Orca Book Publishers

Author Directory

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Name Bio
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Judy Abrams Judy Abrams, born in Budapest, Hungary on April 28, 1937, immigrated to Montreal in 1949, where she later taught French. She taught at the International School in New York City from 1972 until her retirement in 2002. She has two sons and one grandson and divides her time between Montreal and New York. In 2009, she co-edited Remember Us: A Collection of Memories from the Hungarian Hidden Children of the Holocaust.
Alison Acheson
KC Adams KC Adams is a Cree/Ojibway/British artist who graduated from Concordia University with a BFA in studio arts. Adams has had several solo and group exhibitions and was included in the PHOTOQUAI: Biennale des images du monde in Paris, France. Adams was the set designer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. She has designed public art sculptures and has been teaching about Indigenous pottery and learning from Elders at the annual nibi (water) gathering at Whiteshell Provincial Park in eastern Manitoba. An art instructor at Brandon University, KC recently won the Winnipeg Arts Council's Making A Mark Award and the Aboriginal Circle of Educators' Trailblazing Award. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Caroline Adderson Caroline Adderson has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Rogers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her family. For more information, visit www.carolineaddersonkids.com.
Amek Adler Abram (Amek) Adler was born in Lublin, Poland on April 20, 1928. Amek lived in Italy (1945-1947), immigrated to Sweden in 1948 and then to Canada in 1954 with his wife, Ruth. In Toronto, Amek succeeded in both the fur industry and jewellery business. He has spoken to numerous audiences about his experiences during the Holocaust. Amek is actively involved with the Jewish War Veterans of Canada and lives in Toronto.
BOOST Child & Youth Advocacy Centr
Michael Agostini
Angela Ahn Angela Ahn is a former high school English and social studies teacher. She worked in the Canadian public education system, as well as in Hong Kong for two years, teaching English as a Second Language. After five years of teaching, she went back to school to earn a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of British Columbia. Angela worked in all types of libraries but only discovered the joy of children's literature when she had her own children. She has been at home with her children for the last few years in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a writer, poet, spoken-word performer, librettist, and activist from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation. She is the founder and Managing Editor of Kegedonce Press which was established in 1993 to publish the work of Indigenous creators. Kateri has written two books of poetry, was a contributor to the graphic novel anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold, was editor of the award-winning Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing, and has also released two poetry and music CDs. Kateri's work has been published internationally, and she has performed and spoken around the world.
Linda Aksomitis
Jen Albaugh Jen Albaugh is a former elementary school teacher and librarian currently working as a freelance writer and editor in Toronto.
Sue Ann Alderson
Danny Alexis
Michelle Alfano
Meghan Rose Allen Meghan Rose Allen has had short fiction published in journals throughout North America. She has a PhD in Mathematics and wrote her thesis on the mathematics of games (chess, Go, Nine Men's Morris). Enid Strange is her first novel. Meghan Rose lives in Sackville, New Brunswick. For more information, visit www.reluctantm.com.
Lou Allin Lou Allin was the author of the award-nominated Belle Palmer mysteries set in Northern Ontario. Formerly an English teacher, Lou held a PhD. in English literature. Her Rapid Reads Contingency Plan won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novella in Canada and has been shortlisted for the Golden Oak Award from the Ontario Library Association.
Ann Alma
Karim Alrawi
Christelle Ammirati
Robert Amos
Robert Amos
Bret Amundsen Bret Amundsen is a broadcaster and voiceover artist from Minnesota. He has narrated two titles from Orca's Seven series.
Bret Amundson Bret Amundson is a broadcaster and voiceover artist from Minnesota. He has narrated two titles from Orca's Seven series.
Bret Amundson
Ferenc Andai Ferenc Andai (1925–2013) was born in Budapest, Hungary. In 1957 he immigrated to Canada, obtaining an MA in Slavic Studies from the Université de Montréal and a teaching diploma from McGill University, then a PhD in history from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. His book Mint tanu szólni: bori történet (To Bear Witness: A Story of Bor) was published in 2003 and awarded the Radnóti Miklós National Prize in 2004.
Marguerite Andersen Marguerite Andersen is an accomplished writer and lecturer. She has taught French and translation (English, French, and German) at several universities and has also worked as a translator and interpreter for diplomats and writers. Dr. Andersen was the editor of Canada's first feminist anthology in the 1970s, Mother was not a person. She has written several novels, short story collections, and plays. She lives in Toronto.
Barbara Anderson B.K. Anderson has had a twenty year career as a filmmaker, director, and producer. She has also written, directed, and produced for the stage in Toronto and Vancouver, winning the B.C. Playwriting Award and the Ovation Award for best new musical in 2006 for Alley Cats. B.K. lives in Vancouver, where she currently works at the Vancouver School Board as an Education Coordinator.
Teddy Anderson
Gail Anderson-Dargatz Gail Anderson-Dargatz is an award-winning author of over a dozen books, including The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees, which were finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She also teaches other authors how to write fiction. Gail lives in the Shuswap region of British Columbia.
Mariko Ando Mariko Ando was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. She is an artist and illustrator and has exhibited widely in Japan and Canada. Her work has garnered much critical acclaim. She has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, for many years. For more information, visit www.marikoando.com.
Jan Andrews The author of numerous books, including The Auction, The Very Last First Time, and When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew, which won the Silver Birch Express Award, Jan Andrews received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture as a children's writer and pioneer of Canada's storytelling movement. She died in 2017.
Joelle Anthony Joëlle Anthony is a writer, playwright, actress and writing teacher. She enjoys teaching workshops to writers of all ages, is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and is a regular contributor to the SCBWI's newsletter. Joëlle lives in British Columbia. Visit her on the web at www.joelleanthony.com. Follow her on Twitter @joellewrites.
Molly Applebaum Molly Applebaum was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1930. After the war, she spent three years in displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria before being accepted as an immigrant to Canada under the Canadian Jewish Congress's War Orphans Project. Molly lived in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1948 before moving to Toronto, where she married and started a family. Molly wrote her diary in Polish from 1942-1944 while hidden on a farm in Dbrowa Tarnowska, Poland, and she wrote an accompanying memoir in the 1990s. Buried Words is the first English translation of her diary. Molly Applebaum lives in Toronto.
Rona Arato Rona Arato, a former teacher, is an award-winning children's author with a strong interest in the field of human rights. From 1994 to 1998, she was an interviewer for Survivors of the Shoah, a Steven Spielberg project that recorded the histories of Holocaust survivors. She is the author of Courage and Compassion and the On a Day Story Voyages series, among others. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.ronaarato.com.
Marion Arbona Marion Arbona was born in France. After obtaining her diploma in animation at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, she moved to Quebec. She devotes her life to illustration, painting and animation. In constant evolution, she explores new techniques, such as scratchboard, pastel and transparency, which she combines with her favourite media—gouache, ink and image retouching.
Shane Arbuthnott Shane Arbuthnott grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and now lives in southern Ontario with his family. Dominion, his debut novel, was released in 2017. His short fiction has appeared in On Spec and Open Spaces. When he is not writing, he can be seen chasing his three adventurous children, trying to convince them to eat green things. For more information, visit www.shanearbuthnott.com.
Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald Member of the Stó:lo Nation, Dr. Jo-ann Archibald - Q’um Q’um Xiiem is described as a visionary and an agent of change, and is nationally recognized for creating culturally relevant teacher education and graduate programs for Aboriginal students. During her career of more than 40 years, her work transformed the learning landscape through curriculum and program development, policy, teaching and research.
Jeannette Armstrong Jeannette Armstrong is a Canadian classic author and an award-winning Indigenous leader.
Kelley Armstrong Kelley Armstrong is the author of the Cainsville Modern Gothic series and the Age of Legends YA fantasy trilogy. Her past works include the Otherworld urban fantasy series, the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising teen paranormal trilogies and the Nadia Stafford crime trilogy. She also co-writes the Blackwell Pages middle-grade fantasy trilogy as K.L. Armstrong with M.A. Marr. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her family. For more information, visit www.kelleyarmstrong.com.
Richard Armstrong Richard Armstrong, syilx traditional knowledge/language specialist, offers syilx (Okanagan) translations for each of the animals in this story. He is from the Okanagan Nation.
Mark Ashby Mark Ashby is a voiceover artist, audiobook narrator and producer. He has narrated two titles from Orca's Seven series.
Sonny Assu Sonny Assu is an artist whose Kwakwaka’wakw heritage is a focal point of his practice.
Martha Attema

martha attema was born on a dairy farm in Friesland, one of the northern provinces in the Netherlands. In 1981, martha immigrated with husband, Albert and three children to Canada. In 1995, she published her first novel, A Time to Choose. This war novel set in Friesland and deals with the Resistance and won the Blue Heron Book Award. Since this initial success martha has written numerous books for young people. For more information, visit marthaattema.com.
François Aubineau François Aubineau applies his unique combination of talents and experiences from being a mountain trekker, photographer, model, sales rep and a shepherd in the French Alps, and his current role as a mountain guide, to everything he does. On My Mountain is his first book. François lives in Luynes, France.
Christopher Auchter
Tara Audibert Tara Audibert is a Maliseet artist, filmmaker and podcaster with twenty years of experience in animation and comics.
Dale Auger Dale Auger (1958–2008) was an accomplished artist, teacher, and storyteller from the Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta. His strong, intensely colourful paintings of Native spiritual life are held in notable private and public collections around the world.
Catherine Austen Catherine Austen worked in the conservation movement before becoming a freelance writer. She lives in Quebec with her husband, Geoff, and their children.Her novels with Orca include Walking Backward and All Good Children. For more information, visit www.catherineausten.com.
Theresa Austin
Karen Autio
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Constance Backhouse Constance Backhouse is a Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa. She has published a number of prize-winning books such as Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth-Century Canada; Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950; and Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975. Her latest book, Claire L’Heureux-Dubé: A Life, was published in 2017. She was named to the Order of Canada in 2008.
Nizar Ali Badr Nizar Ali Badr has always been inspired to paint, sculpt and draw. In his walks along the seashore near the ancient port city of Ugarit, Syria, he always admired the stones on the beach and in the clear blue water. Now he gathers these stones and brings them home to his rooftop studio, where they become the medium for his art. Nizar has never left his hometown of Latakia, though in his heart he accompanies the many Syrians who have been forced to flee their homeland because of ongoing violence.
Brenda Baker
Millie Balance
Heather Ball
Dan Bar-el

Dan Bar-el was born in Edmonton, grew up in Ontario, got lost briefly in Manitoba and now resides in Vancouver. Each year, Dan gives numerous presentations in schools and libraries across North America both as an author and as a storyteller. He takes great delight in opportunities to travel, see new places and visit with young readers. Visit his website at www.danbarel.com.

