McKenzie McDonald is a 23-year-old poet, writer and scholar living in Ottawa, Ontario. She recently participated in Arc’s Poet-in-Residence program and received the George Johnson Poetry Award at Carleton University in 2020. Her writing has appeared in Bywords, Seafoam Magazine and Vagabond City Literary Journal among galleries and self-publications. She is working on a book of poetry that reconciles how language fortifies and resists her mental illnesses.