Kat Smutz grew up in the Southern Appalachian Mountain, in a small North Georgia town. A love of history grew out of listening to her parents’ stories of growing up in an isolated region of the Smoky Mountains. She began writing in high school, an obsession that eventually led to a career in journalism with detours into engineering, law enforcement and teaching.
In 2009, Smutz retired to work on publishing some of the sixty-plus manuscripts she had written over the years. Her first three books were non-fiction works on the American Civil War, a subject she knows well after more than forty years as a civil war researcher.
Her first historical fiction, Silent Tears, is the story of an abused wife learning to stand on her own in a Victorian society that allowed women few rights.
Her next book, as yet untitled, is about a young woman who becomes separated from her family when the American Civil War erupts. She takes on the guise of a boy and earns her way by spying while she tries to find her way home. “As unlikely as the story sounds, hundreds of women dressed as men and joined the army during the civil war,” Smutz points out. “Spies who were female weren’t at all uncommon.”
Frequent travel is part of life for Smutz, thanks to her husband’s career as a federal law enforcement officer. Home is wherever the job lands them, and it does provide opportunities to visit new places and meet new people, which inspire Smutz’s work.
Works by Kat Smutz
Non-Fiction
American Slavery In An Hour
American Civil War In An Hour
Abraham Lincoln In An Hour
Historical Fiction
Silent Tears
Contributed works
Clay County Heritage Book, recollections by descendants of Clay County, NC, pioneers
Water’s Edge, an anthology by the Evergreen Writers Group
Sandrella Mohanna is an actor, improviser, and aspiring screenwriter from Halifax, NS.
Sandrella has also spent several years competing with the Canadian Bodybuilding Federation
both at the provincial and national levels. Her last competitive year was in 2016, where she took
home two second-place trophies and one third-place trophy. She has also spent time on the
other side of the stage as a bodybuilding judge.
Sandrella is a first-generation Lebanese-Canadian whose mother tongue is Arabic. A lover of
languages and culture, she holds a BA in French and Spanish from Dalhousie University, and
has lived and travelled abroad extensively.
Between cuddling with her cats and fielding questions about the authenticity of her curly hair,
Sandrella can be found lifting heavy things at the gym and spending time with her husband and
daughter.
Sandrella can also be found working on her craft through various workshops and classes
offered locally through Neptune Theatre and AFCOOP. She is also a full member of ACTRA,
WIFT, and AFCOOP, and enjoys attending various conferences and industry events throughout
the year.
Dylan Thompson-MacKay is a Nova Scotian Entrepreneur from Pictou County who makes handcrafted wooden pens and pencils.
His business is named Elwood Pens and is promoting other people to Write Their Own Story.
It began in a family members garage in 2014 and eventually moved to a full woodworking studio on Argyle Street in Halifax by June of 2018.
Now, Dylan is operating from home back in New Glasgow and will be expanding into other products soon. Dylan’s hope is to help employ as many people in Atlantic Canada as possible.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4fRNYS4b98[/embedyt]
Mia Cathleen is a Mi’kmaq singer/songwriter and visual artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She’s been writing music since high school, but only recently began to perform after releasing her debut, self-written, recorded, and produced the album “Know Me.”
Her style and sound centre around her lyricism, which can be dark, romantic, or playful, but is always poetic, and her chord progressions, which feature a fun mash-up of unique rhythms and scales. While she is best described as a folk singer, Mia aims to add nuance to her style by drawing inspiration from a wide variety of artists and genres, from 90s metal and grunge to jazz and rap.
Mia is currently in the midst of recording her second album, which she hopes to release sometime next year.
Colin MacDonald is a filmmaker with over ten years of experience in the screen industry. He has produced award-winning short films and music videos, Presents (2019), Skyline (2017), If We’re Divine (2013) and Presence (2013). His work has been screened internationally at film festivals, featured exclusively on Revolver Magazine and aired nationally on the CBC.
Colin’s passion lies documentary and narrative films that have a strong focus on character and story and that strive for innovative ways of evoking emotion in the audience.
Atay & JAX is the result of a child’s Christmas wish bringing their favourite meme page to life. Although they “spit fire bars” they also don’t take themselves too seriously and walk the line between comedy, pop, punk, and hip-hop. They are leading a movement of young-adult fans who aren’t quite ready to grow up.
Atay & JAX is a new Nova Scotian hip hop group compiled of Adam “Atay” Taylor of Spryfield and Jaxon “JAX” Booth of Lunenburg. In 2019 the duo began collaborating in the studio to create “Honey” a 9 song LP that served as JAX’s debut album and served up a mellow, alternative hip-hop sound with comedic undertones and small-town stories. Atay engineered, mixed, mastered, and featured on the record.
The intention was never to present as a duo, but when the album launched, the chemistry in their performances was undeniable, and the fans demanded to hear more. Atay & JAX quickly developed a reputation for their gritty, high energy, punk-esque live performances. Footage from these shows created major “FOMO” and on social media. People from all around were showing up in surprising numbers to these campy church hall concerts, whilst screaming the lyrics along with high accuracy.
On February 15th 2020 Atay & JAX released their debut album as a duo. To Date ‘Last Night’ has been streamed over 80,000 times.
Check them out @atayandjax
Iain MacLeod is a writer, filmmaker and film educator originally from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Educated at York University and the Canadian Film Centre, Iain started his career in the Nova Scotia film industry writing and directing short films before transitioning to television where he wrote on CBC’s Street Cents, and for six seasons on the Showcase, cult hit Trailer Park Boys.
Iain has written and directed two feature films, Your Money or Your Wife and You Ruined Our Life, and co-written three others, Beat Down, Relative Happiness and Hopeless Romantic as well as story editing multiple projects. He also recently earned a Master of Education degree from Mount Saint Vincent University in Lifelong Learning and is the programs coordinator at the Atlantic Filmmakers Co-operative (AFCOOP) in Halifax, working on various film education initiatives, including teaching and mentoring emerging screenwriters.
https://youtu.be/W5MY-Qi0UtQ
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