Meet Our 2025 Presenters
E. A. M. Trofimenkoff
E. A. M. Trofimenkoff is an eccentric and quirky author with a small-town heart and big dreams. When they're not working on their research or teaching chemistry class, you can find them in their lazy-boy chair with one or more of their four cats and a laptop writing about a sarcastic side character or a new grand adventure. Elizabeth is a proud member of the Lethbridge Alexandra's Writers Club, and is passionate about growing and supporting the local writing community. In their spare time, Elizabeth enjoys frequenting Analog Books, watching Lord of the Rings, reading The Hunger Games, volunteering at the Lethbridge Humane Society and the Lethbridge PAW society, and getting up to fun shenanigans with their partner. Elizabeth is the author of the international bestselling fantasy romance novel "A Kiss of the Siren's Song," and "You and I Collide," with many more stories to come.
Website: www.eamtrofimenkoff.com
Miranda Krogstad
Miranda Krogstad is a TEDx speaker and bestselling author of the book Glass Half Full of Poetry. A spoken word poet, eternal optimist, and workshop facilitator, Krogstad has connected with thousands of writers in dozens of cities across Western Canada. A member of the 2016 national wild card team, member of the 2013 Spoken Word Program at the Banff Centre, Calgary Arts Development grant recipient, and a 2-time Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient, she now runs the spoken word network YYSpeak: a communal and supportive space for local spoken word artists. Visit mirandakrogstad.com for more information.
Website: https://www.mirandakrogstad.com/
Jessica Brown (Renwick)
Jessica Renwick dove into the world of writing fiction as a preteen and never looked back. Naturally, this led to a career as a library assistant, and her first middle-grade book, The Book of Chaos, was published in 2018. She lives with her husband, two dogs, and a flock of backyard chickens in Red Deer, Alberta.
Website: https://www.jessicarenwickauthor.com
Susan Forest
Susan Forest is an award-winning editor and an author of over 25 internationally published short stories (Analog, Asimov's, Beneath Ceaseless Skies) and Aurora Award-winners Bursts of Fire and Flights of Marigold. Gathering of Ghosts (2023, third in the series), confronts issues of addictions in an epic fantasy world of intrigue and betrayal. She also edits an award-winning anthology series for Laksa Media Groups, most recently as co-editor of Life Beyond Us, with the European Astrobiology Institute. In 2021, she was Editor Guest of Honor at Keycon. Her latest works are nonfiction: Undaunted: Dark Tales of Courage Witnessed Through the Eyes of a Homicide Detective (co-authored with Dave Sweet) and Braided Tracks (biography).
Website: https://speculative-fiction.ca/
Robin van Eck
Robin writes fiction - literary, contemporary, horror, weird and offbeat - and creative nonfiction. Most recently her work has appeared in WonderShift - 40th Anniversary Anthology of the Alexandra Writers Centre, Forbidden Fruit from The Seventh Terrace and Very Much Alive, stories of resilience from The Selkie UK. Her work has also appeared in, LampLight Magazine, Woven Tales Press, Waiting Anthology (UofA Press, 2018), FreeFall Magazine, Freshwater Pearls Anthology (Recliner Books, 2011), Prairie Journal, Crack the Spine, Maudlin House, Minerva Rising, Alberta Views and various other online and print publications both in Canada and internationally. Her first novel, Rough, was released in November 2020, with Stonehouse Publishing and she is into the final draft of her second novel, a literary speculative fiction novel, tentatively titled In Lieu of Flowers. Robin lives in Calgary with her daughter and acts as the emotional support human for her very anxious dog. She is repped by Stacey Kondla with The Rights Factory.
Website: www.robinzvaneck.com
Mandy Eve-Barnett
Mandy’s presentations are practical, inspirational, interactive, and actionable. She draws on over 10 years’ experience as a multi-genre author, freelance writer and writing community advocate as well as Secretary of The Writers Foundation of Strathcona County and past President of the Arts & Culture Council of Strathcona Council and past Secretary of Alberta Authors Cooperative. Her other life experiences are as a business owner, a freelance writer, a nursing professional, and an administrative professional, these allow Mandy to speak on a diverse number of topics. With ten books published since 2011, and more awaiting the editing process, Mandy knows the joys and difficulties of the writing life. She also hosts the Writers Circle monthly meeting and creates weekly writing prompts for the WFSC website. Mandy has been blogging since 2010 and has over 6000 followers on her blog. She supports, encourages, and mentors writers through regular interviews and connection through her blog and social media.
