Those Who Make Us Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories

What resides beneath the blankets of snow, under the ripples of water, within the whispers of the wind, and between the husks of trees all across Canada? Creatures, myths and monsters are everywhere…even if we don’t always see them. This is a unique and powerful collection of all-new, cross-genre tales that take the reader into real and imagined worlds, ranging from an encounter with the Metis creature Rugaru to trolls dissatisfied with modern life, to the demons who follow us from our parents’ countries, and to Anishinaabe myths about the creation of creeks. Eighteen emerging and award-winning authors explore the way we think about and interact with the unnatural – showing how much the stories we create can teach us about what it means to be human.

Kelsi Morris of Toronto works in the publishing industry, focusing on genre fiction and graphic novels. She graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in English and Philosophy, and used it to turn her life-long love of speculative fiction into a career of editing books, starting at ChiZine Publications, where she also helped create and launch ChiGraphic, CZP’s graphic novel imprint. She actually enjoys reading slush, and has done so for ChiZine, The Friends of the Merril contest, and Ellen Datlow’s Fearful Symmetries anthology. Along with co-editing Those Who Make Us: Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories for Exile Editions, next year will see Over The Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales from the Margins, co-edited with Derek Newman-Stille. Kelsi was also a contributing author for the Canadian Video Game Award-nominated Lights Out, Please. Outside of books, she finds happiness in black coffee, red wine, and dragons. www.kelsimorris.com. Kaitlin Tremblay of Toronto is a writer, editor, and game developer. She is the author of the upcoming book Borderlands about the video game franchise Borderlands, and is the co-author of the book Escape to Na Pali: A Journey to the Unreal about Epic Game’s 1998 hit video game Unreal. As a game developer, Kaitlin produced the collaborative interaction fiction anthology Lights Out, Please, which was nominated for five Canadian Video Game Awards. She gives talks about subversive storytelling and is a game design mentor for youth and adults. As a critic, Kaitlin has written for Playboy, Vice, The Mary Sue, Unwinnable, Canadian Notes and Queries, and others. Her poetry has been published in Carousel, Rampike, (parenthetical), and other print and e-zines. Kaitlin is currently a senior editor at Inhabit Educa-tion, a children’s educational publishing company. www.thatmonstergames.com