Dr. Shane Neilson, MD MFA MA PhD CCFP FCFP is a disabled poet, physician, and critic who practises medicine in Guelph, Ontario.

He completed his PhD in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in 2018 and was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for his doctoral work. He also received the $50,000 'Talent' grant awarded by SSHRC in 2018.

Other good things to happen to Shane include receiving the Regional Dean’s Award for Excellence in Medical Education and the Clinical Skills Teaching Award.

He is the festival director of the AbleHamilton Poetry Festival which just successfully completed its second run.

Damian Tarnopolsky is a novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His fiction has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Journey Prize, and the CBC Literary Award, and his play "The Defence" won the 2019 Voaden Prize.

He is Writer-in-Residence with the Health, Arts, and Humanities Program at the University of Toronto and teaches narrative medicine for Continuing Professional Development at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He used to teach creative writing at the School of Continuing Studies, where he was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award.

He also runs Slingsby and Dixon, an editing company that works with fiction writers, businesses, and academic institutions.