Yasser Abdel-Latif
Yasser Abdel-Latif is a writer and poet from Cairo, Egypt. He has lived and worked in Edmonton since 2010. He has published four fiction books, two poetry collections, and translated many literary works from French and English into Arabic. He writes mainly in Arabic although his works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. He has participated in literary events and festivals in France, Spain, Colombia, Germany, Netherland, Malta and United Arab Emirates. Abdel-Latif was a resident of the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa in 2009. His debut novel, Law of Inheritance (2002), won the Sawiris Prize in 2005 in the young writers category. His collection of short stories, Jonah in the Belly of the Whale, won the same prize in the category of prominent writers in 2011. Some of his writings translated into English can be found here.
Yasser is working with Alice Major on translation of his poems.
Susana Chalut
Born in Vina del Mar, Chile on November 15 1970, Susana Chalut spent her childhood and youth in the city. She studied three years of English Literature and Education at the Catholic University of Valparaiso. She has written short stories and poems since third grade elementary school and has participated in different events and poetry readings in both Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. She arrived in Canada on December 24, 1999, taking ESL and English grammar classes at the University of Alberta. Her book of poetry, Lights and Shades, was published by the provincial government in Valparaiso (Cultural Department, 1999.) She also achieved third place for The Andes City poetry contest, 1999. Since coming to Canada she has married, raised two children and collected many ideas for future poems.
Susana is working with Shirley Serviss on the creation of new poems.
Fahim Hassan
Fahim Hassan is passionate about using digital technology to explore social and cultural history in depth. He blogs about social innovation and human-computer interaction, sharing his ideas on using computational methods to understand and solve social problems. He was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he spent his schoolboy days learning all the non-essential life skills. He came to Canada for higher studies, received his masters degree in economics from the University of Alberta and started working on multiple projects to document the cultural history of local communities in Edmonton. You can connect with him through his website at www.fahimhassan.com.
Fahim is working with Omar Mouallem on the creation of blog posts.
Marina Ivanova
Originally from Russia, Marina Ivanova has been living in Canada for the past nine years. She holds a law degree from Russia and Master of Laws from the University of Alberta, and is currently working at Alberta Justice, Crown Prosecution Service. Writing is her passion, and speculative fiction, her favorite genre. She has over 100 short story publications in different literary magazines and anthologies in Russia. She has just recently started exploring script-writing; her very first feature film script “The Lottery of Life” became the winner of 2015 Alberta Screenwriters Initiative.
Marina is working with Conni Massing on the creation of a new script.
Alma Mancilla
Born in Toluca, Mexico, Alma Mancilla has a degree in Social Anthropology, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Laval University. Winner of the Benemérito de las Américas Literary Award (Student Category, 2001), the Gilberto Owen National Literary Award (2011) and the Ignacio Manuel Altamirano International Narrative Award (2015), she has published three books of short stories, Los días del verano más largo (UABJO, 2001), Casa encantada (Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura, 2011), and Las babas del caracol y otros relatos (Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura, 2014), as well as a novel, Hogueras (Editorial Terracota, 2014), all of them in Spanish. Her second novel, Archipiélagos, will be released in Mexico in August 2015.
Alma is working with Ted Bishop on translation of her short stories.
Anamol Mani
Anamol Mani is a Nepali-born, Canada-based author and journalist. Over one and a half decades, he has worked in a wide variety of literary writing and journalism in the Nepali language. He is the author of five books, including the first audio book of a short story in Nepal. In 2009 his first collection of short stories, Neelima Ra Gaada Andhyaro (Neelima and Pitch Darkness) was published. Three Masters thesis, and two research papers on gender perspective have been written on that collection at Tribhuwan University. His story “Test-tube Baby Ra Meri Premika” (“Test-tube Baby and My Lover”) is popular in Nepal. Other publications include Sabut (Evidence, 2011), Aajaka Nepali Katha (Contemporary Nepalese Stories, 2011) and “Nadi Kinar Ma Ubhiyar” (“Standing Beside the River,” 2004).
Anamol Mani is working with S. G. Wong on the creation of and translation of new short stories.