Annie Potts
Annie Potts is Professor of Human-Animal Studies and is co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is the author of Chicken (Reaktion Animal Series, 2012), A New Zealand Book of Beasts: Animals in our Culture, History and Everyday Life (Auckland University Press, 2013), Animals in Emergencies: Learning from the Christchurch Earthquakes (Canterbury University Press, 2014), and editor of Psychology, Gender and Animals (Sage, 2010) and Meat Culture (Brill, 2016). Annie is currently completing a book for Sydney University Press called Possum Tales, which focuses on the cultural histories of opossums and possums in the Americas and Australasia. She lives in a multispecies household by the sea with companion cats, dogs, hens, and an eight-year-old sparrow named Lotus.
Bubi The Bear
I am Bubi the Bear, a passionate vegan artist and activist, dedicated to giving a voice to the voiceless. In every stroke of my brush, I channel emotions, unraveling the hidden struggles of animals, inviting people to perceive them through a new lens. I paint and write stories to open people's eyes, to make them not just see but feel the pain animals endure behind closed doors and to inspire change. OK, I must admit that my humans help me with it a bit. There's a special place in my heart for animal sanctuaries. To show my gratitude, I create illustrations of their family members. Each comes with a short, often heartbreaking story showing the side of animals people don't usually see. Stories also reveal the joy and love animals experience in their loving forever homes, encouraging others to support this incredibly hard but important and noble work sanctuaries do.
Julia Denos
Julia Denos is an author/illustrator based in Beverly, MA. As a vegan creator, animal lover, and student of all things botanical, she is passionate about using her work to connect people, plants, and animals together in healing, reverent, and magical relating. She has written and illustrated award-winning books for children, and her newest, Sanctuary: A Home For Rescued Farm Animals, honors the animals she has met rescued from the dairy, meat, and egg industries. Sanctuary advocates for animal rights from a child's perspective, encourages simple actions for plant-based community building, and promotes ecological awareness for children.
Carol Gigliotti
Carol Gigliotti is an author, artist, animal activist, and scholar whose work focuses on the reality of animals' lives as important contributors to the biodiversity of this planet. She is Professor Emerita of Design and Dynamic Media and Critical and Cultural Studies at the Emily Carr University of Design, Vancouver, BC. CANADA. She is the author of The Creative Lives of Animals, published by NYU Press (2022). Her website is carolgigliotti.com
Shannon Johnstone
Shannon Johnstone’s photographic work deals with themes that reclaim what has been discarded and make visible that which is hidden. Her project, Landfill Dogs was most notably on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer (2013), and CNN.com (2014). Her newest work, Roadside Zoo won an Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards (2021), and one photograph from the series is currently a Finalist in the 2023 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition. Johnstone is a tenured professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. She is also a PhD candidate in Human-Animal Studies at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
Just Wondering, M. Martelli
Just Wondering... is an autonomous collective project producing theoretical video-essays and short, animated, speculative films critical of the status quo. The films explore antispeciesism, posthumanism, environmental, climate and social justice. The collective consists of Aron Nor, researcher and filmmaker-artivist, Mina Mimosa, visual artist and illustrator, and M. Martelli, writer and scholar-activist.
EvaMarie Lindahl
EvaMarie Lindahl, PhD, is a visual artist and researcher based in Sweden. Her research-driven art projects are situated in the intersection of Critical Animal Studies, the visual arts and activism. Lindahl has developed an art practice that encompasses large-scale graphite drawings as well as text-based performance work. Through her projects, Lindahl is questioning the writing of art history from an anthropocentric and patriarchal position by correcting, re-writing, and imagining new (art) histories. Lindahl earned her doctoral degree at Edge Hill University (UK) 2022, with a practice-based thesis invested in decentering the human in art history in favour of non-human animals.
Laura Jean McKay
Laura Jean McKay is the author of The Animals in That Country (Scribe 2020)—winner of the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award, The Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 2021. The Animals in That Country has been shortlisted for The Kitschies, The Stella Prize, The Readings Prize and the ASL Gold Medal and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.
Laura is also the author of Holiday in Cambodia, (Black Inc., 2013) and an Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University. She was awarded the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary Honours in 2022. Her new collection is Gunflower, released with Scribe October 2023.
Laura gratefully acknowledges the First Nations people of Meeanjin Country—Yagara people and Turrbal people. She pays her deepest respect to Elders of these Countries and their connections to land, river, and community, as well as to First Nations people across the continent. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Michelle Waters
Michelle Waters’ art is influenced by 35 years of activism for animals and the Earth. She has a B.A.
in art from University of California, Santa Cruz. Michelle’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S. and in Europe and has received press coverage and multiple awards. Michelle is represented by Cactus Gallery in Los Angeles and is a member of three international artist collectives: Hinge Artist Collective, Artists for Conservation, and the Art of Compassion Project. She lives in the redwood forest of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California with her husband and rescued cats.
Yvette Watt
Yvette’s artwork and academic research is heavily informed by her background as an activist and reflects an interest in the relationship between how nonhuman animals are used and depicted in the visual arts and what this might have to say about how these animals are thought about and treated. Yvette has recently retired as Head of Painting at the UTAS School of Creative Arts & Media and is enjoying focusing on reinvigorating her studio practice.