 
Bob Bartel
Steven Barwin Steven Barwin leads a double life as a writer and a teacher. He is the author of a number of sport-themed books, including Orca Sports titles Hardball and Hurricane Heat. He has also written for numerous television shows and contributed to the creation of the NASCAR and World Wrestling DVD board games. Steven lives in Toronto with his family. For more information, visit www.stevenbarwin.com.
Karen Bass
Pnina Bat Zvi Pnina Bat Zvi is a journalist and radio host based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Robert Bateman Robert Bateman, a naturalist and painter, was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1930. Fascinated by the natural world as a child, inspired by the Group of Seven and encouraged by his parents, Robert developed a painting style that has been internationally lauded, and his work has been exhibited around the world. As an artist, an art and geography teacher and an advocate, Robert has used his renown to promote environmental causes, and in 1999 the Audubon Society named him one of the top 100 environmental proponents of the twentieth century. Robert was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984 and a Member of the Order of British Columbia in 2001. He lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. For more information, visit robertbateman.ca.
Albert Bates
Sonya Spreen Bates Sonya Spreen Bates is a Canadian writer living in South Australia. She grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, where she obtained a degree in linguistics from the University of Victoria. She then studied speech-language pathology at Dalhousie University and has spent many years working with children with communication disorders. Sonya writes for children and adults and has been published in Australia and New Zealand as well as Canada.
Christine Battuz Christine Battuz received her Master of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of Perugia in Italy. She has illustrated more than 60 children's books and has worked on projects in various parts of the world including Canada, the United States, Korea and some countries in Europe. She is also an art teacher and has worked with students of all ages to share her passion for books and drawing. A partner in the graphic design studio Kuizin Studio, she collaborates regularly with the design and animation department. Born in France, she now lives in Bromont, Quebec.
Laure Baudot Laure Baudot is an author and martial artist. With Toronto, Ontario, as her base, she has traveled the world with her adventurous husband and three children. Her work has been published in various literary journals, including The Danforth Review, The Fertile Source, Found Press, and Prairie Fire.
Leanne Baugh Leanne Baugh has been a waitress, receptionist, teacher, stay-at-home mom and screenwriter. A few years ago she fell in love with writing fiction and now is writing novels for young adults. Leanne is passionate about books, films, beach walks and hummingbirds. When she isn't at home in Victoria, British Columbia, she's off traveling the world.
Claire Baum Claire Baum was born on January 25, 1936, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The family immigrated to Canada in 1951, where Claire met her husband and raised three children. Claire lives in Toronto.
Megs Beach Megs Beach wanted to be Jane Eyre when she grew up and practiced writing with long-winded penpal letters. She was a dental hygienist for over 20 years and now divides her time between her three daughters, writing, and refurbishing furniture. In 2009 she was the runner-up for CBC Radio One’s Canada Writes contest. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Charlene Bearhead
Wilson Bearhead
Archie Beaulieu Tlicho artist, Archie Beaulieu, from Behchoko, Northwest Territories considers his art a continuation of his Dene culture, passed down to him by his grandmother. Archie's spiritual, abstract style of painting has gained him national and international recognition. His originals can be found in the collections of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Pope John Paul II.
Archie Beaverho Archie Beaverho was born in Wha Ti in 1965. He is an accomplished painter and cartoonist whose understanding of his culture is reflected in his work. Archie still lives in Wha Tia and currently works at Diavik Mines.
Andrea Beck

Andrea Beck is the author/illustrator of the popular book series and TV show, Elliot Moose. Andrea is known for creating earnest characters that inhabit a world of warmth and friendship, appealing to children and parents alike. Beck studied at OCAD, York University and the University of Toronto and began her career as a toy designer. Her award-winning designs were featured in Canadian media and sold from coast to coast. Later, reading to her children, Beck was inspired by picturebooks and she began to write. Beck lives in Unionville, ON, with her two sons, her beagle Tillie and about 30 goldfish in the backyard pond. For more information, visit www.andreabeck.com.
Andrea Beck

Andrea Beck is the author/illustrator of the popular book series and TV show, Elliot Moose. Andrea is known for creating earnest characters that inhabit a world of warmth and friendship, appealing to children and parents alike. Beck studied at OCAD, York University and the University of Toronto and began her career as a toy designer. Her award-winning designs were featured in Canadian media and sold from coast to coast. Later, reading to her children, Beck was inspired by picturebooks and she began to write. Beck lives in Unionville, ON, with her two sons, her beagle Tillie and about 30 goldfish in the backyard pond. For more information, visit www.andreabeck.com.
Carolyn Beck Carolyn Beck first learned about letters when she was five. Right away she liked them. They make interesting sounds, like the s-s-s-sneaky S, the punchy P and the bouncy B. And best of all, in bunches they make WORDS! (Carolyn also discovered numbers and liked them too, but that is another story.) Carolyn lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Helaine Becker Helaine Becker is the bestselling author of more than seventy books for children and young adults. For more information, visit www.helainebecker.com.
Phillippe Béha A Governor General’s Award-winning illustrator of numerous books, Philippe Béha was Canada’s 2014 nomination for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in Quebec.
Bronia Beker Bronia Beker was born in Kozowa, Poland on December 9, 1920; Joe Beker was born in the same town on April 1, 1913. After the war they married and came to Canada in 1948, where they raised their two daughters, Marilyn and Jeanne. Joe Beker died in 1988; Bronia lives in Toronto.
Joseph Beker Bronia Beker was born in Kozowa, Poland on December 9, 1920; Joe Beker was born in the same town on April 1, 1913. After the war they married and came to Canada in 1948, where they raised their two daughters, Marilyn and Jeanne. Joe Beker died in 1988; Bronia lives in Toronto.
Nancy Belgue Nancy Belgue is the author of several books for young people, including the popular Casey Little, Yo-Yo Queen. Her writing has appeared in magazines in both Canada and the United States. In addition to speaking to children as a visiting author, Nancy has worked as a literary/drama artist with the Royal ConservatoryÆs Learning Through The Arts program and has acted in television commercials, training videos and documentaries. She lives in Kingsville, Ontario.
Joanne Bell Born in Great Britain, Joanne Bell grew up in New Brunswick and Alberta. She visited Dawson City, Yukon, many years ago and fell in love with the nearby Ogilvie Mountains, where she spent years running dogs, hiking, canoeing and living in log cabins. Now married with two daughters, she works as a naturalist in the summers and is a substitute teacher in Dawson City whenever she is not in the mountains.
William Bell William Bell was a teacher and the bestselling author of a number of teen novels.
Michelle Benjamin
Holly Bennett Holly Bennett is the author of numerous young adult novels, all published by Orca. She lives in Peterborough, Ontario, where she enjoys singing, being in nature, hanging out with her family, Scrabble and, of course, reading. For more information, visit www.hollybennett.ca.
Renné Benoit Renné Benoit is an award-winning illustrator of many books for children. In 2012, Big City Bees (Greystone) was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award in the Children's Literature Illustration category. Renné currently works out of her home studio in St. Thomas, Ontario. For more information, visit www.rennebenoit.ca.
Renné Benoit Renné Benoit is an award-winning illustrator of many books for children. In 2012, Big City Bees (Greystone) was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award in the Children's Literature Illustration category. Renné currently works out of her home studio in St. Thomas, Ontario. For more information, visit www.rennebenoit.ca.
Ted Benyovits Tibor (Ted) Benyovits was born in Budapest in 1932. He immigrated to Israel in 1949, where he met his wife, Miriam; they moved to Canada in 1962, and Ted established a machine shop in Toronto. Now living in Thornhill, Ontario, Ted and Miriam have two children and three grandchildren.
Alain M. Bergeron A prolific author, Alain M. Bergeron has written over 300 children's books. He collaborated with Quebecois artist Sampar to create Billy Stuart and the Zintrepids, a colorful cast of Scouts that includes a raccoon, fox, chameleon, skunk and weasel. This intrepid crew made one fateful mistake and has been suffering the consequences ever since. Alain devotes himself exclusively to writing and leading school workshops, and his inexhaustible imagination has made him a fixture in children's literature and garnered many awards and accolades. Alain lives in Victoriaville, Quebec.
Rachel Berman
Michael Betcherman Michael Betcherman is an award-winning author and screenwriter. He is the author of the young adult mystery novels Breakaway and Face-Off, both published by Penguin Canada. Breakaway was a finalist for the John Spray Mystery Award. Face-Off was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Mystery Award. Michael has numerous writing credits in both dramatic and documentary television. He is also the author/creator of The Daughters of Freya and Suzanne, two groundbreaking online novels that were highly praised by numerous publications, including the Globe and Mail and the UK Guardian. Michael lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife, Claudette Jaiko.
Shashi Bhat Shashi Bhat's short fiction has been published in numerous journals, including Threepenny Review, PRISM International, and Event Magazine; her story "Indian Cooking" was a finalist for the 2010 RBC Bronwen Wallace Writers Trust Award. She was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and currently resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Dalhousie University. Learn more at www.shashibhat.com.
Laura Bifano Laura Bifano grew up in the rainy Pacific Northwest of Canada, where she spent her days running around in the forest and drawing pictures. Since graduating from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008, she divides her time between freelance work, fine art and animated shows and feature films. She lives in Vancouver.
Kevin Bird
Josée Bisaillon Josée Bisaillon has illustrated more than twenty-five children's books, created numerous editorial illustrations for magazines and newspapers. She has been short-listed twice for the Governor General's Literary Award, and she won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for The Snow Knows. She lives outside Montreal with her family.
Mary Harelkin Bishop
Pulak Biswas
Marsha Blacksmith

Marsha Blacksmith is an educator and First Nations language and culture facilitator at Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre Inc. She is from Cross Lake, Manitoba.

