The WGA is proud to announce that six writers have been selected as the 2025 Regional Writers-in-Residence (RWiR). This program provides WGA members access to the services of a virtual Regional Writer-in-Residence with priority given to those who cannot easily access an existence writer-in-residence service.
The Virtual Writers-in-Residence will take virtual consultations with writers in one of these six regions. Spots are limited and priority will be given to WGA members outside of Edmonton and Calgary. Fill out the RWiR form and include your 10-15 page writing sample and one of the Regional Writers-in-Residence will contact you to set up a time for your consultation.
Our Writers-in-Residence
Meaghan Archer
Greater Edmonton
Short stories were Meaghan’s first love, but essays are the love of her life. A journalist at her core, she primarily works in the world of non-fiction. She’s been a writer, reporter, and editor for nearly 15 years, and is currently working on a collection of essays. She lives in Edmonton with her partner and cat.
Photo: Jay Walker
Kimmy Beach
Red Deer
Kimmy has served as writer in residence for the WGA, the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Airdrie Public Library, the Parkland Regional Library, and The Trickster and the Muse (Crete, Greece). She has six books in print and another five on her desktop. Kimmy writes, edits, and mentors from Red Deer, and travels to Liverpool as much as she can.
Photo: Shawna Lemay
Caleigh Crow
Greater Calgary
Caleigh Crow is a queer Metis writer from Mohkinstsis in Treaty 7 Territory. She is the co-founder of Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre and her practice focuses on writing for performance. Her plays span genres from musicals to science fiction to poem plays. Her work covers topics like class struggle, metaphysics, and joy. She has also been commissioned to write short fiction for the CBC and has contributed to The Scene Magazine.
In 2024 she was honoured to receive the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for her play There is Violence, There is Righteous Violence, and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow, published by Playwrights Canada Press.
Juleus Ghunta
Fort McMurray
Juleus Ghunta is a Chevening Scholar, educator, poet, and editor. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in thirty journals, including Wasafiri, Poetry Archive, sx salon, The Caribbean Writer, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and PREE. He placed second in the 2024 Charles Causley Trust International Poetry Competition, won a Poetry Archive Wordview Prize in 2023, and received the Catherine James Poetry Prize in 2017. His work has also been recognized as a finalist for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize (2022, 2024), the Small Axe Poetry Prize (2015, 2016), and the 2025 Alberta Magazine Awards (Essay Prize). Ghunta is the author and editor of several children’s books, including You Never Know What You’re Going to Get: An Anthology of Short Stories (Chalkboard Publishing, 2025). He co-edited four issues of Interviewing the Caribbean journal, published by the University of the West Indies Press, and co-authored a chapter on trauma-informed praxis in higher education, published by Teachers College Press. In 2024, he participated in the Writers’ Guild of Alberta (WGA) Mentorship Program and delivered the keynote address at WGA’s Awards Gala. His essay A Party in the School Yard was selected as the cover feature for the October–December 2024 issue of WestWord, WGA’s quarterly magazine.
David van Belle
Grande Prairie
David is an Edmonton-based writer whose works for the theatre include The Highest Step in the World, GIANT, The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (all with Eric Rose at Ghost River Theatre), Liberation Days (Theatre Calgary) and BUZZ JOB! The True Story of Cal Cavendish (One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo). His first book of poetry, Reg’s Trees, based on paintings by Reg Knelsen, was published by B House Press. He has been nominated four times for the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Prize in playwriting, finally winning in 2022, and last year one of his short stories was nominated for an Alberta Magazine Award. David has been Writer-in-Residence for the Edmonton Public Library, Playwright-in-Residence at Alberta Theatre Projects, an ensemble member of One Yellow Rabbit and Creator-in-Residence for Ghost River Theatre. His 1940s-era adaptation of A Christmas Carol is currently running annually at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.
Lee Kvern
Lethbridge
Lee Kvern is the award-winning author of four books, various chapbooks and oodles of short stories. Her stories have garnered the CBC Literary Award, Alberta + Western Magazine Awards to name a few. Her work has been shortlisted and/or nominated 23 times. She has won 10 awards. Kvern’s latest novel Catch You on the Flipside is out now. Works have been produced on CBC Radio and for the Globe&Mail. Her short stories have been published in numerous literary magazines across North America.
Find @leekvern on Instagram and Facebook.
The WGA Regional Writers-in-Residence Program is made possible by a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
