BOARD AND STAFF

David A. Robertson is a Cree author from Norway House Cree Nation and the Editorial Director of Swift Water Books, an imprint dedicated to supporting and amplifying Indigenous voices. His work is rooted in community, with a focus on storytelling as a way to strengthen relationships, share knowledge, and support future generations. He is the author of numerous acclaimed books for readers of all ages, including The Theory of Crows, which won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award at the Manitoba Book Awards. His broader body of work has also been recognized with two Governor General’s Literary Awards and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Through his writing, leadership, and public speaking, Robertson remains committed to using Story as a tool for connection, understanding, and community building.

Jenny Heijun Wills is a professor of English at the University of Winnipeg. She won a Manitoba Book Award in 2020.

Colleen Nelson is a teacher and author of over 20 books for young readers. She has received multiple nominations at the Manitoba book awards and is the proud recipient of the McNally Robinson Book for Young People award for Tori by Design, The Fall and Harvey Comes Home. She has spent most of her life in Winnipeg and is a proud prairie writer, but has also lived in New York City and Japan.

Chantel Mierau (she/her) is a visual artist and arts administrator. She has served as Treasurer of the Manitoba Craft Council (2013-2015), and as Admin & Finance Co-ordinator at aceartinc (2015-2019). She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration with an Accounting major at Canadian Mennonite University. She reads stories within spreadsheets.

Seyward Goodhand is a Winnipeg writer and instructor. From 2021-2023 she served as the MB/SK Rep for the Writers’ Union of Canada. She teaches literature and creative writing, and writes the occasional book review for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Ariel Gordon (she/her) is the author of seven books of poetry, CNF, and YA spec-fic. She was the 2025-2026 Writer-in-Residence at the Winnipeg Public Library. Other community roles included working as a publicist for University of Manitoba Press, Plume Winnipeg, and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize. She is currently a copy editor for the Winnipeg Free Press and freelances for Prairie books NOW. One of her proudest moments was winning the John Hirsch Emerging Manitoba Writer Award at the Manitoba Book Awards in 2010.

Anna Leventhal is a writer with over 20 years of experience in community-driven projects and initiatives, from zine libraries to feminist radio collectives. From 2016-2020 she was the executive director of the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec, and the publisher of the Montreal Review of Books. She was the 2021-2022 writer-in-residence at the Winnipeg Public Library, and is a member of the Manitoba Library Association’s Prison Libraries Committee. Her short story collection Sweet Affliction won the Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize.

Rowan McCandless is a Governor General’s finalist for her first book, Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments, which also co-won for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book at the Manitoba Book Awards. Rowan is the creative nonfiction editor with The Fiddlehead. She is the first vice chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada. She freelances with Prairie books NOW.

Bertrand Nayet is an author, actor, painter, editor, co-founder of the Association des auteur·e·s du Manitoba français, and of Le Regroupement des écrivain·e·s du Nord et de l’Ouest canadiens, leader of Kukaï Rouge and of the writing circle Coulée d’encre. One of his poetry books, L’enfant rouge, won the Rue-Deschambault Book Award (2019).

Bertrand Nayet est auteur, comédien, peintre, éditeur, co-fondateur de l’Association des auteur·e·s du Manitoba français et du Regroupement des écrivain·e·s du Nord et de l’Ouest canadiens, animateur du Kukaï Rouge et du cercle d’écriture Coulée d’encre. Un de ses recueils de poésie, L’enfant rouge, a reçu le Prix littéraire Rue-Deschambault (2019).

Chimwemwe Undi (she/her) received the John Hirsch Emerging Manitoba Writer Award in 2023. She is currently the 11th Parliamentary Poet Laureate, having served as the third Winnipeg Poet Laureate in 2023 and 2024. Her debut collection of poetry, Scientific Marvel, received the 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award in Poetry and the 2024 League of Canadian Poets Raymond Souster Award. She is based on Treaty One territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she writes and practices law.

Scott Maier (he/him) is a recent graduate from the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech (Gold Medalist) and holds a BA in Writing, Rhetoric, and Communications from the University of Winnipeg. He served on Working Draft‘s editorial board and has been published in several academic journals in Canada and the USA.