Kate Blair Kate Blair is a native of Hayling Island, United Kingdom, and is now a Canadian citizen living in Toronto, Ontario. She is the author of such bestselling, acclaimed books as Transferral and Tangled Planet and has received numerous award nominations for her work. For more information, visit www.kateblair.com.
Rick Blechta Rick Blechta has two passions in life: music and writing. A professional musician since age fourteen, he brings his extensive knowledge of that life to his crime fiction. He is now the author of eight novels, two of which, Cemetery of the Nameless and Roses for a Diva, were shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award. In 2017, his third Rapid Reads book, Rundown., won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novella. Rick runs a blog called Type M for Murder. For more information about Rick, visit www.rickblechta.com.
Richard Blier
Richard K. Blier The Vancouver Island Trails Information Society is a non-profit society dedicated to providing accurate information to the public about parks and trails on Vancouver Island.
George Blondin A respected Elder and storyteller, George Blondin maintains the storytelling traditions of the Dene people. He is the author of several books where he depicts the tales of medicine heroes, hunters and healers who have forged Dene history. George currently resides in Behchoko, NWT where he continues to share and write the stories of the Dene people.
Chloe Bluebird Mustooch Chloe Bluebird Mustooch is from the Alexis Nakoda Sioux Nation of central Alberta, and is a recent graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art & Design. She is a seamstress, beadworker, illustrator, painter, and sculptor. She was raised on the reservation, and was immersed in hunting, gathering, and traditional rituals from a young age.
Petra Bockus
Rachel Boehm A dual U.S./Canadian citizen, Rachel Boehm has lived on both sides of the border, but her childhood years in Nova Scotia made a lasting impression. Rachel has worked in the field of communications and marketing with numerous non-profit and public-sector organizations. She is passionate about writing and its power to effect social change. Having returned to Nova Scotia in 2003, Rachel and her husband and children now live surrounded by lakes and rocky hills in beautiful Fall River, just outside of Halifax.
Jill Bogart Jill Bogart is working on her doctorate in art history. She lives with her husband in Pittsburgh.
Jo Ellen Bogart Jo Ellen Bogart was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in several Texas cities, but for the last 32 years, she has lived in Guelph, Ontario AKA Children's Author Central. She really enjoys running into writers and artists at the grocery store. Jo Ellen has a teaching degree from the University of Texas and has worked as a supply teacher. Though she no longer teaches, she really enjoys meeting her young readers and seeing what they have to say. Her own two kids are grown but she has a new baby grandson and is amassing stacks of books for the future reader.
Josée Boileau
Lisa Boivin
Rosemarie Boll
David Booth
Max Bornstein Max Bornstein was born on November 12, 1921, in Warsaw, Poland. After the war, he finally received a Canadian entry permit and arrived in Toronto on June 25, 1947. He and his wife, Min, were married in 1948; they have two children and two grandchildren. After more than 60 years of marriage, Min passed away in 2010. Max Bornstein lives in Toronto.
Michele Martin Bossley Michele Martin Bossley is the author of numerous novels for young people. A frequent speaker at writing conferences and schools, Michele divides her time between writing and parenting her four sons. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Victor Bosson
David Bouchard Métis author David Bouchard has written many bestselling and award-winning books for children. David grew up on the prairies, where he lived and breathed street hockey. David is a Member of the Order of Canada, and in 2013 he had a public school named after him in Oshawa, Ontario. He currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with his wife, daughter and two dogs. For more information, visit davidbouchard.com.
Luc Bouchard Luc Bouchard is an award–winning feature writer for the magazines Elle, Chatelaine, L'Actualité and Reader's Digest Canada. He lives in Montréal, Québec, with his partner and his two daughters. Visit www.bouchardluc.com for more information.
Simon Boulerice Award-winning Québécois author Simon Boulerice is a playwright, novelist, poet and children's book author. His picture book Florence & Léon (QuébecAmérique, published as Florence & Leon in English by Orca) was nominated for the 2016 Governor General's Award for French-language children's illustration. Inspired by the power of the imagination, Simon believes in the gift of time to let your mind wander...because you never know what it will come up with.
Pat Bourke
Patricia Bow

Patricia Bow has been reading ever since the local library opened its magic doors for her and writing since she was old enough to hold a crayon. She uses a computer now instead of a crayon, but the thrill of the story hasn't changed. She writes what she loves to read: fiction with a strong flavour of the strange and mysterious, anchored by down-to-earth heroes.

Gail Bowen

Gail Bowen is the author of the bestselling mystery series featuring Joanne Kilbourn. Winner of both the Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award and the Derrick Murdoch Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Crime Writers of Canada, in 2008 Bowen was named “Canada’s Best Mystery Novelist” by Reader’s Digest. She was selected as one of "The 100 Most Popular Contemporary Mystery Authors" for an upcoming Library Unlimited reference book. For more information, visit www.gailbowen.com.

Lisa Bowes Lisa Bowes is a sports journalist and media consultant. While working for CBC, she was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Writing in an Information Program or Series. She is a Physical Education graduate who is passionate about encouraging children and families to be active. Lisa lives in Calgary.
Adrian Bradbury Adrian Bradbury is the co-founder and director of GuluWalk, a foundation dedicated to supporting the abandoned children of northern Uganda. Bradbury's writing on northern Uganda has appeared in both the National Post and Uganda's Daily Monitor, and for the continuing efforts of GuluWalk he earned a 2005 Planet Africa award and was recognized as a 'Newsmaker of the Year' by Maclean's magazine. He lives in Toronto, Canada. For more information please visit www.guluwalk.com.
Karleen Bradford Karleen Bradford is the award-winning author of twenty-two works of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults. Her books include historical novels, fantasy and contemporary stories, as well as picture books and chapter books. She was born in Toronto, Ontario, but spent most of her childhood years in Argentina. For more information, visit www.karleenbradford.com.
Michael Bradford

Michael Bradford was born in 1975 in St. Albert, Alberta. He has worked as a grass cutter, waiter, pizza-delivery boy, literacy teacher, elementary-school vice-principal and published poet. Button Hill is his first novel. He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with his wife and two children. Visit www.michaelbradford.ca for more information.
Dionne Brand Dionne Brand is a poet and author; winner of the GG, the Trillium and Toronto Books Awards, and the Griffin Poetry Prize. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Sandra Braun
Beverley Brenna
Kristi Bridgeman Kristi Bridgeman has illustrated several books for children. Her fine-art pieces can be found at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Sooke Harbour House Gallery. Born and raised on the west coast of Canada, Kristi resides and paints in her home-based studio at the edge of the rainforest on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.kristibridgeman.com.
Constance Brissenden Co-author Constance Brissenden BA, MA is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author if 14 books of travel and history. In 1993, Constance and Larry formed Living Traditions Writers Group (www.firstnationswriters.com) to encourage First Nations people to write about their traditions and stories.
Chana Broder
Kate Brosnan
Sigmund Brouwer Sigmund Brouweris the author of over 20 books for readers of all ages including the 2015 Arthur Ellis award-winning novel Dead Man's Switch (Harvest House) and multiple books in both the Orca Sports and Orca Echoes lines. He visits over 150 schools per year reaching about 60,000 students per year. Sigmund lives in Red Deer, Alberta.
Christene A. Browne Christene A. Browne is an award-winning filmmaker. Her 1999 film Another Planet was the first feature film directed by a Black woman in Canada. In 2011 she was awarded the Visionary award by TheWIFTS Foundation for her ground-breaking documentary series Speaking in Tongues: The History of Language, featuring Noam Chomsky. Along with documentary filmmaking, she works as a lecturer in the Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University. She lives in Toronto.
Faye Brownlie
William Roy Brownridge Author and illustrator William Roy Brownridge is a native of Saskatchewan. Like the hero of his Moccasin Goalie titles, Bill lived for hockey and played goal despite being unable to wear skates. In The Moccasin Goalie, he demonstrates the unique artistic style, the flair for storytelling and the feel for prairie life that have made all three of his volumes perennial favorites. After a successful career as a graphic designer, Bill now devotes himself full time to painting.
William Roy Brownridge Author and illustrator William Roy Brownridge is a native of Saskatchewan. Like the hero of his Moccasin Goalie titles, Bill lived for hockey and played goal despite being unable to wear skates. In Victory at Paradise Hill, he once again demonstrates the unique artistic style, the flair for storytelling and the feel for prairie life that made the first two volumes perennial favorites. After a successful career as a graphic designer, Bill now devotes himself full time to painting.
Joseph Bruchac Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning Abenaki author of more than 120 books for children and adults, including the critically acclaimed, bestselling Keepers of the Earth series.
Connie Brummel Crook
Tara Bryan Tara Bryan is a painter and book artist who has been making books for more than 30 years. She learned letterpress printing and bookbinding at UW-Madison, and continued taking workshops at the Center for Book Arts in NY. Since moving to Newfoundland in 1992, she has shared her enthusiasm and knowledge, teaching workshops and hiring assistants to work and learn in her studio.
Jill Bryant
Kellie Buis
Charles Bullshields Charles Bullshields is an artist from the Blood Tribe (Kainai Nation), part of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Charles is self-taught and uses his artwork to reflect and keep in touch with Native heritage and traditions. He lives in Standoff, Alberta.
Ella Burakowski Ella Burakowski is a second-generation Holocaust survivor. For eighteen years, she has written a monthly national column in The Canadian Jewish News. Her novel, Hidden Gold, is the story of her mother’s experiences during World War II.
Anne Burke
Julie Burtinshaw Julie Burtinshaw is an award-winning author who teaches writing workshops in high schools across Canada. She is active on social media and encourages readers to contact her with questions and comments. Julie lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.burtinshaw.wordpress.com.
Lisa Bush
Maureen Bush Maureen Bush is the author of five books for children. Before becoming a writer, she pursued other passions: she has a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in environmental design, a certificate in mediation and negotiation, and a postgraduate certificate of creative writing. She has worked as a public involvement consultant and trained as a mediator. Born in Edmonton, Maureen now lives in Calgary with her husband and two daughters. Visit www.maureenbush.com for more information.
Kristin Butcher Kristin Butcher is the author of several books for young readers, including The Trouble with Liberty and The Hemingway Tradition in the Orca Soundings collection. Kristin lives in Campbell River, British Columbia.
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Damon Calderwood Damon Calderwood is an actor, teacher and wildlife photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.globalbirdphotos.com.
Jodie Callaghan
Kristy Cameron
Doris Campbell
Eva Campbell Eva Campbell was born in Ghana and spent her childhood in Barbados and Jamaica. She studied painting at the College of Art in Ghana (BA) and the University of Victoria (MFA). Eva has had numerous art exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Ghana, Barbados and Britain. Currently she is the visual arts teacher at Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit evacampbell.ca.
Melodie Campbell Melodie Campbell is the winner of many awards, including the Derringer and Arthur Ellis Awards for crime writing. She has over 200 hundred publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories and the Goddaughter series in the Rapid Reads collection. Her work has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Star Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Canadian Living, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and many more. Melodie lives in Oakville, Ontario.
Terry Anne Campbell
Isabelle Cardinal Isabelle Cardinal found her love for illustration while doing her BA in graphic design at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Using mostly a collection of Victorian-era photos, her own textures, photos and drawings, her work has a unique and mysterious feel.
Keelin Carey
Felicia Carmelly Felicia Carmelly was born in Vatra Dornei, Romania, on September 25, 1931. In 1959, Felicia and her family emigrated from communist Romania to Israel. Three years later they immigrated to Canada, where Felicia earned her master’s degree in social work. Felicia founded Toronto’s Transnistria Survivors’ Association in 1994 and published the anthology Shattered! 50 Years of Silence: History and Voices of the Tragedy in Romania and Transnistria in 1997. Felicia Carmelly lives in Toronto.
Carole Carpenter
Alice Carter Alice Carter has always loved telling stories through her whimsical art. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, she has worked as a freelance illustrator and fine artist for over ten years. She is inspired by people-watching, music and all the earth's magnificent creatures. Alice lives with her family of silly humans and serious cats in Ottawa, Ontario. For more information, visit www.alicecarter.com.
Anne Laurel Carter

