Brenda Schmidt

Brenda Schmidt (she/her) was the seventh Saskatchewan Poet Laureate. Author of five books of poetry and one book of essays, her work was nominated for the Saskatchewan Book Awards, received the Alfred G. Bailey Prize for Poetry, and is included in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English: Tenth Anniversary Edition. Over the years she has served on the board of directors of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and Sage Hill Writing, and recently, as poetry editor for Grain. She now gardens on a dry hillside in central-west Saskatchewan in Treaty 6 territory. Siteseeing: Writing nature and climate across the prairies, a poetry collaboration between Ariel Gordon and Brenda Schmidt will be published by At Bay Press in the fall of 2023.

Kevin Imrie

Kevin Imrie grew up in a musical family, and his mother was adamant that Kevin and his two sisters receive a musical education. As a result, Kevin began piano lessons at six years old, violin lessons at age twelve, and picked up the acoustic guitar as a teen. Kevin has sung in choirs, musical productions and Christmas programs throughout junior and high school. Once he could play the guitar, he began dreaming of being a songwriter, and by the 12th grade had written a handful of truly forgettable songs.

In his 20s, Kevin developed a love for fiction and poetry. While a student at the University of Saskatchewan, he attended a reading by Gary Geddes where he heard a reading of Gary’s famous poem “Sandra Lee Scheuer.” Kevin has been obsessed with poetry and the power of language since.

Kevin searched out poetry collections where and began composing poems of his own. One of which was written in the summer of 2006 and finally published in the fall 2020 issue of Grain.

In 2009, Kevin returned to Creighton and recently completed a degree in education, teaching junior high ELA at Creighton Community School. Since his return, Kevin has had countless opportunities to perform on stage: musicals and choral pieces with the Flin Flon Community Choir, as a solo performer at various local venues, and as a band member with many of Flin Flon and Creighton’s amazing musicians – and here and there thrown in a couple of newly forgettable tunes.