From award-winning writers to world-class photographers, HAMILTON CITY Magazine is proud to support incredible local creative talent. To truly reflect this great city and its people, HAMILTON CITY Magazine also embraces and reflects the values of equity, diversity and inclusion. We are a force for progress and a continuous celebration of all things Hamilton.
JODY ABERDEEN is a general enthusiast with a wide range of interests. His latest book, Three Tales of Want and Wonder, is now available exclusively in print from Amazon and he has more projects on the go. In addition to Hamilton City Magazine, Jody's writing can be found in Urbanicity and other publications on the web. Jody holds an honours BA in History & English from McMaster and is a former president of the McMaster Chapter of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. You can usually find Jody somewhere in Dundas and on Instagram: @jodyaberdeen.
KERRY DOOLE is a veteran freelance arts journalist who has written about music and film for the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Exclaim!, and dozens of consumer and trade publications in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Australasia. He is the author of Private Universe, a biography of the band Crowded House published by Omnibus Press. Kerry moved to Hamilton from Toronto four years ago and loves this city and its vibrant musical community.
KATHRYN DUNMORE is a freelance writer with a love of local community, cultivated in a long-running arts column in the Burlington Post. Kathryn has been feature writer and editor for Hamilton Musician Magazine as well as published online, as a digital writer for the Canadian Red Cross. With a love of learning, she taught digital communications at Humber College in Toronto and continues to support and admire the vibrancy of local communities.
EUGENE ELLMEN worked for about 20 years in Toronto in the responsible investment industry before moving to Hamilton three years ago with his spouse. A former journalist, he now writes feature stories and commentary specializing in sustainable business and finance.
JON EVANS is a Hamilton-based commercial branding photographer who has been turning the ordinary into the extraordinary for the last 22 years. Along the way, Jon has met some great clients and together they’ve created many memorable campaigns for some of the region’s top individuals and businesses. Jon loves what he does and brings that enthusiasm with him on each and every shoot.
DIANE GALAMBOS is a Hamilton-born and bred food writer always ready for food adventures. Her restaurant reviews appeared in the Hamilton Spectator and her recipes/writing have been featured by Food Bloggers of Canada, Mushrooms Canada and Taste Canada. Diane has worked as assistant to many well-known chefs, has volunteered as a Tech Tutor, with 541 Eatery and Soupfest. Her blog records new and treasured family recipes. Follow her on social media @kitchenblissca or visit kitchenbliss.ca.
VANESSA GREEN is the owner of Greenlight Content, a copywriting and content marketing consultancy based in Hamilton. With over 15 years of experience in editorial and content marketing, she’s written for notable brands and publications including Yahoo, The Daily Mail, Rogers, Bell, the Globe and Mail, British Airways and more. She lives in Kirkendall with her husband, son and mini-goldendoodle.
MARTA HEWSON is a fashion and portrait photographer located in the historic Cotton Factory in Hamilton. She brings her 20 years of fashion photography insight to every portrait shoot, and she’s on a mission to make you fall in love with the experience of being photographed.
DYLAN HUDECKI (AKA THE DILL) is a local teacher, radio DJ, Hamont music advocate and singer-songwriter who played music professionally with By Divine Right, travelling the world in the 00s. In 2018 he released his debut album Greetings From. It was a vinyl "best of" collection of his 52-song magnus opus simply titled 52, a 113-person collaborative artistic project that was 15 years in the making. In 2020, The Dill took 12 of the remaining 40 songs left off of the vinyl and released it remixed and remastered digitally as a book-end record titled Beside to close the last chapter of the 52 project.
ALLISON M. JONES grew up in Mississauga, and has now spent more than half her life in Hamilton, having moved here to complete her Master's degree in sociology at McMaster. A long-time college professor and now a public servant, she first connected to the Hamilton arts community as a Fringe Festival volunteer, and later became a freelance social media publicist as Arts Ally. Allison contributed to View Magazine for a number of years as a theatre writer. Allison is particularly drawn to the people, motives and stories behind the tales presented on the stage.
RYAN McGREAL is a programmer, writer and amateur urbanist. He was the founding editor of Raise the Hammer, raisethehammer.org, a website dedicated to civic affairs and urban revitalization in Hamilton, and a founding member of Hamilton Light Rail, hamiltonlightrail.ca, a citizen group promoting higher-order transit. Ryan lives in Hamilton.
