Authors Index

Lloyd Ratzlaff is a former minister, counsellor, and university lecturer who has authored three books of literary nonfiction and edited an anthology of seniors’ writings and a children’s book. He was a finalist for three Saskatchewan Book Awards, won two Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild literary nonfiction awards, and served on the boards of several writing organizations. He was a columnist for Prairie Messenger Catholic Journal through its last nineteen years of publication, and taught writing classes for READ Saskatoon, the Western Development Museum, and the University of Saskatchewan’s Certificate of Art and Design program. Walking Upstream is his first poetry collection. He lives in Saskatoon.

Stephen Reid began writing in 1984 while serving a twenty-one-year prison sentence for his role as a member of the “Stopwatch Gang”, so named for their ability to rob banks and armoured cars in less than two minutes. During his sentence, he submitted a manuscript to Susan Musgrave, then writer-in-residence at the University of Waterloo. This developed into an ongoing correspondence, and Reid and Musgrave were married in 1986 at Kent Institution. Reid also published his novel, Jackrabbit Parole, that year. His articles and essays have been published in Playboy, Vice, Vancouver Magazine, Writers’ Digest, Prison Journal, Monday, and the Globe & Mail. He has taught creative writing, worked as a youth counsellor, and served on boards such as the John Howard Society and PEN Canada. Reid lived with Musgrave and his two daughters in Sidney, BC until 1999, when he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a bank robbery in Victoria, after a prolonged bout with heroin and cocaine addiction.

Paula Jane Remlinger’s work has appeared in On Spec, CV2, Room, Grain, Prairie Fire, and The New Quarterly, as well as other journals and anthologies. She is the author of several teacher resource guides (Coteau and Thistledown), and enjoys writing for children and adults. She holds four degrees, including an M.A. in English from the University of Saskatchewan where she wrote her thesis on late Saskatchewan poet John V. Hicks, and an MFA (UBC). She lives in Beaver Creek, SK, with her husband, Trent, and works at the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

DAVID RICHARDS’ education at the Royal Military College in Kingston and his experience as a member of the Canadian Army for six years provided him with the perfect background to explore his fictional territories. First there was Soldier Boys (Thistledown Press, 1993) that transformed the Northwest Rebellion from a “history lesson into a human drama.” Next came Lady at Batoche (Thistledown Press, 1999) that rewrote the Gabriel Dumont/ Louis Riel mythology and won a Saskatchewan Book Award. In 2007, The Plough's Share vividly encompassed late nineteenth century England, the Boer War, and Canada’s Barr Colonist experience. In The Source of Light (2011) Richards focuses his attention, research and storytell;ing on science and technology. David Richards lives in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan for part of the year and Tahsis, a beautiful ocean village on the west coast of Vancouver Island, for the rest of the year.

Ken Rivard was born and raised in Montreal. He is the author of ten published books of poetry, fiction, and children's literature. His writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, in many regional and national publications, and on the CBC. His books have been finalists for the Writers Guild of Alberta Book Awards and the City Of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. He has worked as a juror for both the Alberta and Saskatchewan book awards and has been the Writer-in-Residence for the Calgary Public Library and the Writers Guild of Alberta. He lives in Calgary.

William Robertson is a poet, university English instructor, freelance writer, reviewer, and broadcaster. He has published four collections of poems, the most recent of which is Just Living (2005), and a biography of a singer, k.d. lang: Carrying the Torch (1993). He has edited two collections of his Indian Teacher Education Program students’ creative writing, the most recent of which is Where I’m From: ITEP Creative Writing 2005-2013. He has also contributed chapters to books on fishing and on the literary history of Saskatchewan. He was born in Tokyo and has lived in various places in both Japan and Canada, including Ontario, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. He graduated from high school in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan and went on to do a BA and an MA at the University of Saskatchewan. He was on the editorial board of the NeWest Review for ten years. He has also reviewed plays, books, and musical events for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, to which he has contributed since 1979, and for fifteen years reviewed plays and concerts for CBC Saskatchewan. He was also a regular panelist on the national CBC’s Talking Books program for all of its eleven-year tenure. He teaches English and creative writing in Saskatoon, did so in Prince Albert for twenty-two years at St. Peter’s College in Muenster, Saskatchewan, and at St. Thomas More College in Saskatoon.

NOAA (The American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has selected Craig Russell's novel, Fragment for their Planet Stewards Project. His first novel, Black Bottle Man, won the Moonbeam Award gold medal for YA Fantasy and was a finalist for the Canadian Prix Aurora Award for best English SF/F Novel. Craig grew up on a farm near Carman, Manitoba with his four brothers and five sisters, and is novelist and playwright living in Winnipeg.