When Words Collide 2026

Rick Overwater is a sci-fi, fantasy and crime writer based in Calgary, Alberta. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is the author of The Black City Beneath, a late-age steampunk novel available from Calgary publisher, The Seventh Terrace. His graphic novel Futility: Orange Planet Horror, was nominated for an Aurora award by The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. Besides studying fiction writing under noted Canadian authors at UBC, he also studied graphic novel writing under critically acclaimed graphic novelist Sarah Leavitt.

Rick’s comic story, The Continuing Adventures Canada the Goose, illustrated by Dario Carrasco (Alpha Flight, Star Wars), came out in the award-winning Renegade Comics Anthology Home, in the fall of 2022. His indie comic and seven-inch record combo, Son of a Bullfighter’s Ghost integrates music and comics and was released June 2024. His new illustrated novella, Sky Devil and the Haunted Air, a co-production with award-winning artist GMB Chomichuk, was published by Stranger Fiction in spring 2025. Currently, he is writing a crime-noir novel drawing upon his youth in rural Alberta and is also working on the next Futility comic.