Jes Battis is an Associate Professor at the University of Regina. He completed his undergraduate degree at a community college--a queer kid in a small town--and that experience was formative because he was able to learn from dedicated college instructors in diverse classrooms. His PhD focused on medievalist fantasy literature, and he described it at parties as "my gay wizard dissertation."
He has written two fiction series with Ace/Penguin. he first is the Occult Special Investigator, which focuses on a paranormal detective working in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Night Child, his debut novel (and the first in this series), was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award. His second series, Parallel Parks, is set in Regina and follows a group of graduate students who discover a parallel dimension at the heart of the city.
