Authors Index

Vanessa Farnsworth is a freelance writer and long-time resident of the BC Interior. Her short fiction has appeared in literary journals across Canada and in the US, including The Dalhousie Review, dANDelion, filling Station, The New Quarterly, PRECIPICe, QWERTY, and Reed Magazine. Her memoir, Rain on a Distant Roof: A Personal Journey Through Lyme Disease in Canada (Signature Editions), was widely acclaimed when it was published in 2013.

Katherine Fawcett was born in Montreal, raised in Calgary, has lived in Japan, and now calls the small town of Pemberton, British Columbia home. She started her writing career as a sports reporter before venturing into freelance journalism and commercial writing. After becoming a mother and turning forty, Katherine could no longer ignore her tendency to dance fancy jigs on the boundary between real and imagined and has since turned her hand to fiction. She teaches music in Whistler, BC, and plays fiddle in a band called The Wild Irises. Her short fiction has been published in Wordworks, Event, Freefall, subTerrain, and Other Voices, and her plays have been performed by several community theatre groups. AWARD RECOGNITION: Winner Federation of BC Writers Short Story Contest: 2008. Winner Whistler Writes Creative Non-Fiction Award: 2008. Winner Event Magazine Non-Fiction Contest: 2009. Nominated for National Magazine Award for Personal Journalism: 2009. Finalist Burnaby Writers Society "Lost and Found" Competition: 2009. Shortlisted for Writers' Union of Canada Writing for Children Contest: 2009. Finalist for Writers' Union of Canada Writing for Children Competition: 2009. Honourable mention in Freefall Magazine Prose Contest: 2009. Winner Pique "Summer of Funny" Contest: 2009. Shortlisted for Event Non-fiction Contest: 2011. Shortlisted for Event Non-fiction Contest: 2012. Longlisted for Carter V. Cooper/Exile Short Fiction Competition: 2014

A freelance writer for many years, Maggi Feehan has published articles on visual art, literature, social justice, and travel for numerous periodicals. She has written scripts for four television documentaries seen on CHUM-TV and the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, and in 2002, she won Grain Magazine’s Dramatic Monologue contest. The Serpent’s Veil is her first novel. Originally from Edmonton, Feehan has made her home in Victoria, British Columbia for the past 20 years.

Al Forrie is the past Publisher and Editor at Thistledown Press. In his three decades with Thistledown he worked in varying capacities as an editorial board member, marketing & sales manager, production manager, and book designer. He has served on a variety of professional and industry boards including those of the Saskatchewan curriculum development, and as president of the Saskatchewan Publishers Group. In his capacity as a curriculum developer he has co-edited the poetry anthology Dancing Visions , the short story anthology The Last Map is the Heart, and the poetry anthology, In the Clear. He also co-wrote the Thistledown Novels Guide, and The Last Map is the Heart Teachers Resource Guide, and wrote the Notes Across the Aisle Teachers Guide, and the Takes: Stories for Young Adults Teachers Guide.

Kevin Marc Fournier works with mentally handicapped adults in his position as Residential Treatment Worker in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This is his first novel.

Tess Fragoulis was born in Heraklion, Crete, and grew up in Montreal where she currently lives and writes. She has written for television and newspapers, and has published widely in literary journals. Fragoulis' first book, a collection entitled Stories to Hide from Your Mother (Arsenal Pulp Press 1997) was nominated for the QSPELL First Book Award in 1998, and Ariadne's Dream was longlisted for the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Leanne Franson spent her childhood winters in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, building snow forts while her dad watched hockey games on TV. She was a really bad skater—but she could draw really well! In 1991, after she finished her BFA in Montreal, she started illustrating books. Leanne is fluently bilingual and has worked on books in English and French, illustrating in total over 100 picture books, chapter books, and textbooks. In 2012, she and her teenage son Benn returned to Saskatchewan, where she draws and makes ceramics in her acreage studio.