Shane Neilson is a poet, physician, and scholar who completed his Ph.D. in McMaster‘s English and Cultural Studies Department on the representations of pain in CanLit. In 2011, Complete Physical (PQL, 2010) was a finalist for the Trillium Poetry Prize. Dysphoria (PQL, 2017) won the Hamilton Arts Council Literary Award for Poetry in 2018. Also in 2018 his dissertation work received SSHRC‘s $50,000 “Talent” award. In 2020, New Brunswick (Biblioasis, 2019) was shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award and was named The Miramichi Reader Book of the Year. His practice is located in Guelph and he currently serves as an assistant clinical professor of medicine at McMaster University’s Waterloo campus. His most recent books are a The Reign (Goose Lane Editions, 2025) and the Governor-General’s Award shortlisted How_to_feel,_what_to_feel (Palimpsest Press, 2025). Photos by Zee.