Curtis Gillespie is the author of five books, including the memoirs Almost There and Playing Through and the novel Crown Shyness. He has won or been nominated for a variety of awards for his books including the Danuta Gleed Award, the Henry Kreisel Award and the MacEwan Prize. He is the recipient of seven National Magazine Awards from twenty nominations for his writing on science, politics, sports, travel and the arts, including a record-tying four awards in 2014. In 2010, he co-founded the narrative journalism magazine Eighteen Bridges, which he also edits. In addition to his own writing, he has worked with many of Canada’s best writers as an editor, teacher and mentor at the University of Alberta, the Banff Centre for the Arts and Eighteen Bridges.
Jason Purcell is a writer and musician from amiskwaciwaskahikan, Treaty 6 (Edmonton, Alberta), where they are also the co-owner of Glass Bookshop. As a chronically ill writer, Jason writes at the intersection of queerness and illness and is the author of the chapbook A Place More Hospitable (Anstruther Press). Swollening is their first full-length collection.