Website: www.mandyevebarnett.com | www.dreamwritepublishing.ca
Joan Donaldson-Yarmey
Joan Donaldson-Yarmey was born in New Westminster, B.C. Canada, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She began her writing career with a short story and progressed to travel and historical articles. Since she likes to travel, she wrote seven travel books, the research for which took her camping throughout Alberta, B.C., the Yukon, and Alaska. These are her Backroads series. After the last travel book, Joan switched to fiction and so far has had twelve books published: three mystery novels, Illegally Dead, The Only Shadow In The House, and Whistler's Murder in a boxed set called the Travelling Detective Series; Gold Fever her stand-alone novel which combines mystery with a little romance; West to the Bay and West to Grande Portage, two Canadian Historical novels for young adults; Romancing the Klondike, Rushing the Klondike, and Sleuthing the Klondike her three Yukon novels; and two Christmas holiday romance/comedies titled Twelve Dates of Christmas and Single Bells which she wrote with her sister Gwen Donaldson. Her new series is called The Dating Coach Mysteries and the first novel, A Killer Match came out in 2022. The second book, A Lethal Proposal, was published in April, 2024. She has now returned to non-fiction with her latest book The Art of Growing Older: It’s Not Age, Its Attitude and Ability. Joan has lived on acreages and in various towns and cities in Alberta and B.C. and is now back in Edmonton after being gone for seventeen years.
Juanita Rose Violini
Juanita Rose Violini has written & produced live, interactive murder mystery entertainment for over 35 years. Her scripts have been produced world wide for the last 15 years and are available online at the Mystery Factory website. CLUETRAIL - From Whodunnit to Solution is Juanita’s book that gives the ‘immediately applicable nuts and bolts instruction’ of how to diagram a mystery plot following her custom method, The Mystery Bones. It also gives reveals and gives examples of how to create, twist & hide clues essential to writing a satisfying mystery. Juanita is also gaining success as a plot consultant getting rave reviews from fiction writers, screenwriters and youtubers. Juanita is collaborating with her husband, author Tony Berryman, on two book series written under the pseudonym of Trigger Jones: Joe Drive, Adventure Science Fiction and Magpie Mountain, Time Travelling Treasure Hunts. Her book, Almanac of the Infamous, a daily dose of the world's most baffling mysteries and paranormal wonders, is published by Weiser Books.
Website: https://mysteryfactory.com/
Cristy Watson
Cristy Watson is an award-winning author of eight novels for middle-grade and young-adult readers, as well as having poems appear in several magazines and anthologies. Since retiring from teaching she has been busy with editing and mentoring authors, and participating in writing contests like the Poetry Marathon, the three-day novel contest, and NANOWRIMO. She also offers creative writing workshops, along with volunteering at writing conferences and judging writing contests.
Fiona McTaggart
Fiona is a lifelong lover of fantasy, sci-fi and genre fiction of all sorts as both a writer and a reader. She has an honours BA in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University in Montreal and is currently working on her third novel.
Peter Katsnelson
Peter Katsnelson is a published youth author who has been in the practice for six years, getting his stories published for the first time in a magazine at the age of nine. Since then, he has won Best Individual Poet at the Alberta provincial poetry competition, independently published his debut poetry collection, This is Fine, and works as an in-person writing group instructor for prose at the AWCS Youth society. Apart from writing, he enjoys strawberry banana smoothies, his two devilish cats, and complaining about the Transformers franchise.
Monica Zwikstra
Monica Sagle Zwikstra is a member of the Crowsnest Writers critique group in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. Born on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Monica has always had a vivid imagination and a passion for exploring new worlds through her writing. She is the author of two epic fantasy novels, “Dragons Flight” and “Alban’s Choice”, both of which are available on Amazon. Monica’s writing skills extend to short stories as well, with her story “Storm House” being published in the anthology “A Haunting of Words” and her flash fiction “Humanity” appearing in Polar Borealis Magazine #7 and the “Best of Borealis Magazine Anthology” “Stellar Evolutions”. Besides writing, Monica loves gardening, caring for cats, and exploring the world of dragons. She lives with her patient husband in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Alberta, where she also enjoys learning American Sign Language.
Website: https://www.monicazwikstra.com/
Ashley Postman-Keller
Ashley Postman-Keller is a freelance editor with a graduate certificate in publishing from Ryerson (Toronto Metropolitan) University. She offers a spectrum of editing services through her business, Aspen Editorial: Developmental (Structural) Editing; Stylistic (Line) Editing; Copy Editing; Proofreading; Stylistic/Copy Combo Edit; and a First Three Chapters Edit. Ashley is an avid fan of YA/NA fantasy, romantasy, and adventure. Her sole goal while editing is to polish an author's book until it reflects all the hard work and love poured into completing it.
Jenna Greene
Jenna Greene has been writing since before she could hold a pencil. Once she could pen a tale, she composed poetry and short stories, finding that she was best at writing novels. Her first fantasy story, Imagine, came to her in her first year of university, and she drafted it between essays, mid-terms, and reading assignments. Once finished university, with a B.A. in English as well as a B.Ed, she began her career as a teacher and also found time to return to her writing. Jenna won the 2019 Moonbeam Children’s Book award (gold) for her Reborn series. Having moved to teaching younger students, as well as the addition of a daughter to her family, Jenna has been recently inspired by Children’s Books. In 2021, her first picture book was released: Winston, the Well-Dressed Wombat.
Website: https://jennagreene.ca/
Facebook: @jennabutrenchukgreene
Penny & Scott Warris
Analog Books co-owners.
Website: www.analogbooks.net
Linda J Pedley
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Website: www.dreamwritepublishing.ca