First Writes explores the trepidations and triumphs of becoming a published author. In it, Canadian writers describe their "first writes" experiences by writing openly, sometimes scathingly and often hilariously, of their expectations and insecurities, humiliations and triumphs at every stage of publication.

Nikki Abraham writes of Kelley Aitken's stories: `These are stories to shout about. They are boldly, daringly original without being difficult to understand -- no mean feat. The first-person voice, a common feature of writing these days, is made to do unexpected things, to behave in unexpected ways. Yet it feels so natural, so unforced, that it is only afterwards the realization comes: that was amazing!`

Born in British Columbia, Kelley Aitken now lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Kelley Aitken's profile page

Sue Goyette has published nine books of poems and a novel. Her collections include The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl, Penelope and Ocean (for which she was awarded the 2015 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award). She is the editor of Resistance: Righteous Rage in the Age of #MeToo (University of Regina Press, 2021), The 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology (Anansi, 2017) and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 (Tightrope Books, 2013). Her work has been translated into French, Spanish and German and has been featured in films, subways, buses, spraypainted on a sidewalk and tattooed. She was nominated for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Award and has won several national awards including the Pat Lowther Award, the Bliss Carman Award, and the CBC Literary Prize for Poetry. She is the Artist in Residence in the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba and Poet Laureate for Halifax Regional Municipality. She lives in Halifax (K'jipuktuk) where she teaches in the creative writing at Dalhousie University.

Sue Goyette's profile page

Barbara Scott is a contributor for Cormorant Books Inc.

Barbara Scott's profile page

"Universals are examined, from the joy of acceptance to the confusion of continuation,
and there are equal quantities of laughter and tears." - Gordon Morash, Alberta Views