Natalie Zed

Natalie Zina Walschots is a music writer, poet and editor based in Toronto, Ontario. Once a scholarly, bookish young woman, she now spends the majority of her time permanently damaging her liver and her hearing at heavy metal shows. She writes for a number of publications, both in print and online, including Toronto Standard, Toronto Is Awesome, Hellbound, About Heavy Metal, Angry Metal Guy, Torontoist and Exclaim!. Natalie currently serves as the Managing Editor of Canada Arts Connect, and her weekly column about feminism and aggressive music, "Girls Don't Like Metal," is hosted on Canada Arts Connect Magazine. She is the Metal and Comics Editor for Toronto Is Awesome, where she contributes the columns "Heavy Metal Ambassador" and "Image Seeks Words." She is also the Reviews Editor of This Magazine, and her biweekly column on individual songs from recent Canadian metal albums, "One Track Mind," appears on the This Magazine website.

Natalie's second book of poetry, DOOM: Love Poems For Supervillains, was published by Insomniac Press in the Spring of 2012. Her first book, Thumbscrews, won the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and was published by Snare Books in the Fall of 2007. Her poetry has recently been featured in Matrix, dead (g)end(er), Carousel, and broken pencil. Natalie earned her MA in English Literature and Creative writing from the University of Calgary. She writes about comic books, video games, combat sports, gastroporn, sadomasochism, feminism and difficult music.