Bianca Lakoseljac is the author of a collection of stories, Bridge in the Rain, 2010; a collection of poetry, Memoirs of a Praying Mantis, 2009; and is the recipient of the Matthew Ahern Memorial Award in literature. Her writing has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Canadian Woman Studies, Canadian Voices, and Migrating Memories: Central Europe in Canada. Summer of the Dancing Bear, which chronicles the rite of passage of a fourteen year old girl befriended by a gypsy clan, set in the former Yugoslavia, is her first novel.