Meet our Authors

Jacob Alvarado is a writer, poet, and book reviewer currently based in Orangeville, Ontario. Fuelled by his passion for Canadian publishing and short-form literature, Jacob was an editorial intern and poetry reviewer for The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing during the production of its third issue. He is also the founding poetry editor of the student-led art journal, B222. His most recent writing can be found in The Ampersand Review and Serendipity NewsMag.

Julia Bortolussi is the founding Head of Design for IntroSPECtion, in addition to producing regular contributions. Her work has also been published in Serendipity NewsMag, Messy Misfits Club Zine, All My Relations, and en*gendered. She considers both neurodiversity and queerness to be the mightiest of strengths. Her work oscillates between stories of cute animals, tales of dread, and poetry that is full of feelings. She is inspired, both artistically and holistically, by The Dragon Prince. When she is not writing, she can be found indulging in her special interests.

Chelsea Blackburn is a Canadian writer born in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. Since childhood, she has had an affinity for writing, which eventually developed into her chosen career path. Chelsea is the editor of IntroSPECtion Magazine, a student-run magazine focusing on all things speculative. A voracious reader, she is passionate about stories, real or imagined, and the way they impact and shape our world. Chelsea is interested in historical, social, economic, and political issues and seeks to explore and learn about them through her work and in her free time.

Anya-Belle Brown was born in 1996 in warm Jamaica. She moved to Canada at the age of two and grew up around the GTA, mainly Mississauga. She studied New Media and Print Journalism at Sheridan College, received a certificate in the program, and is currently enrolled in the Creative Writing & Publishing program at the same school. Short stories have always been her area of expertise, but she has also written nonfiction and poetry and hopes to explore more genres of writing soon.

Jordan has had a love for storytelling from a young age. Her first written work was a 16-paged Winx Club fanfiction that she wrote for an assignment in the first grade. She grew up in Southern Ontario, where the most exciting thing to happen to her was how many times she moved houses in a year. With boredom around every corner, she dove into books—and through them found worlds and people she could never have imagined. From then on, her mind hasn’t quieted—always on the search for new stories and on the verge of creating something new.

Adrian Coyle is a high-fantasy writer and aspiring game writer. With a love for the fantastical, Adrian enjoys creating worlds and creatures from scratch and delving into all the small details that can truly make a world come alive. He is currently working on his debut novel, Whispers of the Old Ones, a dark fantasy story that follows his characters on a fearsome journey as they fight to reclaim their homeland from the mutated creatures that inhabit it.

Emily De Silva was born in Bermuda and raised in Ontario, Canada. She has been dreaming up stories since the summer of 2018 and has pursued this vocation professionally and vigorously. She started her journey blog writing, then short-story writing, and now works on epics and novels of a much longer narration, some of which have exceeded 300k words. She is especially proud of Tame the Pain, her self-published prose-poetry chapbook. She strives to entertain and empower through her work. She’s 23, and certainly doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Without hesitation, Paige Dunn will take any opportunity to delve deep into the minds of characters. Her own mind is no exception. As an avid lover of character creation, she has fallen victim to its curse, and her only salvation is through crafting their stories by any means possible. As a result, she spends most of her time in deep contemplation while struggling to get words down on a page. Paige recharges by curling under blankets to read her plethora of manga and wishing that she had a cat to warm her and keep away the spiders.

Jessica Fiegehen, known as Jess, is a nonbinary author with a fondness for tea and their cat, Pippin. Born in Collingwood, Ontario, they have been writing and creating since they were small. From homebound books about princesses to novels about the fae wild, Jess is excited to expand their creative horizons and share their work as they grow as an author.

Meaghan Flokstra (she/they) is a multidisciplinary writer and artist from Hamilton, Ontario, who has a soft spot for character-driven narratives and stories that tackle complex issues. When not working on a creative project, Meaghan enjoys attempting to roller skate, raising a family of houseplants, and advocating for the Oxford comma. More of their writing can be found in Giving Room Mag and Youth Mind Magazine.

Katelyn (Toby) Goodwin is a writer and graphic novelist born and raised in Burlington, Ontario Canada. Growing up with an intense love of storytelling, drawing, graphic novels, and anything fantasy, it seemed only natural to step into their writing career with their story Magic, Then and Now. Their graphic stories usually involve a wacky sense of humor, heartfelt moments, and characters with diverse personalities.