Anne Laurel Carter is a multi-award-winning author of books for children, including Under the Prairie Sky (Orca 2004). When she's not writing, she's reading. Anne lives in Toronto, Ontario, where she works full-time as a teacher-librarian.
Brooke Carter Brooke Carter is the author of several contemporary books for teens, including Learning Seventeen and The Unbroken Hearts Club from the Orca Soundings line and the YA fantasy The Stone of Sorrow in the Runecasters series.
Jaime Casap Jaime Casap is the Chief Educational Evangelist at Google, Inc in Phoenix, Arizona. Jaime is a first-generation American who was raised by a single mother subsisting on welfare in Hell's Kitchen, NY. Having grown up in poverty, he truly believes that access to education and technology can save lives. Working with Google and educational organizations around the world, Jaime is passionate about improving the quality of education by using technology to create powerful learning models in all classrooms, from kindergarten to college and university. Follow Jaime on Twitter @JCasap.
Mike Casey Mike Casey is a voice actor who has narrated two titles from Orca's Seven series.
Sara Cassidy Sara Cassidy's books have been short-listed for many awards, including the Chocolate Lily Award for both Black Gold and Blackberry Juice, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award for A Boy Named Queen and the Bolen Books Children's Book Prize for Skylark. Additionally, both A Boy Named Queen and Double Play were Junior Library Guild selections. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction for adults have been widely published. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Yvonne Cathcart Yvonne Cathcart is a popular children's illustrator. She has illustrated many picture books. She lives in Toronto with her family.
Jacolyn Caton
Robert James Challenger Robert James Challenger is an accomplished illustrator and stone carver and the author of children’s books inspired by the legends and imagery of the Pacific Northwest. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Adrian Chamberlain Adrian Chamberlain has always wanted to be a rock star. While holding down a day job as an entertainment writer for the Victoria Times Colonist, he indulges his fantasies (albeit on a reduced scale) by playing organ and piano for The Soul Shakers, a Victoria rhythm-and-blues band.
Penny Chamberlain
Marty Chan Marty Chan is an award-winning author of dozens of books for kids, including Kung Fu Master in the Orca Currents series and the award-winning Marty Chan Mystery series. He tours schools and libraries across Canada, using storytelling, stage magic and improv to ignite a passion for reading in kids. He lives in Edmonton.
Ann Chandler
Danielle Chaperon Before starting her writing career, Danielle Chaperon taught charming (and talkative!) eight- and nine-year-old students. She began writing children's fiction in 2007, inspired by her students' daily lives, experiences and dreams. Danielle lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Brenda Chapman Brenda Chapman is the author of the murder mystery In Winter's Grip (2010), along with the successful Jennifer Bannon mystery series for young adults. She is a former special education teacher and currently works as a senior communications advisor for the federal government in Ottawa, Ontario. For more information, visit www.brendachapman.ca.
Kasia Charko Working in watercolor and colored pencil, Kasia Charko creates detailed, colorful paintings that bring period, place and character to life. Born and educated in England, Kasia lives in Alton, Ontario, with her family of animals. For more information, visit charko.com.
Kyle Charles Kyle Charles is a First Nations writer/illustrator who has drawn for series such as Roche Limit: Clandestiny and '68: Homefront at Image Comics. He currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta.
Norma Charles

Norma Charles has written numerous books for kids, including The Accomplice, nominated for the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize. Norma has been a teacher and a teacher-librarian and has taught Creative Writing at UBC. For more information, visit www.normacharles.ca.

