Kelley Aitken is a writer and artist. Canadian Shield, a collection of short stories informed by the Canadian wilderness was launched by Tightrope books in August of 2016.  Her earlier collection, Love in a Warm Climate, The Porcupine’s Quill, ’98 was nominated for the Commonwealth prize, Best First Book, Canadian Caribbean Region. She is the co-editor of the anthology First Writes, The Banff Press, ‘05. With Maureen Scott Harris, she launched The Raven and the Writing Desk in 2007, a chapbook of Maureen’s haiku and Kelley’s wash drawings.  She teaches drawing in the collections at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Aga Khan Museum, and co-leads plein air painting trips to France each year. She is currently working on a collection of essays about drawing and museum space. An excerpt: “A Tree, an Elephant, Departure” was published as a chapbook by Field Notes, in 2015. www.kelleyaitken.ca