David Gugliesi is a Colombian author that seeks to write stories that leave a message. Stories that, with just the words on a page, leave readers thinking and engaging further with them. Personal messages that might help the reader find the answer to something or discover something they may not have been looking for in the first place. David writes in several different formats and genres in pursuit of his goals. Though he primarily writes screenplays and fiction in the genres of LGBTQ+, romance, horror, existentialism, supernatural, and near-realism.

Kiana Harned is an American-born, disabled writer from Kentucky who moved to Canada in 2019 to pursue her dream of becoming a published author (and to also escape the reign of a certain orange-tinted politician). She has been writing for fun for over 15 years, with the serious intent of becoming published for 10. Kiana specializes in adult fantasy and science fiction. She is also Korean-American and identifies as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. When not writing, Kiana loves to play video games, pet her cat, and spend time with her partner.

Born in Canada and raised in America, Chayanne Kelly is a lover of written art. She draws inspiration from her diverse experiences and interests, including racial issues, religious and mythological texts, and travelling. An avid reader and creative soul, she values the power of words to inspire, heal, and tap into readers' imaginations. 

Carling Kirby was born in Oakville, Ontario, to an Irish mother and a Canadian father. An avid writer and horror junkie since age six, Carling has been described by friends as “fifty percent Vincent Price and fifty percent Paris Hilton.” She has published a handful of articles and reviews for the magazines Grim and Rue Morgue and currently co-hosts the outrageous intersectional podcast LGBTerror with her best friend, Tony Adkins. Alongside writing and podcasting, Sid enjoys cinema, animation, music history, and trying not to burn her kitchen down.

Jonisha Lewinson is an author, aspiring screenplay writer, and entrepreneur. She is naturally curious about the world, and enjoys reading stories about those she is unacquainted with. As a Black woman born in England and raised in Canada, she has a unique perspective on life and strives to share that perspective in her work. While she feels most comfortable writing dystopian fiction, she occasionally surprises herself and explores genres that are unfamiliar to her. Outside of authoring stories centred on moral dilemmas, she has written several pieces concerning racism, including The United Church of Canada’s anti-racism curriculum for youth (AR4YT).

Kathleen was born in Toronto, Ontario. She decided to go back to school at 50 years old just to see if she could do it. Her first attempt was taking Architectural Technology at Sheridan College, but she soon found out that she was not an architect! Her next attempt was Journalism at Humber College, but due to her disability, the program proved to be impossible. It was her destiny to take Creative Writing. She has four grown children and lives in the Caledon area with her husband, Peter.

Pamela Mathiaparanam writes as an outlet to express the magnitude of ideas that remain jumbled inside her head, while also working on and improving her writing skills. Her interest in horror and fantasy video games and films have helped in the creation of the macabre and murderous stories that she has conjured over the past four years. She has completed scripts, as well as video game story outlines, as part of larger projects that encapsulates her visions.

B. James McCarthy is a poet and a writer of prose. Originally from Newfoundland, he currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. His work has appeared online and in print with Savant-Garde, Gravitas, The Great Lakes Review, The South Shore Review, and the University of Toronto's Acta Victoriana. Savant-Garde nominated his poem, An Unfortunate Dance (Through Toronto), for Sundress Press' Best of the Net Anthology 2020.

Alex Mueller is a storyteller. He began writing fiction at the age of eleven, with no plans of stopping—his ideas for stories are simply too good to not be told. Alex's favourite genre to write is fantasy, closely followed by science fiction and romance, of which two pieces, Across the Line and Love, Blood, and Fangs, have been published under the pen name Alex Miller. His ongoing writing projects include The Darkest Reflections, an experiment in dark fantasy, and the Chronicles of Light trilogy.

As a writer who began as soon as she learned how to hold a pencil, Aurora Orchard is a lover of storytelling in any and all formats. Though her usual focus is on writing speculative fiction novels about things that make people sad, her poetry collection, Forced Clarity, highlights her recent passion for poetry and demonstrates personal growth in her writing career. After completing her undergraduate degree, Aurora and her two cats will be moving to Toronto, where she plans to pursue an editing position within a publishing house.

Angelina Paquet is a video game and screenplay writer. Much of her work focuses on science fiction and fantasy. For four years, she has run an ongoing communal writing group that started as a Dungeons & Dragons game with her friends. She seeks to create and explore worlds in which people with different sexualities, genders, and neurodiversities exist together without prejudice.