ELAINE MITROPOULOS was born into a food-loving family right here in Hamilton. She started her writing career as a reporter in Australia and Western Canada. Today, she works a day job in communications and moonlights in the food and drink industry. In her free time, Elaine enjoys strolling her neighbourhood of Dundas, delighting in the mom-and-pop shops that dot the main strip.
NICHOLAS MIZERA is an award-winning editor, journalist and digital producer who writes about finance, real estate, fashion and more. He lives in Stipley with his wife and daughter, and can often be found drinking a coffee at Vintage Coffee Roasters or walking the many paths of Gage Park.
CARLYE MORROW-JACKSON is pretty well-read, with a degree in English literature, but since she is also cursed with an awful memory, you’ll have to take her word for it. Luckily, she has always preferred writing about present issues, and coupled with her longstanding crush on Steeltown, she’s thrilled to bits to be a part of the new HAMILTON CITY Magazine.
STEPHEN NEAR (he/him) is a writer, theatre creator and educator living in Hamilton. He is a graduate of York University (BFA), the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (B. Ed) and the MFA Creative Writing program at the University of Guelph. Stephen is a member of the Playwright’s Guild of Canada and an alumnus of the Sage Hill Writing Experience and the Banff Centre. In Hamilton, he is co-founder of Same Boat Theatre and his writing has appeared in a variety of online and print publications while his plays have been produced at several theatres and festivals locally and across Canada. He is a proud husband, father and unabashed geek who is (still) obsessed with comic books and role-playing games. stephennear.com
KRIS OSBORNE is a writer, recipe developer, digital storyteller, and professional home economist who has written about food, lifestyle, beauty, shopping, parenting, and health and wellness for over a decade. Kris grew up in a family-owned restaurant which set her up for a longtime love affair with food, especially food with a healthful spin. She's a regular contributor to Food & Drink magazine and was a writer and longtime healthy snacks and healthier cocktails columnist for Tuja Wellness. Her work has been featured in Eating Well, Chatelaine, Clean Eating, Parents Canada, and Go Gluten-Free Magazine. She has just co-directed her first docuseries Food Is Me, which will be airing on Bell Fibe TV1 in summer 2023.
BRENT PERNIAC is a professional photographer based in Hamilton. Brent has become one of Canada’s most popular celebrity-event photographers and regularly covers national events such as the Juno Awards, the Genie Awards, Canada’s Walk of Fame, MuchMusic Video Awards and the Toronto International Film Festival. Brent’s work has been published in major publications such as InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, People, OK!, UsWeekly, Rolling Stone, InTouch, HELLO!, NY Post and Life&Style.
HEATHER PETER has been writing about food for close to 10 years, both on her blog, Hamilton Small Fries, and for various publications. Her passion lies in promoting and telling the stories of local food makers. In addition to writing, Heather is a certified TAC tea sommelier, and owns a small business specializing in tea: Tea Amo! She can also be found dabbling in design and marketing for the food industry.
DEIRDRE PIKE has spent nearly three decades working on justice issues in Hamilton, including income and food security, affordable housing and the experiences of unhoused people, and equity and inclusion, particularly creating 2SLGBTQI+ positive space. As an out and proud Catholic lesbian working on justice issues for a local Anglican diocese, Deirdre brings her queer perspective to a myriad of local stories. Deirdre is the principal facilitator at Queer Positive Power.
HELEN POWERS often visited Hamilton while growing up and she moved here in 2006 with her husband and two children. After working in public relations, landscape architecture, and municipal planning, Helen is happily retired but still loves to write. Hamilton’s waterfront and valleys are her favourite places but the city’s many shopping districts are always fun to visit.
JESSICA ROSE is a writer, editor, and book reviewer whose work has appeared in publications across Canada. She is the book reviews editor at THIS Magazine, a senior editor at the Hamilton Review of Books, a founding editor at The Inlet, and is the marketing manager at gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival.
ANNIE ROSENBERG is a writer whose work has appeared in Jelly Bucket, Stone Highway Review, Intermission Magazine, Marketing, the National Post, Reader’s Digest, Double Reed, Hamilton Magazine, the Four-Cornered Universe and the Toronto Star. She likes to test her dialogue on Charlie, her ever-adorable chocolate lab, and would dearly love to use the word antediluvian in a sentence. There. Like That.
