Introducing Our SQUID Issue 02 Contributors
It's time to introduce you to the incredibly talented creatives who have contributed to the second issue of SQUID Literary & Arts Magazine.
A great way to support local art is to simply give their channels a follow and continue to support their artistic journeys however you can.
Issue 02 of SQUID, "Ablaze", comes out August 2025. Preorders of print and digital versions are now available.
Amanda Andrews is an author, poet and artist, graduating from Brock university with a degree in creative writing and philosophy. She's been featured in an array of poetry collections including Cosmic Daffodil, Blood +Honey, Wildscapes lit, Phylum Press, and the Song's of the Phoenix anthology collection. When she's not working on novels, you can be sure to find her scribbling poems in her notebook.
Allison Armstrong is a queer, polyamourous leather femme living on unceded Algonquin territory where she does magic and makes things with her hands. Her work has been published or forthcoming in Grain Magazine, Pink Disco, Hustling Verse (Arsenal Pulp), and elsewhere. Follow her adventures online @amazon_syren
Parker Baldin is a writer from Montreal. His work has appeared in Carte Blanche, Omega, The Void, and Headlight among other publications.
Ryan Cassidy is a multi-disciplinary creative in London, Ontario, working in visual and interactive art. He makes offbeat Pop-inspired work that is playfully subversive and charmingly weird.
Portfolio: http://RyanCassidy.site
Instagram: instagram.com/trinketron
Robert A. Cozzi, educated at James Madison University, Robert has maintained a daily journal since he was in the ninth grade, where a favoured teacher encouraged his writing. He regularly shares his unedited, handwritten journal entries with his readers online.
Carin Kulb Dangot is a Brazilian abstract painter and sculptor. A former food engineer and sought-after food designer for media, she brings her passion for mixing and inventing into her artistic practice, blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture.
A. Daniyal was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and grew up in a small town in northern Italy. He moved to Canada in 2008. His work has been published in The Imagist Magazine, The Polyglot, Ahoy Literary, Squid Lit, among others. His first poetry chapbook "Clean Ponds" will be coming out with Cactus Press in 2025. He resides in Montreal.
Ryan Di Francesco is a Canadian writer and teacher with a BA in English Literature. He is the lead editor of Shadow and Sax, an emerging Canadian literary arts magazine where his poetry has appeared. His essays and features have been published in the Toronto Star and The Hardball Times, and he co-wrote the indie film Streets of Wonderland.
talia ducat is a Montreal-based writer. She is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree at Concordia University.
July-Ann El Baze is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Perpetually confused and easily overwhelmed, their creative practice explores the universality of shapes and patterns through repetitive processes inviting slowness and presence.
Maia Harris is an experimental writer based in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal, QC. Her work has been published in Bloom Literary Magazine, The Lamp Literary Journal, AZE Journal, and the UC Review.
Olivia Hornacek (she/her) is a Montreal based writer and the titular author of her Substack “Titular Girl”. She recently finished her undergraduate degree at Concordia in English and Creative Writing and has been published in a previous Soliloquies Anthology and in Pixie Literary Magazine. She lives with her muse and cat Hazel.
IF is a two-time National Slam Poetry Champion and subject of the full-length CBC documentary, IF THE POET. His work has appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine, BackChannels, The Encore Poetry Project, and Discretionary Love, among other journals. His first chapbook is forthcoming with Cactus Press in 2025. IF and his partner divide their time between Montreal and a cabin in Northern Ontario.
Vincent Jondeau is a filmmaker and artist based in Berlin. His work has been shown at venues such as Kunstquartier Bethanien, the Biennale Photo Mulhouse 2024, and film festivals like Regensburg Short Film Week and Imagésanté in Liège. Through hybrid methods and interdisciplinary collaboration, he explores ecological forms of narrative by decentering the human gaze and incorporating the perspective and memory of plant beings.
Joseph Lucas, an enigma of an individual. That man does not see time nor does he fear the movement of the Earth. What comes his way, he graciously accepts using the art of mind tennis.
Nasta Martyn is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor's degree in design. In her works, she raises themes of ecology, in 2005 she devoted a series of works to the Chernobyl disaster, drawing on anti-war topics.
S.N. Michelle (she/her) is a twenty-something queer woman from Toronto with a passion for mental health care and a preference for expressing herself in written word, especially when speaking leaves her tongue-tied. Her work has previously appeared in Queer Toronto Literary Magazine, WIPP Wellness's online journal and She's Got Wonder. You can find her drinking matcha at a local cafe and having her daily existential crisis.
Isha Mital is a visual artist and poet whose work focuses on the simplicity, sweetness, and imperfection of life. Her use of line and color is concise yet purposeful, evoking a symphony of flavors that is colored with specks of whimsy. Both her written and visual work has previously appeared in Sunday Mornings at the River, Through Lines Magazine, Where Meadows, The Turning Leaf Journal, Ink in Thirds, and Full House Literary Magazine.
Ellie Mota is a young writer from Southern Ontario still finding her footing in Montreal. Her previous work has appeared in yolk., Samizdat, and Ahoy.
Maria Mylenka (b. 1998, Kyiv) is a Montreal-based Ukrainian artist working primarily in ink drawing. With an architectural background and a self-taught artistic practice, she balances intuitive fluidity with a sharp compositional sensibility. Working mainly on paper, but experimenting with alt processes, Maria treats art as both ritual and reflection. Themes of body, intuition, the supernatural run through her works, manifesting in cryptic, dreamlike imagery—functioning as visual poetry & symbolic artifacts.
Olivia O’Grady is an artist living in Tofino, BC. O’Grady uses the inspiration of her rugged, wild landscape as her muse for creating.
Keenan Poloncsak is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in illustration and traditional bookbinding. He is especially known for his graphic novels, comics, and children's books, which he writes, illustrates, self-publishes and often binds himself.
Website: https://www.pro-can.org/
Ariane Signer is a Montreal-based writer who has self-published three original poetry collections. Her confessional style draws inspiration from personal relationships, travelling, motherhood, and overthinking the complexities of life. She is an advertising copywriter, and mom to two boys. When not writing, she is probably at a yoga class or pulling tarot cards.
Becks Simpson is an Australian writer and software developer based in Montreal. Her fiction explores grief, transformation, and belonging, often blending myth, and the natural world. She’s published in Hot Source Magazine and writes about AI and innovation for Mouser Electronics. When not writing, she plays in a punk band and dreams of swimming with sharks.
Nathaniel Spencer-Cross is a Montréal-based Best American Short-Stories nominated author, writer of Drinking in Public: Rules to the Game, and content curator for numero810.ca. Spencer-Cross’ work has been featured in the International Human Rights Art Movement quarterly magazine, with further work forthcoming in the Fonderie Darling’s summer catalog publication. Nathaniel received his BA from Concordia University, and his MA from the University of Windsor.
Yael T. Uribe is a queer Mexican writer and poet based in Tiohtià:ke. Initially admitted to med school, they are now enrolled in the Honours program in English and Creative Writing at Concordia University. They write of seasons and the passage of time, of late-night kitchen conversations, recognition, fathers, rage—and everything in between. Their work has been published in Encore Poetry Project, Room Magazine, EVENT Magazine and more.
Hannah Weisz (any pronouns) is a writer and performer based in New York City. They write poetry, short stories and plays. Their work appears in Apricity, New Note Poetry, LEVITATE and other publications. Outside of writing, Hannah works in theater, drag, and recorded music. @hannahmweisz @cameronesthermusic
Don't forget to pick up the new issue of SQUID Literary & Arts - and follow along with our quarterly newsletter for updates on issue launches and events.
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