Norman Chartrand Norman Chartrand is Saulteaux–Métis Anishinaabek. He is Jennifer's great-uncle and the son of Elise Beauchamp and Arthur Jacque (Jimmy) Chartrand. Elise Beauchamp was the daughter of Philoméne Klyne and Jean Beauchamp. Julia Brass was the daughter of Julia McLeod of Pelly and George Brass. Jean Beauchamp was the son of Nancy Chartrand and Joseph Beauchamp. His ancestors come from the Riding Mountain territory in Manitoba. He is a member of the Pine Creek Indian Band in Camperville, Manitoba.
Kathleen Cherry Kathleen Cherry lives in northern British Columbia with her husband and two daughters. She loves working with children and empowering them to develop their creativity through writing. For more information, visit www.kathleencherry.ca.
Ann Yu-Kyung Choi Ann Yu-Kyung Choi immigrated to Canada from South Korea in 1975. She attended the University of Toronto where she studied English, sociology and education. Her debut novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety (Simon & Schuster), was a 2016 Toronto Book Awards finalist and one of CBC Books’ 12 Best Canadian Debut Novels of 2016. Ann is an educator with the York Region District School Board in Ontario. She lives in Toronto with her family.
GMB Chomichuk GMB Chomichuk is an award-winning graphic novelist and visual artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba, whose work has appeared in magazines, comics, film and video games, and on television. His most recent work with HighWater Press was a collaboration with writer David Alexander Robertson and singer-songwriter Iskwà called Will I See?
Lesley Choyce Lesley Choyce, who has been teaching English and creative writing for over thirty years, is the author of more than ninety books of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction and young adult novels. He has won the Dartmouth Book Award, the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Ann Connor Brimer Award. He has also been short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor, the White Pine Award, the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award, the Aurora Award from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and, most recently, the Governor General's Literary Award. He lives in Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia.
Charlene Chua Charlene Chua grew up in Singapore, where she divided her time between drawing, reading comics and failing her Mandarin classes. She has worked with clients from Canada, USA, Europe, Singapore and Australia on a wide variety of illustration projects. Charlene lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Mathilde Cinq-Mars Mathilde Cinq-Mars is a graduate of the visual arts program at the Université de Strasbourg. She works as a freelance illustrator for many publishers and magazines. She lives and works in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, with her daughter
Becky Citra Becky Citra is the author of over twenty books, ranging from early chapter books to novels for young adults. She was an elementary schoolteacher for over twenty–five years and began writing for children in 1995. Becky's books have been shortlisted for and won many awards, including the Red Cedar Award, the Diamond Willow, the Silver Birch and the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize. For more information, visit www.beckycitra.com.
Lee Claremont Lee Claremont was born in Woodstock, Ontario. She is of Mohawk-Irish ancestry and is a member of the Grand River Iroquois Six Nations in Oshweken, Ontario. Lee received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (honours) from the University of British Columbia in the beautiful Okanagan Valley. She won an Angel Award for the "largest individual creative contribution in the visual arts in the Okanagan Valley." She is a respected instructor at the En'owkin Centre, an internationally recognized Aboriginal college.
Judith Clark
Kathy Clark
Caroline Clarke
Megan Clendenan Megan Clendenan is a freelance writer and editor. When she's not writing, she spends her time running or biking through her local mountains or trying to play her violin. She lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia, with her family and their two incredibly fuzzy orange cats. Offbeat is her first novel. For more information, visit www.meganclendenan.com.
Jan L. Coates Jan L. Coates is the author of numerous books for young readers, including A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk, a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Ann Connor Brimer Award, as well as a USBBY Outstanding International Book. Her middle grade novels have been finalists for the Ann Connor Brimer Award, the Violet Downey Award, and the Hackmatack Children's Choice Award. Sky Pig received the 2017 Lillian Shepherd Award for Illustration and was shortlisted for a Willow Award. She lives, writes, and teaches in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Paul Coccia Paul Coccia has an MFA in creative writing from UBC. He is a great cook, although he prefers to bake. His specialty is cupcakes, but he has also experimented with animal-shaped macarons and flooded cookies. Paul lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his family and two dogs.
Cate Cochran Cate Cochran is a producer with CBC Radio's The Sunday Edition and lives in downtown Toronto, where she shares a house with her ex-husband, two teenage children and a dog. Born in Toronto, she has lived in Saint John, Montreal, and Ottawa, where she attended Carlton University. Cate was the art director for The Globe and Mail Report on Business magazine before becoming a writer, radio producer, and award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Elizabeth Coffman
Sheldon Cohen Sheldon Cohen is an award-winning children's book illustrator and film animator. The prizes he's garnered over the past thirty years include the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Book Illustration, the British Academy Award for Best Animated Film, the AIGA Certificate of Excellence and the IBBY Honour List, representing the best in illustrations from Canada. He lives in Montréal, Québec. For more information, visit www.bysheldoncohen.blogspot.ca.
Kathryn Cole Kathryn Cole has spent a forty-five-year career in children's books as an illustrator, art director, editor, designer, and publisher at Scholastic, OUP, Stoddart Kids and Tundra Books. The books she has overseen have won multiple awards, including four Governor General's Awards. She is the author of the I'm a Great Little Kid Series with BOOST Child & Youth Advocacy Centre. Kathryn volunteered as a support to parents for thirteen years with BOOST in their crisis support and court preparation groups. She is co-managing editor at Second Story Press and lives in Toronto.
Reed Farrel Coleman Called a "hard-boiled poet" by NPR's Maureen Corrigan and "the noir poet laureate" in the Huffington Post, Reed Farrel Coleman has published over fifteen novels. He is an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University and lives with his family on Long Island. For more information, visit www.reedcoleman.com.
Richard Coles
Kate Colley Kate Colley is a media specialist who founded Colley Communications, a marketing communications agency, in 2007. Having always enjoyed working with words, Kate often finds herself writing rhyming poems and creating catchy songs for her two busy children. She lives in Vancouver. For more information, visit colleycommunications.com.
Mary Cardinal Collins
PJ Sarah Collins Sam and Nate is PJ Sarah Collins' first published book. She is a creative writing student at the University of British Columbia and an elementary school teacher. For more information, visit www.pjsarahcollins.wordpress.com.
Bev Cooke Bev Cooke was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario. When she's not writing or thinking about writing, she likes to talk with her two kids, read, daydream, think about gardening and pet her cats. Feral is her second book for children. Bev lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Allan Cormack Allan Cormack is a freelance illustrator who frequently collaborates with his wife, Deborah Drew-Brook. Visit his website at www.aarart.com.
France Cormier France Cormier has been drawing forever. In elementary school she used to wear out her crayons and refused to play with dolls. After a first career as a landscaper, she now devotes herself completely to illustrating playful, lightly twisted worlds full of humor. France lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
John Corr John Corr has a third-degree black belt in Yoshinkan Aikido as well as a PhD in English from McMaster University. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife and three sons.
Genevieve Cote
Patricia Côté Patricia Côté was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. is her first children’s book.
Delphie Côté-Lacroix Delphie Côté-Lacroix is a multidisciplinary visual artist with a background in graphic design. She uses simple composition and a limited color palette to creates images that are delicate yet impactful. She lives and work out of Montreal, Quebec. For more information, visit www.delphiecotelacroix.com.
Charis Cotter For most of her life, Charis Cotter has been fascinated by ghost stories. She collects, writes and tells them to eager audiences of all ages. She is the author numerous acclaimed and award-winning books for children, including The Swallow and The Painting. She lives in a house by the sea in Western Bay, one of the most haunted places in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Jennifer Craig Jennifer Craig was a nurse in the UK and immigrated to Canada in the 1960s. During her midlife crisis she earned a Bachelor's degree in nursing, a Master's in education, and a Ph.D. in medical education. She was on the Faculty of Medicine at UBC for ten years as an educational consultant. Her memoir Yes Sister, No Sister: My Life as a Trainee Nurse in 1950s Yorkshire sold more than 160,000 copies in the UK. She lives in Nelson, British Columbia.
Alice Crawford
Kevin Crossley-Holland Kevin Crossley-Holland is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award for The Seeing Stone. He lives on the Norfolk coast in East Anglia, England.
Patrick Crowe Patrick Crowe is a Toronto-based producer, writer, game designer and filmmaker. He has worked for the National Film Board and the Ontario Media Development Corporation and as a producer for the CBC. He is the co-founder and president of Xenophile Media, a two-time Emmy-award-winning production company renowned for its work in content and technology, including the interactive documentary Inside Hana's Suitcase.
Lorna Crozier Lorna Crozier has authored numerous books of poetry and received many awards. An Officer of the Order of Canada, Lorna has read her poetry on every continent except Antarctica, and in 2005 she recited a poem for Queen Elizabeth II as part of Saskatchewan's centennial celebration. For more information, visit www.lornacrozier.ca.
Joy Crysdale
Susan Currie Susan Currie has an MA in children's literature and an ARCT in piano performance from The Royal Conservatory. She was one of two winners of Second Story Press's Aboriginal Writing Contest, resulting in her second book, The Mask That Sings. Her first book, Basket of Beethoven, was published in 2001.
Andrea Curtis Andrea Curtis is the award-winning writer of several books for young people and adults, including Into the Blue, about her great-grandfather, a steamboat captain who disappeared on Georgian Bay in the early twentieth century. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Andrea lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and their two sons. For more information, visit www.andreacurtis.ca.
Marcus Cutler Marcus Cutler is a freelance children's illustrator from Ontario, Canada. His work has appeared in magazines, books, apps and more. Visit his website at marcuscutler.com.
Stefan Czernecki Stefan Czernecki has illustrated many picture books and has won the American Folklore Society’s Aesop Award. He lives in Vancouver, BC.
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Anita Daher Anita Daher holds memberships in The Writers' Union of Canada, The Canadian Children's Book Center, The Manitoba Writers' Guild, The Saskatchewan Writers Guild, and was a founding member of the Territorial Writers Association. When she's not writing, she likes to spend time baking, playing her guitar (badly), and turning her backyard garden into a haven for neighbourhood bunnies. Anita currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with her husband, two daughters, a basset hound, and a Westfalia camper van named Mae. For information on school presentations and workshops, visit www.anitadaher.com.
Diane Dakers Diane Dakers is a freelance writer and journalist. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For information, visit www.dianedakers.com.
Lisa Dalrymple Lisa Dalrymple is the author of the picture books A Moose Goes A-Mummering and Skink on the Brink, winner of the 2014 Crystal Kite Award. She lives in Fergus, Ontario, with her husband and their three children. For more information, visit www.lisadalrymple.com
Anne Marie Damman Anne Marie Damman is a voice actor who has narrated for Orca's Secrets series.
Alan & Lea Daniel Alan and Lea Daniel are the illustrators of many award-winning picturebooks. They based the boys in Under a Prairie Sky on their two grandsons.
Danielle Daniel Danielle Daniel is the author and illustrator of Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox, winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, a finalist for the First Nation Communities Read Award and the Blue Spruce Award and a New York Public Library's Most Notable Books of 2015. Danielle is currently working on two novels and completing an MFA in creative writing through UBC. She writes and paints in Sudbury, Ontario. For more information, visit danielledaniel.com.
Geneviève Darling Through illustration and serigraphy, Geneviève Darling explores a personal point of view of a soft and feminine aesthetic. Oriented on feminist, queer or simply amusing subjects, her illustrations are accessible, comforting and uncompromising. Her work tries to challenge heteronormativity and make queer relationships between women more visible. Darling has been a finalist for the Prix Expozine. What Makes Girls Sick and Tired is her first book. She lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Leslie A. Davidson Leslie A. Davidson has always been a writer, though it wasn't until she retired that she finally found time for the stories that had tapped on her consciousness throughout years of teaching and parenting. Leslie's writing celebrates the things that matter most to her—family, friendship and the natural world. Leslie lives in Revelstoke, British Columbia.
Robert Davidson Robert Davidsonwww.robertdavidson.ca.
Sara Florence Davidson Sara Florence Davidson, PhD, is a Haida educator and scholar. She has worked as an educator with adolescents in the K-12 system for close to a decade in both British Columbia and Yukon Territory. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Teacher Education Department at the University of the Fraser Valley where she works with teacher candidates to bring Indigenous content, perspectives, and pedagogies into their classrooms.
Claudia Dávila Claudia Dávila writes, illustrates and designs books for kids of all ages including Bus to the Badlands and Ghost of Mill House in the Orca Echoes series. She is passionate about stories and themes that encourage children to be strong, thoughtful, compassionate and responsible people. Claudia lives in Toronto with her husband and two kids.
Aubrey Davis Aubrey Davis is an award-winning Canadian author and storyteller. Aubrey lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information go to www.aubreydavis.com.
Tom Dawe One of Newfoundland's finest poets, Tom Dawe is also an editor, former teacher, visual artist and award-winning children's author. He spent years collecting folklore throughout Newfoundland and Labrador; many of these stories have found their way into this collection of ghostly tales. He lives in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland.
Hélène De Blois Hélène de Blois did her BA in French at the University of Montreal and in dramatic arts at the Université du Québèc à Montréal. In 1999 she published her first book for children, Un train pour Kénogami, which was a finalist for the Prix Cécile-Gagnon. Ever since, she's been writing and visiting students, encouraging the imaginations of young readers through reading, writing and art. For more information, visit helenedeblois.com. Hélène lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Jan De Groot
Lucile De Pesloüan Lucile de Pesloüan has worked in the book industry in Montreal for seven years. She began to publish her texts in the form of fanzines in 2012, which were distributed in alternative media as well as in traditional bookshops. She has been a finalist for the Prix Expozine twice. She lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Maggie De Vries Maggie de Vries is the author of many books for children and one book for adults. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at UBC, runs writing workshops, and coaches and mentors writers. Maggie now lives in Ladysmith, British Columbia, on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Every summer, she and her husband spend as much time as they can tootling around the Gulf Islands and up the coast in their little old boat, Breakaway. For more information, visit www.maggiedevries.com.
Mike Deas Mike Deas is an author/illustrator of graphic novels, including Dalen and Gole and the Graphic Guide Adventures series. While he grew up with a love of illustrative storytelling, Capilano College's Commercial Animation Program helped Mike fine-tune his drawing skills and imagination. Mike and his family live on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. For more information, visit deasillustration.com or follow him on Twitter @deasillos.
Mike Deas Mike Deas is an author/illustrator of graphic novels, including Dalen and Gole and the Graphic Guide Adventures series. While he grew up with a love of illustrative storytelling, Capilano College's Commercial Animation Program helped Mike fine-tune his drawing skills and imagination. Mike and his family live on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. For more information, visit deasillustration.com or follow him on Twitter @deasillos.
Nancy Deas Nancy Deas grew up on a farm on Mayne Island, BC wandering forests and beaches. She has a great love of travel and adventure. Nancy holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria. She now explores Salt Spring Island, where she lives with her family.
Nora Decter Nora Decter grew up in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University and a BA in English and Creative Writing from York University. She lives most of the year in Toronto, Ontario. She has a rock 'n' roll past. For more information, visit www.noradecter.com.
Natasha Deen Award-winning author Natasha Deen loves stories: exciting ones, scary ones and, especially, funny ones! As a kid of two countries (Guyana and Canada), she feels especially lucky because she gets a double dose of stories. When she's not working on her books or visiting schools, she spends a lot of time trying to convince her dogs and cats that she's the boss of the house.For more information, visit natashadeen.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @natasha_deen.
James C. Dekker James C. Dekker is a first-time author and a fresh new voice in teen fiction. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, and, as far as he knows, is not known to police.

