Katherine Barrett is Understorey’s founder and editor. Katherine has worked on women’s and environmental issues for many years and has published numerous works of scholarly research, short fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction. She is also managing editor of the academic journal Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice. Katherine believes writing and sharing stories can shift attitudes and build community.

Rohini Bannerjee is an Associate Professor in Modern Languages & Classics and is a faculty member of both the Asian Studies and Women & Gender Studies programs at Saint Mary’s University. Rohini holds a BSc in Biology and French, a Master’s degree in French Literature, and a doctorate in French Studies. Her primary area of research is Francophone Literatures and Cultures of the Indian Ocean.

Susie Brigham holds a PhD from the University of Alberta and is a professor of Education at MSVU specializing in lifelong education, international and intercultural education, Africentricity in lifelong learning, critical race theory and feminism. Susie works closely with the African Nova Scotia community, immigrant and refugee women and youth groups, and other community organizations for women and girls.

Rachel Edmonds is Understorey Magazine’s poetry reader and advisor. She earned an honours degree in English and Creative Writing from Dalhousie University in 2018. Rachel was shortlisted for the Rita Joe Poetry Prize in 2019, received first prize in the Clare Murray Fooshee Poetry Contest in 2015, and her poems and book reviews have appeared in Dalhousie University’s Fathom Magazine, Understorey Magazine, and Mom Egg Review. Her scholarly work has been published by Bishop’s University and she was a presenter at the QUEUC in 2016. She currently resides in rural Nova Scotia with her husband and two teenage children.

Heidi Elder is a young writer from Nepean, Ontario, currently enrolled in the literary arts program at her high school. With a passion for fiction, she hopes to someday incorporate the same level of meaningful absurdity in her own writing as Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse-Five. Her work can be found in Polar Expressions’s student anthology, The Quiet.

 
Lorri Neilsen Glenn is a poet, essayist, ethnographer, and long-term Understorey advocate and advisory board member. She was the poet laureate for Halifax Regional Municipality from 2005 to 2009 and has received numerous awards for her writing and scholarship. Lorri currently teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. Her most recent book is Following the River: Traces of Red River Women (Wolsak and Wynne, 2017).

Tracey Lothian is a mother of two grown daughters and has an interest in promoting women’s issues and expressions. She holds a degree in Honours Linguistics and has been the editor of a national parenting magazine to which she continues to contribute. Born and bred in Nova Scotia, she has lived in BC and Nunavut and has closed the “triangle” of Canada by finally settling back into the “sea-bound coast.”

Catherine Martin is a member of the Millbrook Mi’kmaw Community in Truro, Nova Scotia. She is an independent producer, director, writer, facilitator, communications consultant, drummer and the first woman Mi’kmaw filmmaker from the Atlantic Region. Catherine has a BA from Dalhousie University in Theatre Arts and a Master of Education from Mount Saint Vincent University with a focus on Media Literacy. She was recently awarded the Women In Film Award for her contribution to the film industry in Canada. She has taught communications, history and culture and fine arts for University College of Cape Breton in Mi’kmaq communities and at MSVU. She was the 14th Nancy Chair in Women Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017.

Natalie Meisner is a writer from Lockeport, Nova Scotia, and an Understorey advisory board member. Natalie’s plays have been produced across the country, won numerous awards, been collected in book form and appeared in Canadian Anthologies such as Outspoken: A Canadian Collection of Lesbian Scenes and Monologues and Lesbian Plays: Coming of Age in Canada. Her first work of nonfiction, Double Pregnant: Two Lesbians Make a Family was a finalist in the Atlantic Book Award. Current Stage productions include Speed Dating For Sperm Donors (Lunchbox Theatre), Burning In, (Gateway Theatre), and Pink Sugar: A Dark Tale of Love, Betrayal and Missing Body Parts (BSMT Theatre, Solo Collective) and 69: Love Made Legal & The Everett Klippert Story (Third Street Theatre and The Calgary Gay History Project). Natalie is a wife and mother of two great boys and a Professor of English at Mount Royal University where she teaches creative writing, drama and literature.

Andrea Papan specialises in human rights-based approaches to gender and development and is deeply interested in questions of transformative change. For 15 years she has worked globally with the United Nations, academic institutions, and civil society organizations in over 40 countries. Creative writing is in her bones. Her mother loved to write, as does she. Working on gender issues in such diverse contexts has led her to firmly believe whilst stories of women’s lives may be made up of different details and extremes, there are similarities in the challenges we face and the comfort we feel when someone really listens to our story and our truth resonates deeply with another. Originally from Vancouver, she is a researcher and consultant in Sweden.