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist and has published 25 books of fiction, poetry and numerous chapbooks. His latest books include For It is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe: New and Selected Poems, ed. Alessandro Porco, Ampers&thropocene (visuals) and a new novel, Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy. His national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and was also a finalist for both the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. His albums include Blind Willie Johnson’s Consonants and the Tree Frogs of Jamaica. A PhD in music composition, his writing, music, media works and visuals have been presented and broadcast internationally He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and at garybarwin.com
Lillian Nećakov is the author of six books of poetry, numerous chapbooks, broadsides and leaflets. Her book il virus was published in April 2021 by Anvil Press (A Feed Dog Book). She ran the Boneshaker Reading series in Toronto from 2010-2020.