 
Vicki Delany Vicki Delany is one of Canada's most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the United States. She has written more than 30 books: from clever cozies to Gothic thrillers, gritty police procedurals to historical fiction and seven novellas in the Rapid Reads line. She writes the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas mysteries and under the pen name of Eva Gates, the Lighthouse Library series.

Vicki is the past president of Crime Writers of Canada. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, Bony Blithe, Golden Oak, and Arthur Ellis Awards. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Deborah Delaronde
Deborah L. Delaronde

?strong>Deborah L. Delaronde-Falk?/strong> is Métis and lives in central Manitoba on a cattle ranch along the western shores of Lake Winnipegosis. She honours her Métis heritage by writing and publishing under her maiden name. Deborah’s twelve published stories (with the exception of ?i>Friendship Bay?/i> and ?i>The Rabbit’s Race?/i>) focus around Métis protagonists with story situations that she hopes will convey the way of life of the Métis people in both a historical and contemporary context. ?i>Louis Riel’s Day: The Fur Trade Project?/i> is Deborah’s twelfth book. Deborah was the first recipient of the Beatrice Mosionier Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award in 2015.
Angele Delaunois
Christine Delezenne
Barbara Demers
Dominique Demers Dominique Demers has a PhD in children's literature and has written nearly thirty books for children. Many of her stories have become films. Dominique taught children's literature classes at the Université du Québec à Montréal for fifteen years and continues to give conferences across Canada on the joy of reading. She lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Linda DeMeulemeester Linda DeMeulemeester is the author of the critically acclaimed Grim Hill series. The Secret of Grim Hill won the Silver Birch award in 2008. Her other books have been nominated or shortlisted for several awards, including the British Columbia Young Readers' Choice Red Cedar Award, the Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice Diamond Willow Award and the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award. Also a teacher, DeMeulemeester enjoys sharing her lifelong love of reading with children. For more information, visit www.grimhill.com.
Dame Judi Dench
Stephane Denis Stephane Denis is an award-winning artist from Ottawa, Canada. His work has been published across North America and overseas. Visit his website at www.stephdenis.com.
K.L. Denman K.L. Denman has written many novels for youth, including the Orca Currents titles Destination Human and Agent Angus. Many of K.L.’s titles have been listed as Best Books of the Year, and Me, Myself and Ike was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary award. She lives in Delta, British Columbia.
Angela Dennis
Odeila Dennis
Elizabeth Denny
Geneviève Després Geneviève Després completed a degree in industrial design at the Université de Montréal but decided instead to pursue her first passion: drawing. After spending a few years in Europe exploring different techniques, Geneviève returned to Quebec. Since then, she has illustrated many French books for children and is beginning to illustrate English books as well. Geneviève lives in Saint-Lambert on the south shore of Montreal, Quebec, with her family. For more information, visit www.genevievedespres.ca.
Helene Desputeaux
Cleve Dheensaw Cleve Dheensaw has been a sportswriter with the Victoria Times Colonist for twenty-eight years. He has covered a total of six Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Cleve lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Tommy Dick Tommy Dick was born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary. Following the Soviet liberation of Hungary in 1945, he made his way to a Displaced Persons camp in Austria and then, in 1948, immigrated to Canada. He worked as a labourer on a hydroelectric dam in Stewartville, near Ottawa, after which he lived in Montreal for three years. He moved west, settling in Calgary, where he started his own business manufacturing aluminum windows. He met and married Lilian in 1954 and they had two daughters. At the age of thirty-six, Tommy enrolled in law school and was called to the bar in 1967 at the age of forty-two. He practiced law in Calgary for thirty years. Tommy Dick passed away in 1999.
Kelly DiDomenico
Cherie Dimaline Cherie Dimaline is a Métis author and editor whose award-winning fiction has been published and anthologized internationally. Her first book, Red Rooms, was published in 2007, and her novel The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy was released in 2013. In 2014, she was named the Emerging Artist of the Year at the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and became the first Aboriginal Writer in Residence for the Toronto Public Library. Her book A Gentle Habit was published in August 2016. The Marrow Thieves has won the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Kirkus Prize; it is a finalist for the White Pine Award, was named to the Globe and Mail Top 100 and was selected for CBC’s Canada Reads.
Philip Dinn Musician, actor, storyteller, and writer, Philip Dinn (1949-2013) was a founding member of Figgy Duff, Newfoundland's acclaimed folk rock band, and of Sheila's Brush Theatre Troupe. He appeared in many television shows and feature-length films, and in numerous plays, among them Jack-Five-Oh and Jack Meets the Cat. For several years, he divided his time between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, where he continued his work with traditional Newfoundland stories. He was one of the co-adapters of Peg Bearskin.
Holly Dobbie Holly Dobbie is a former high-school teacher with a heart for the underdog. Her teaching experiences and volunteer work with at-risk youth through the Red Cross Child Abuse Prevention Program has taught her that change is needed at almost every level of the middle- and high-school environments. She is passionate about this subject and hopes that the status quo can be not only shaken up, but also changed for the better. She lives with her family in Langley, British Columbia.
Dianne Dodd Dianne Dodd studied at Carleton University and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, specializing in social and women's history. She spent over 20 years at Parks Canada's Historic Sites Directorate, working to improve the representation of women and women's history events. Dianne is the current Chair of the Ontario Women's History Network. Diane lives in Ottawa.
Susan Doherty Hannaford Susan Doherty Hannaford is a Montreal, Quebec-based writer. Her affiliations include the Quebec Writers' Federation (QWF), the YMCA, and the Douglas Institute. She has done extensive research in the areas of mental illness, and is currently working on a biography about an Ottawa woman's lifelong battle with schizophrenia. Learn more at susandohertyhannaford.com.
Marian Domanski Marian Domanski was born Marian Finkelman in Otwock, Poland in 1928. He lost both his parents in the war and lived in various villages in the Polish countryside between 1941 and 1945, posing as a Polish-Catholic herdsman. After the war, Marian Domanski remained in Poland, where he joined the Polish air force and then worked as a photographer. He married his wife, Cesia, in 1964 and his daughter was born a year later. They moved to Denmark in 1968 and immigrated to Canada two years later. Marian Domanski worked in the printing business in Toronto and still lives there. He is very active in the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada and has had a number of exhibits of his photography in his hometown of Otwock, Poland.
Theo Dombrowski Theo Dombrowski is a retired teacher who now divides his time between writing, painting, and environmental pursuits. He lives in Nanoose Bay, British Columbia.
Alexis Domney
Lisa Donohue
Natasha Donovan Natasha Donovan is a freelance artist and illustrator from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her sequential work has been published in The Other Side anthology and will appear in the forthcoming anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold. She is the illustrator of the award-winning children's book, The Sockeye Mother. Natasha is a member of the Métis Nation of British Columbia.
Lori Doody Lori Doody majored in printmaking at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and has worked at: a Japanese paper store, an artist-run centre printshop, and a commercial gallery. Her primary art practice is printmaking, especially etching; in 2005 she was named Emerging Artist of the year by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. She is the author/illustrator of The Puffin Problem, which was a finalist for the Bruneau Family Award for Children's/Young Adult Writing. She lives in St. John's with her husband, their two children and their dog.
Philippa Dowding Philippa Dowding has worked as a magazine writer and copywriter. Her clients have included magazine publishers, fundraisers, advertising agencies, ngos, movie producers, website owners and others. She has won magazine awards for Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Zoomer, Today’s Parent, Canada’s History and more. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Taddle Creek magazine, Middle Shelf Magazine, The Adirondack Review, The Literary Review of Canada and other journals. 

Her children’s books have been nominated for awards in Canada, the United States and Europe, including the SYRCA Diamond Willow, OLA Silver Birch Express and Red Maple, Hackmatack and the White Raven Awards. In 2017, her book Myles and the Monster Outside was an OLA Silver Birch Express Honor Book. Dowding lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.pdowding.com.
Christian Down
Christian Down
Penny Draper Penny Draper is the award-winning author of numerous books for kids and teens. Raised in Toronto, Ontario, she now lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.pennydraper.ca.
Deborah Drew-Brook Deborah Drew-Brook is a freelance illustrator who frequently collaborates with her husband, Allan Cormack. Visit her website at www.aarart.com.
Anne Dublin Anne Dublin is a former teacher-librarian and award-winning author living in Toronto, Ontario. Her writing has won many honors and awards, including the Sydney Taylor Honor Book Award, and the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer Project Recommended Feminist Read for Youth designation.
Adele Dueck
Dr. Jenny Kay Dupuis Dr. Jenny Kay Dupuis (Ojibway Anishinaabe) is a member of Nipissing First Nation. She is an educator, researcher, artist and motivational speaker who has over fifteen years' experience focusing on issues that relate to Indigenous education, leadership and diversity, engagement and the importance of relationship-building today.
Cheryll Duquette
Jenny Dwyer
Brenda Stein Dzaldov
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Wallace Edwards Wallace Edwards is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and an award-winning author and illustrator. His paintings and illustrations are found in public and private collections, books, magazines and on public display in Canada and the United States. Wallace lives in Yarker, Ontario. For more information, visit www.wallace-edwards-art.com.
Catherine Egan
Sheila Egoff

