Born and raised in Winnipeg, MELISSA MARTIN is a longtime writer with the Winnipeg Free Press and one of Canada's leading newspaper journalists. She is a ten-time National Newspaper Award finalist, and has twice been awarded Canada's newspaper columnist of the year. Her work focuses on exploring the shades of grey in the human experience through documenting intimate, personal stories of challenge, survival, and resilience. Through her vivid prose, she invites readers to experience places, situations, and lives far different than their own-and through that connection, find the echoes of a universal humanity that binds us together. In 2023, she moved to Ukraine to explore stories of how communities and people persist in the face of war. In 2024, she was awarded the World Press Freedom Canada prize for her efforts.

DAVE ALVARADO is a pseudonym for a Canadian soldier who originally hails from Alberta. At a young age, he enlisted as an infantryman in the Canadian Armed Forces, and went on to serve multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan and Europe. In 2024, he chose to fight under the Ukrainian flag in the current Russo-Ukrainian war. A voracious reader, stargazer and explorer, he has a thirst for the unknown and a good story. Life has led him to the deathly cold of the high Arctic, scorching North African sands, sweltering Caribbean palm fronds and the hungry sharks of southern seas. He currently resides in the Canadian mountains where he spends his time reading; writing; telling stories with his kids; and hiking with his dogs.