Irina Moga is the author of six poetry collections and a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada.​​ Her book, Variations sans palais (Éditions L’Harmattan, Paris) won the 2022 Dina Sahyouni International Literary Prize (France). Irina's poems, short stories and reviews have appeared widely in Canada, the United States, and France in publications such as Canadian Literature, carte blanche, Contemporary Verse 2, Hotch Potch Literature and Arts, New York Quarterly, California Quarterly, Split Rock Review, Lettres Capitales and Le Pan poétique des muses. Her work has been nominated for the SFPA Rhysling Award and Best of the Net. Quantum (DarkWinter Press, 2025) is a collection of poems meant to anchor readers in light-heartedness and serenity. In Quantum, the author moves us through layers of sensorial cues and a discourse whose ultimate goal is healing - an everyday catharsis for life’s tough moments, held in balance by the power of words. Amber Nuyens grew up on unceded Syilx Okanagan territory (Winfield, BC) and lives on unceded Lək̓ ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ territory (Victoria, BC) with her elderly lizard. She is currently a sessional instructor at the University of Victoria where she teaches fiction. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in magazines including carte blanche, PRISM international, Moss, and HAD. She is currently working on a Canada Council-funded collection of short fiction. Amber Nuyens explores climate guilt, anxiety, and denial—both personal and collective in these vividly beautiful but stark and sobering works. Whether describing the soon-to-be extinct hoiho or a dying pet fish, Nuyens recounts these losses with the precision of a reporter—grim truths laid bare. These Dead Things Are Not My Fault is a necessary and phenomenal collection of prose poems and essayettes from an exciting new voice.