Sheila Egoff discovered the public library in her hometown of Galt, Ontario, at age eight, more than eighty years ago. Her love of books led to a life devoted to the promotion of children's literature and librarianship. Many of today's children's librarians credit Sheila with instilling in them a philosophy of librarianship that values literary quality and bringing books to each and every child.
Earl Einarson Earl Einarson is a member of the Ktunaza First Nation in British Columbia. He lives in Vancouver. The Moccasins is his first children's book; he is working on his second book.
Anita Ekstein Anita Helfgott Ekstein was born July 18, 1934, in Lwów, Poland, and was raised in the small town of Synowódzko Wyzne (present-day Verkhneye Sinevidnoye, Ukraine). The only known survivor of her community, Anita reunited with her Aunt Sala after the war, and together they immigrated to Paris in 1946 and to Toronto in 1948. Anita married Frank Ekstein on June 5, 1955, and then raised three children. In 1985, she graduated alongside one of her sons from York University with a bachelor of arts in psychology. Anita is a volunteer with the Circle of Care centre for seniors and is involved with a study group of the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada. A Holocaust educator since 1989, Anita founded a group for child survivors and hidden children in Toronto, has chaired the March of the Living three times and has been a survivor participant eighteen times. Anita continues to be a prominent speaker with the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre of Toronto and has been the recipient of a number of awards and tributes. Anita was instrumental in designating her rescuers, the Matusiewicz family, with Yad Vashem's title of Righteous Among the Nations.
Alicia Elliott Alicia Elliott is a Tuscarora writer living in Brantford, Ontario.
Anne Elliott
Deborah Ellis
Desmond Anthony Ellis Desmond Anthony Ellis was born in Ireland, but has lived in Toronto since 1972. In addition to writing, he has worked as an actor in Dublin, London and Paris. He lives with his wife in Toronto’s west end with an ever changing number of stray animals that wander in from the park behind their house.
Laurie Elmquist Laurie Elmquist holds an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor in Ontario and has been published in several magazines and anthologies. A teacher at Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia, and an online instructor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Laurie has served as a judge for several competitions, including the Canadian Authors Association's Literary Awards. When she's not writing, Laurie enjoys exploring the beaches of the west coast, from California to Vancouver Island. For more information, visit laurieelmquist.com.
Scott Ely Scott Ely received his MFA from the University of Arkansas and taught writing at Winthrop University in South Carolina. He published five novels and four collections of short stories. The Elephant Mountains was his first novel for young adult readers.
Prudence Emery Prudence Emery was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, educated in Vancouver and then lived in London, UK, and Toronto, Ontario, before moving to Victoria, British Columbia.
Alex Epstein
Darka Erdelji
Ann Eriksson Ann Eriksson lives on Thetis Island, British Columbia in a waterfront house surrounded by ocean and trees and a lot of amazing and beautiful wildlife. She is the author of Dive In! Exploring Our Connection with the Ocean in the Orca Footprints series and Bird's-Eye View in the Orca Wild series. When she'snot writing, working in biology or helping protect the environment, she's out exploring the ocean and beaches by foot, kayak or sailboat.
Lyle Ernst
Maria Eugenia
Andy Everson
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David Kanietakeron Fadden
David Kanietakeron Fadden

David Kanietakeron Fadden is an Akwesasne Mohawk artist who was born in Lake Placid, New York, and grew up in Onchiota. He is the grandson of Tehanetorens.
Katherine Farris Katherine Farris was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and after university moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she worked at Toronto Life Magazine, Greey de Pencier Books and OWL Magazine, researching and editing a wide variety of projects, from rail guides to western and eastern Canada for Greey de Pencier to kids' question-and-answer books for OWL. During that time she began painting, and now, living in Victoria, British Columbia, her focus is primarily on art and playing the alto sax.
Marilyn Faucher Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Marilyn Faucher is an honors graduate of Université du Québec à Montréal's graphic design program, specializing in illustration. Her contemporary style brings a fresh perspective to traditional techniques, resulting in sensitive yet vibrant illustrations. As a child Marilyn used to play in the woods with her friends, looking for a secret world. She would talk to, draw and write stories about the animals that crossed her path, and even at a young age, she was passionate about drawing. When she's not working on her illustration projects, Marilyn finds inspiration in ghost stories, woods, witches, animals and adventures. Marilyn lives in a small town not far from Montreal, Quebec, with a cat named Feta. For more information, visit marilynfaucher.com.
Leslie Fazekas
Sarah Felix Burns Sarah has a degree in women's studies and history from the University of British Columbia and a masters degree in social work from the University of Toronto. Sarah's first novel Jackfish, The Vanishing Village was published in late 2007 and won the 2009 Northern Lit Award. Originally from a village outside of Sault Ste. Marie in northern Ontario, Sarah now lives in Colorado but still considers Canada her home.
Eva Felsenburg Marx
Catherine Feniak
Eugenie Fernandes Eugenie Fernandes is one of Canada's most established children's author-illustrators, with more than ninety books to her credit. Her paintings for illustrations have been used by UNICEF to create cards and puzzles and by One Hen, Inc. to create award-winning educational websites. Her paintings from the books Earth Magic and One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference are on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, and Earth Magic was short-listed for Canada's Governor General's Literary Award for Illustration. Eugenie graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and now lives in Lakehurst, Ontario, where she writes and paints in a studio made of glass.
Marianne Ferrer Marianne Ferrer was born in Venezuela and immigrated to Canada in 1998. After attending Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, for illustration and design, she completed her education in graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her style is characterized by its charm, delicacy and depth. Marianne lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Marianne Ferrer

Marianne Ferrer was born in Venezuela and immigrated to Canada in 1998. After attending Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, for illustration and design, she completed her education in graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her style is characterized by its charm, delicacy and depth. Marianne lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Rita Feutl Born in Toronto to immigrant parents, Rita Feutl learned English after she started school and discovered all the books in the library. She wrote her first story when she was seven. Rita grew up to be a journalist, editor and teacher. She writes books for kids and young adults when she’s not cycling or traveling or—best of all—cycling and traveling. Rita lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with her husband.
Rita Feutl
Karen Filewych
Felicity Finn
Mary Fiore
Breanna Fischer Small Displays of Chaos is the first novel from emerging writer Breanna Fischer and is based on her own experience of being diagnosed as anorexic with bulimic behaviors in 2010. In 2014, Breanna was accepted into the Writing For Film & TV program at the Vancouver Film School, where she studied writing for features, teleplays, sketches, comic books and animation. Her script inspired by a single moment of Small Displays of Chaos was produced and made into a short film in 2015.
Zsuzsanna Fisher Spiro Zsuzsanna Fischer was born in Tornyospálca, Hungary, in 1925. After the war, she married Holocaust survivor Joseph Spiro. They lived in Budapest with their two sons until the 1956 Hungarian Uprising—an event that Zsuzsanna documented in a diary—and immigrated to Canada in 1957. Zsuzsanna Spiro lives in Toronto.
Sheree Fitch Sheree Fitch has won almost every major award for Canadian children's literature, including the 2000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, which acknowledges a "body of work inspirational to Canadian children." She has over twenty-five books to her credit. Her home base is on the east coast of Canada.
Krista Flemington
Julie Flett Julie Flett studied fine arts at Concordia University in Montreal and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver. She won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature for her work on When We Were Alone (HighWater Press) and is the three-time recipient of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Award for Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet / Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alphabet di Michif (Simply Read Books), Dolphin SOS (Tradewind) and My Heart Fills With Happiness (Orca Book Publishers). Julie is Cree Métis and currently lives in Vancouver.
Julie Flett Julie Flett estudió Bellas Artes en la Universidad Concordia en Montreal y la Universidad Emily Carr de Arte + Diseño en Vancouver. Ha recibido el Premio de literatura infantil ilustrado Christie Harris tres veces, para sus libros Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (Simply Read), Dolphin SOS (Tradewind) y My Heart Fills With Happiness (Orca), y el Premio Gobernador General de literatura infantil para su libro When We Were Alone (HighWater). Es de ascendencia Cree-Métis y actualmente vive en Vancouver.
Helen Flook Helen Flook was born and grew up in the beautiful countryside of Wales. She has a Degree in Graphic Design from the Norwich School of Art. Helen has illustrated numerous children's books, including many Orca picture books and early chapter books in the Orca Echoes series. She lives and works in Abergwyngregyn, a village in Wales.
Melanie Florence Melanie Florence is a writer of Cree and Scottish heritage based in Toronto. She was close to her grandfather as a child, a relationship that sparked her interest in writing about Indigenous themes and characters. She is the author of Missing Nimâmâ (Clockwise Press), which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, Stolen Words (Second Story Press), which won the 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award and the bestselling He Who Dreams in the Orca Limelights line. She lives in Toronto.
Pam Fluttert
Cheryl Foggo
Virginia Football
Scott A. Ford Scott A. Ford is an independent comic creator, illustrator and graphic designer from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Frieda Forman Frieda Forman helped establish the Women's Educational Resources Centre at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and continues to research and translate the works of important but forgotten Yiddish women writers.
Mark Foss Born in Ottawa, Ontario, and currently living in Montreal, Quebec, Mark Foss attended Carleton University, where he earned degrees in journalism and film studies. His works include the novel Spoilers and the short story collection Kissing the Damned. His radio drama Higher Ground has been broadcast on CBC Radio. Learn more at www.markfoss.ca.
Ellen Foster Kitty Salsberg and Ellen Foster were born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1932 and 1935, respectively. Orphaned after the war, Kitty and Ellen immigrated to Canada in 1948 through the Canadian Jewish Congress’s War Orphans Project. Kitty graduated from teachers’ college in 1954 and enjoyed a long and fulfilling career. Ellen moved to Los Angeles in 1952, where she raised a family.
Kelly Fournel
Barbara Fradkin Barbara Fradkin is a child psychologist with a fascination for how people turn bad. Her compelling short stories haunt numerous magazines and anthologies, but she is best known for her two series of gritty, psychological novels, one featuring Ottawa police inspector Michael Green and the more recent one with foreign-aid worker Amanda Doucette. Barbara won Arthur Ellis Best Novel Awards for both Fifth Son (2005) and Honour Among Men (2007). Her work as a school psychologist helping adolescents and younger children, many of whom struggle with reading, has also made her a strong advocate of programs that help develop reading as a lifelong passion. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario. For more information, visit barbarafradkin.com.
Leanne Franson Leanne Franson is a children's illustrator from Martensville, Saskatchewan. Visit her website at www.leannefranson.com.
John Freund John Freund was born in 1930 in Ceské Budejovice, a town located south of Prague, in Czechoslovakia. At the age of twelve, he was deported with his family to the Theresienstadt camp in the Czech garrison town of Terezin and then, in December 1943, to Auschwitz. In January 1945, the Nazis evacuated the camp and John was forced on a death march ahead of the advancing Soviet army from January to April 1945. He was liberated by American troops in 1945. In March 1948, John immigrated to Toronto. He became a chartered accountant and, in 1959, married his wife, Nora. They raised three daughters and are proud grandparents who still travel the world.
Colin Frizzell Colin Frizzell is an author, poet and screenwriter who was raised on a farm in Prince Edward County, Ontario. He is a Radio Broadcasting graduate of Loyalist College of Arts and Technology and has also studied television, film, acting, and improvisation as well as working on features in both Canada and the United Kingdom. Colin's books have received critical acclaim across North America, have been translated into Swedish and Norwegian, and have been adopted into the curriculum of several Ontario high schools. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.colinfrizzell.ca.
Alma Fullerton Alma Fullerton is the award-winning author of books for children of all ages. For more information, visit www.almafullerton.com.
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Dayle Campbell Gaetz Dayle Campbell Gaetz has worked as a creative-writing instructor, book editor and columnist but now devotes her time to her own writing. Gaetz is the author of over twenty books for young people and adults. Gaetz grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, and now lives in Campbell River. For more information, visit www.daylegaetz.com.
Darlene Gait Darlene Gait was born on Vancouver Island and began painting as a child. Inspired by nature and by her Coast Salish heritage, Darlene brings a rich understanding of the natural world to her work, which is held in private collections and exhibited worldwide. Darlene lives in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia. For more information, please visit www.onemoon.ca.
Bree Galbraith Bree Galbraith is a graduate student of the Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She uses narrative in much of her work and was thrilled when a class project became her first published children's book, Once Upon a Balloon. Bree works as a graphic designer in Vancouver, where she lives with her family.
Denise Gallagher Born in New Orleans, Denise Gallagher is an artist and graphic designer currently living in Lafayette, Louisiana. Denise has received awards from the Society of Illustrators New York, the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, Communication Arts Magazine, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and her work has been displayed in museums across the USA. She is the author and illustrator of A Tip Tap Tale (ULPress), and the illustrator of, among others, Jean-le-Chasseur et ses chiens (Bouton d'or Acadie) and Peg Bearskin.
Donna-Lynn Galloway
Susan Garfield Born Zsuzsanna Loeffler in Budapest in 1933, Susan Garfield immigrated to Canada as a war orphan in 1948 and lived in Vegreville, Alberta, before moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she still lives. Her Hungarian to English translation of her wartime diary was published in Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors (2010), and her story as a new immigrant to Canada was told in Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955 (2015).
Elizabeth Gatt

