Edmonton is home to an amazing collection of artists, musicians, and writers who captivate the city with their emotions and ideas. The following Edmontonians will be sharing their work and hosting library programs as our new Capital City Featured Creators.
Featured Artist
Maria Shironoshita is an emerging artist living and working in Treaty 6 territory, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Maria is of Japanese Peruvian decent and immigrated to Canada at the age of four. She has exhibited at the AGA Community Gallery, Rutherford Galleria, FAB Gallery, Stollery Gallery, DC3 Art Projects, and Edmonton City Center. Her work has been funded by the Edmonton Arts Council. She currently holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design from the University of Alberta.
Maria works in painting, sculpture, video, and new media, using hand constructed organic forms contrasted with tokens from girlhood to express her ever developing relationship with her physical mind and body. She presents ongoing critiques of the female experience, especially in conjunction with chronic illness and neurodiversity. She is currently working on her first solo exhibition Home with ArtsPlace Canmore. You can follow her work on Instagram, @maria.shironoshita
Featured Musician
Paulina Morgan, with guitar in hand, has spent over a decade weaving the complexities of life, love, and emotion into her music. Known for incorporating personal stories into her songs, her debut EP Soliloquy (2021)—part of the Capital City Records catalogue—and her latest singles North Star and We Can Talk for Hours (2024) showcase her evolution as a storyteller and artist. As a 2025 EPL Featured Creator, she looks forward to inspiring and connecting with the community through music and creative collaborations.
Featured Writer
Ellen Kartz holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a professional writing certificate from Mount Royal University. She is a founding member of the Edmonton Poetry Festival and served on their board for a number of years. Ellen was the Communications and Partnerships Coordinator for the Writers' Guild of Alberta from 2015 to 2023, during which she was also the assistant editor for WestWord Magazine and the administrative assistant for the Edmonton Stroll of Poets. Currently, Ellen is the executive director for LitFest Alberta.
In 2018, she self-produced a one-person stage show and poetry/nonfiction chapbook, both titled The Tenderness of Stone, about a trek she made in 2016 through Nepal's Khumbu Valley to Mount Everest Base Camp. In 2020, Ellen founded Armistice Press, a small poetry chapbook press for emerging LGBTQ2SIA+ poets. Armistice launched four chapbooks in 2020 and another chapbook in the fall of 2024. Also in 2024, Ellen self-produced her second stage show, If I Was Fearless, sharing stories about growing up as a queer kid in rural Alberta in the 1980s, and published a poetry chapbook, Gravity, with Agatha Press.
Learn More!
- Capital City Art promotes and celebrates local visual art and artists in Edmonton. The Library connects Edmontonians with visual art through the promotion of local artists, curation of community art in all our locations, and classes or events linked to EPL's art collections.
- Capital City Press is a gathering place, both digitally and physically, for the exchange of ideas and education on the craft of writing. It gives Edmontonians a chance to discover fantastic local writers and discuss their creations. Capital City Press aims to help support and grow writing in the community.
- Capital City Records celebrates Edmonton's music scene and its history. This special digital collection includes some of Edmonton’s best contemporary local music, as well as a gig poster archive and NTT Films' Dead Venues documentary. Anyone can stream albums and, with your library card, you can download your favourite tracks.
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