PAUL SHAKER is a Hamilton-based urban planner and principal with Civicplan, a firm specializing in participatory planning, public engagement, and community strategies. He is a member of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. Paul is also a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. For more information, visit Civicplan.ca or follow @civicplan on X.
SARAH SHEEHAN is a writer and award-winning heritage advocate with a PhD from the University of Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Canadian and international media including the CBC, the TLS, and Cinema Scope. Her advocacy work spans placemaking, co-chairing Doors Open Hamilton 2022, and serving as founding Chair of Built Environment Hamilton. She is writing a book about church reuse.
BOB SHIELDS is a musician, professor at Mohawk College, and author in creativity and wellbeing. Taking a grassroots approach, he aims to communicate the often-overlooked intrinsic value of creativity to individual and cultural health and wellbeing. In doing so, he links culture-based creative practices with social justice and the need for egalitarian community-building.
SHERRI TELENKO has been a college professor and professional writer for decades, specializing in art, travel and pets. Her writing has appeared in many regional city publications including West of the City, the former Hamilton Magazine, Fifty-Five Plus, and East of the City. She's a member of TMAC (Travel Media Association of Canada) and Dog Writers Association of America and travels almost weekly with her canine companion Victoria. You can follow their travels at dogtrotting.net.
JAMIE TENNANT is a broadcaster, journalist and author in Hamilton. He is the program director of 93.3 CFMU, where he hosts the books and literature program and podcast GET LIT. His second novel, River, Diverted, is set for release next fall. He has written about Hamilton and music for several local publications including the former Hamilton Magazine and the Hamilton Spectator.
JEFF TESSIER has made Hamilton his home since moving here to attend McMaster University. He served as photo editor at H Magazine (RIP), was an occasional photographer for Hamilton Magazine (RIP), and taught photography at Mohawk College. He works as a freelance commercial photographer.
STEPHANIE VEGH is a Hamilton-born visual artist, writer and arts worker whose writing has appeared in C Magazine, Canadian Art, Studio Magazine and Hamilton Magazine, among other publications. She currently serves as head of learning at the Art Gallery of Burlington while continuing to live and create in Hamilton.
KEN WALLIS spent 13 years at CHCH as a copywriter and on-air promotion director, before accepting a teaching position at Mohawk College. He retired as associate dean of Media and Entertainment after 28 years in academics. Ken is a dedicated blues supporter and owner of BluesSource Entertainment. He hosts radio shows, currently BluesSource Canada and BluesSource International airing on INDI 1015 FM and Blues And Roots Radio. He has served as a board member of two blues societies, is on the Maple Blues Awards nominating committee, and has been a Juno award judge. His hobby is concert photography.
PAUL WEINBERG is a veteran journalist and freelance writer whose work has appeared in a wide range of newspapers, magazines and websites. He is also an author of one book When Poverty Mattered Then and Now (2019) and the editor and contributor to another Reclaiming Hamilton: Essays from the New Ambitious City (2020).
NATHAN WHITLOCK has been published in The Walrus, The New York Review of Books, Toronto Life, Globe and Mail, Best Canadian Essays and more. He is a professor at Humber College, where he coordinates the creative book publishing program. His third novel, Lump, will be published by Dundurn Press in 2023. He lives with his family in Hamilton’s Strathcona neighbourhood. X: @nathanwhitlock.
MADELINE WILSON SHAW is a Haudenosaunee/Hamiltonian creative who has been developing innovative strategies to communicate ideas, connect people and engage community for almost two decades. With established careers in politics and the music industry, she is currently the director of communications and community relations for the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres. Madeline's commitment to culture and Indigenous ways of knowing grounds both her work and lifestyle. She is a proud mother of three fantastic boys and partner to an amazing Anishinaabe man who is her best friend.
SUZANNE ZANDBERGEN is the owner of The Generator, a social media marketing agency in Hamilton. Suzanne has over 20 years of experience in advertising, writing and telling the stories of small businesses and local organizations, and uses her social media platforms to share these stories. Suzanne is also the founder of Hamilton Fempreneurs, the area's largest group of women entrepreneurs with the motto, "women helping women succeed."