Executive Director

Ellen Kartz Ellen holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a professional writing certificate from Mount Royal University. As an active writer and freelance editor throughout her career, Ellen worked with and for the Edmonton Poetry Festival for many years as a volunteer coordinator, event planner, founding member, and board member. She was the Communications and Partnerships Coordinator for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta from 2015-2023. In 2018, she self-produced a one-person stage show and poetry/nonfiction chapbook, both titled The Tenderness of Stone, about a trek she made in 2016 through Nepal’s Khumbu Valley to Mount Everest Base Camp. In 2020, Ellen founded a small poetry chapbook press, Armistice Press, and launched a quartet of chapbooks by emerging queer Edmonton authors. Ellen performed a second stage show, If I Was Fearless, in November 2024, and launched a poetry chapbook, Gravity, through Agatha Press in the same month.

Marketing & Publicity Coordinator

Alexis Marie Chute is a creative powerhouse—a bestselling author and award-winning artist, filmmaker, photographer, publisher and curator—whose work spans two decades. Her abstract paintings, portraits, photography, films, and literary works have been showcased globally, and her artwork is represented by the Art Gallery of Alberta. Her debut memoir Expecting Sunshine (2017) was adapted into an acclaimed documentary film, followed by her Amazon-bestselling YA fantasy trilogy, including Above the Star (2018), Below the Moon (2019), and Inside the Sun (2020). Her recent nonfiction books—Prairie Spirits (2021), The Eternal Summer of Alberta’s Herbarium (2022), Memorable Murals (2023), and Moments in Focus (2024)—celebrate Alberta’s rich culture and landscape. Chute curates the Red Brick Common, Wild Skies Art Gallery, and InFocus Photo Exhibit, and co-founded Wild Skies Press. She is the Marketing and Publicity Coordinator for the Edmonton Poetry Festival and LitFest: Canada’s Original Nonfiction Festival. She is also a passionate public speaker and educator.

Front of House and Volunteer Coordinator

Amanda Samuelson is an accomplished and award-winning writer, producer, dramaturg, educator, and actor currently based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton) on Treaty 6 Territory. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts BFA program, with a major in Theatre and a minor in Creative Writing. During her time at NYU, she spent the majority of her studies at the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School.

Amanda’s ten-minute and one-act plays have been read and staged at festivals and competitions in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Her full-length play, Pressure, premiered at the 2022 Edmonton Fringe Festival, presented by Nextfest and self- produced. Her new full-length play, A Visit, is currently in development and has received funding support from Edmonton Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.

Amanda worked as Associate Producer with Theatre Prospero and held various roles with Thousand Faces Festival for three years. She created the Thousand Faces Festival’s New Mythic Works Series, supporting new work by Edmonton playwrights in 2022 and 2024.

She currently teaches playwriting to teens at the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School and Free Arts Society, taking great pride in inspiring the next generation of writers.

Associate Producer

Ashley Mann 

Ashley was born in Grande Prairie but moved to Edmonton as a child. She worked as a veterinary assistant in her early twenties before returning to school to study literature. Ashley went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree (English) from MacEwan University in 2017, where she also contributed two short fiction pieces to MacEwan’s anthology series, The Bolo Tie Collective (Volumes I and II). Ashley continues to read and be inspired by all types of literature, but is especially fond of speculative fiction. She writes poetry and fiction in her spare time.

Alberta Book Fair Society Board of Directors 2026-27

Catalina Morales Velez (President) is a creative non-fiction writer who lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta. A native of Colombia, she depicts in her work common places, situations and scenarios filled with magical elements and high-consciousness encounters. Despite being all rooted in words, her creations come to life in other mediums like drawing, the 9th art–comics, and stop-motion, among others. Catalina’s work has been featured in Colombia, Canada, and U.S.A. magazines, including Entrepreneur Magazine, Life As A Human Magazine, The Polyglot Magazine, and Revista Cronopio. She is a member of the Writer’s Guild of Alberta, has recently started serving as an editorial board member of The Polyglot Magazine and continuously supports literary initiatives worldwide.

Virginia Clevette (Treasurer)
Virginia Clevette is a manager with the Edmonton Public Library providing 20 years of leadership across EPL branches.  She is a  lead with EPL’s Capital City initiatives, supporting efforts to promote Edmonton and area visual artists.   Virginia is a chorister with Edmonton’s award winning chamber choir Chronos Vocal Ensemble.

Julie Rak (Secretary)
Julie Rak (FRSC) holds the Henry Marshall Tory Chair in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her latest book is False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering Nonfiction (2021). She has written many other books, collections and articles about nonfiction, popular culture and print culture.