Nicole Perdue is a Canadian writer born in Lindsay, Ontario. She has been writing for over ten years, mostly for her own entertainment but with the desire to become an author in the future. Nicole is the Chief Production Officer and a writer at IntroSPECtion Magazine, a student-led speculative fiction newsmag, as well as the co-host of the “Phōnē H-Ohm” podcast. Nicole enjoys writing within the fiction genre, including additional genres such as speculative fiction, LGBTQ+, Young Adult and New Adult fiction, and fantasy. Outside of writing, Nicole indulges in video games, cartoons, and amazing sushi.

After retiring as an award-winning journalist, Maggie Petrushevsky turned her hand to crime fiction with a historical touch, and has]three published novels. When she's not writing, her hobbies include reading, handcrafts of multiple types, travelling, music, and her feline companions: George, the Walmart greeter of all guests, and Fred, who attended all of Sheridan College’s Zoom classes despite hiding under the bed at the sound of Maggie's approaching great-grandkids.

Zaynab Rujabally is a Canadian author born in Toronto, Ontario. Since freshman year of high school, she has had a passion for exploring her creativity through various mediums of writing, including screenplays, stage plays, and narrative fiction. As a visual learner, she has a burning passion for film and television, utilizing the mastery and craft she sees on screen and adopting that into her own writing practices. Zaynab hopes to write her own screenplay and transform it into a working film for an audience and community of fellow writers and cinephiles one day.

Madeline Rossell is an up-and-coming writer from Barrie, Ontario with an interest in prose, poetry, and playwriting. Her work has been published in Press Record: A CW&P Video Anthology, as well as by IntroSPECtion a Magazine and the Poetry Institute of Canada’s Young Writers. She has also helped co-write the song Water by Sydney Riley, which is available on all streaming platforms.

Growing up in Port Perry, Ontario, Dakota Scott is a Canadian writer who has developed an interest in the fantasy and science fiction genres during his time at college. Dakota has had a taste for the macabre from a young age, and has grown up on a healthy combination of embarrassing experiences, an addiction to edgy music, and an obsession with necromancy. And of course, his stories reflect these stimuli accordingly.

Luigi Sposato is a poet born in Etobicoke, Ontario. He has been writing poetry for years, but under Paul Vermeersch, Luigi has expanded his knowledge and craft to encompass a vast amount of poetry formats and genres. Luigi also loves to read poetry, having enjoyed the works of John Ashberry, John Thompson, Anne Carson, and Selima Hill the most. Luigi has served as a tutor for the Honours Creative Writing & Publishing program and continues to tutor English at Sheridan College. Outside of writing, Luigi cheers for the Montreal Canadiens, plays horror games, and searches endlessly for the best sushi in Ontario.

Eugénie Szwalek is a trans, non-binary writer who enjoys creating weird little sci-fi stories alongside sprawling fantasy epics. They’ve always been drawn to speculative fiction—to the strange and the wonderful—and to beautiful sentences. They have nineteen profile pieces published with Sheridan’s Everybody’s Got a Story project and a short story, It Started with a Duck Bonanza and a Cactus Named Richard, published with IntroSPECtion Magazine. They live in Mississauga, where they’re currently ignoring their existential crisis in favour of finishing their next chapbook, Ghost Stories After the End of the World.

Andrew Tu is primarily a science-fiction writer. They are obsessed with dramas, tragedies, and stories of the heart.

Christine Truong is a Canadian writer, born in Mississauga, Ontario. She grew up with a love of reading that has never gone away. She enjoys writing poetry and fiction stories. Her poetry often showcases themes surrounding her cultural background, expressions, and so on; while her fiction usually takes place in genres such as fantasy, YA, and more. Christine's other interests include video games, photography, and drawing. She still can't draw hands, but that won’t stop her from diving into her creativity.

Charitha Vithanaarchchige was born in Montreal, Quebec, and grew up in Guelph, Ontario. She is a Sri Lankan-Canadian writer who aspires to write her own TV show and bring South Asian representation to the small screen. Charitha served as the proofreader and founding team member for IntroSPECtion magazine, as well as the co-host of the speculative fiction podcast, "Phōnē H-Ohm". When Charitha isn't reading, writing, or watching TV, she enjoys feeding squirrels at the park and spending time with her family and two pet birds, Honey and Cookie.  

Mark Viveiros is a speculative fiction author writing out of Toronto, Ontario. Fed a steady diet of cartoons, cheesy television shows, and political discourse, he finds himself writing in a variety of genres and mediums. His current project is No Gods Inside The Machine, a short story cyberpunk anthology. Viveiros is currently working on his short film, Family Values, for submission.