Elizabeth Gatt was born in London, England, and has an MA in graphic design from the Central School of Art and Design. She worked for a number of years at the Natural History Museum in London and began illustrating children's books after her two children were born. Elizabeth now lives in Burlington, Ontario.
Gareth Gaudin Gareth Gaudin is a cartoonist and comic-book creator from Victoria, British Columbia. He discovered comic books when he was five years old and knew immediately that they would become his life's work. He started photocopying and selling his comics in elementary school, self-publishing hundreds of his own creations, and eventually became the owner of a vintage comic-book shop, where he sells his comics from the front counter to this day. He lives, works and breathes comic books and comic-book history. For more information, visit perogycat.com.
Clayton Gauthier Clayton Gauthier has apprenticed under the artist Peter George, a Wet'suwet'en master carver. He has also completed murals and carvings for the community of Prince George, British Columbia. Clayton works with youth in the school district and in his home community to share art and storytelling. He is a multimedia artist whose skills include drawing, painting, carving, drum and rattle making, logos, mirror etching, tattoos, graphic art and murals.
Adrienne Gear
Maurice Gee Maurice Gee is one of New Zealand's finest writers, with nearly fifty books for adults and young adults and a number of prestigious awards to his credit. A former teacher, Maurice was first inspired to write after reading Charles Dickens as a teenager. However, it was not until he reached his mid-40s that he became a full-time writer. Gee, who was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Artist as one of the ten greatest living artists in New Zealand, came out of retirement to write the Salt Trilogy. He lives in Nelson, on New Zealand's South Island.
Sabrina Gendron Sabrina Gendron has a degree in visual arts from Cégep de Ste-Foy, as well as 2D/3D animation from Collège Bart. She loves to work on animation and visual arts projects and has illustrated a number of French-language books. Her art is colorful and lively and will make you want to dive into the worlds she has created. Sabrina lives in Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec.
Giannis Georgantelis Giannis Georgantelis has composed music for theatrical plays, multimedia projects and festivals, as well as musical ensembles. Giannis is also an accomplished orchestrator, having arranged many different folk songs of the Mediterranean for his group Carousel. His discography includes two CDs and two children’s operas, which received great critical acclaim in Greece.
Mary Jane Gerber Mary Jane Gerber loves children and has illustrated many books for them. She lives in Orangeville, Ontario, with her family and a Sheltie named Duncan.
Natale Ghent Natale Ghent was born in Brookfield, Illinois. She has a degree in English Literature from the University of Guelph. Natale is a full-time writer.
Charles Ghigna Charles Ghigna, or Father Goose®, lives in a treehouse in the middle of Alabama. He is the author of more than 100 award-winning books from Random House, Disney, Hyperion, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Time Inc., Abrams, Boyds Mills Press, Charlesbridge, Capstone, Orca and other publishers. He has served as poet-in-residence and chair of creative writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and as a nationally syndicated feature writer for Tribune Media Services. For more information, visit www.FatherGoose.com.
Karen Gillmore Karen Gillmore has been an artist since she could hold crayons. In addition to being a children's book illustrator, she also draws and writes comics and illustrates graphic novels. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.karengillmoreart.com.
Rachna Gilmore Rachna Gilmore is the Governor General’s Award-winning author of over twenty bestselling children’s books, which have won multiple honors and awards. Her books are sold internationally and have been translated into over a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.rachnagilmore.blogspot.com.
Gaston Gingras
Dave Glaze
Susan Glickman
Dale Nigel Goble For the past fifteen years Dale Nigel Goble has created award-winning multidisciplinary work, using graphic design, illustration, painting, screen printing and sculpture. His artwork appears in private and corporate collections around the world and has been featured in design magazines, newspapers and various digital media. Recent clients include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the United Nations and several other clients, both large and small. He lives in Duncan, British Columbia. For more information, visit dngstudio.com.
Christy Goerzen

Christy Goerzen holds a Master of Arts in Children's Literature from the University of British Columbia. She has worked as a book reviewer, copywriter, marketing consultant, television writer, bookseller, university instructor and writing mentor. Born and raised on the West Coast, Christy lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her family and two funny cats.
Jennifer Gold Jennifer Gold is a lawyer and mother of two and the author of the YA historical fiction book Soldier Doll. A history buff, she also has degrees in psychology, law and public health. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.jennifergold.ca.
Silvana Goldemberg
Myrna Goldenberg Myrna Goldenberg is the co-editor of Different Horrors, Same Hell: Gender and the Holocaust (2013) and Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis, and the Holocaust (2003), as well as a number of other publications. A professor emerita of Montgomery College, Maryland, Goldenberg's research focuses on gender and the Holocaust and on teaching the Holocaust in the university and college classroom.
Fishel Goldig
René Goldman René Goldman was born in Luxembourg on March 25, 1934. After the war, he lived in children's homes in Paris and then pursued his education in Poland. In 1953, René left for Beijing, where he studied Chinese language, literature and history. He graduated from Columbia University department of History and the East Asian Institute, and then accepted a position on the faculty of University of British Columbia, where he taught courses in Chinese history. René Goldman lives with his wife, Terry, in Summerland, British Columbia.
Filomenu Gomes
Beth Goobie Beth Goobie grew up in a family in which the appearance of a normal childhood hid many secrets. She moved away to attend university, became a youth residential treatment worker and studied creative writing at the University of Alberta. She is the award-winning author of over twenty novels, including The Pain Eater, The Lottery, the CLA Award-winning Before Wings, and the adult novel The First Principles of Dreaming. Beth makes her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Jane Goodall
Daniel Goodwin Daniel Goodwin is the author of Catullus's Soldiers, winner of the 2016 Vine Jewish Book Award for Poetry, as well as the novel Sons and Fathers. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Goodwin has lived and worked across Canada. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Calgary Herald, The Telegraph Journal, The Antigonish Review, and The Literary Review of Canada. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife and three children.
Elly Gotz Elly Gotz was born in 1928, in Kaunas, Lithuania. After the war, his family lived in a Displaced Persons camp for two years before immigrating to Norway and then Zimbabwe. Elly graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree. He married in 1958 and immigrated to Toronto in 1964. In Toronto, Elly achieved his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot. In 2017, at 89, he fulfilled another aeronautical dream by going skydiving. Elly has educated thousands of students and 2018 will mark his third trip on the educational tour the March of Remembrance and Hope.
Heather Gould
Heather Gould
Selena Goulding Selena Goulding is a Canadian illustrator and comic-book artist from Vancouver Island who currently lives in Toronto. A graduate of the Sequential Arts Program at Toronto's Max the Mutt Animation School, she is best known for her work on young-adult indie comics such as Cobble Hill, publishing with 215 Ink.
Gwethalyn Graham Gwethalyn Graham was born January 18, 1913 in Toronto, Ontario. At the age of 25, in 1938, she won her first Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction for her novel Swiss Sonata. After Earth and High Heaven, Graham wrote for Saturday Night, Chatelaine, and for film and television, and completed a collection of letters with Solange Chaput Roland titled Dear Enemies (1963). Graham died in 1965.
Brita Granström Swedish-born Brita Granström is a painter and illustrator. She has illustrated dozens of children's books, usually in collaboration with her partner Mick Manning. Their most recent publications include Books, Books, Books (published in conjunction with the British Library) and The Brontes. Brita has received numerous accolades, including two nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Award, one of children's literature's most prestigious international prizes. She lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England.
Vicki Grant Vicki Grant is the award-winning author of sixteen books for teens. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For more information, visit www.vickigrant.com.
Elise Gravel Elise Gravel is an award-winning author and illustrator. Well known for her odd critters and unusual drawing style, Elise creates books that are popular with adults and children alike. In 2012 she won the Governor General's Award for French-language illustration for La cl&eagrave; á molette. Her books Potato on a Bike, I am Scary and The Wrench are also available from Orca. Elise lives in Montreal with her family.
Elise Gravel Elise Gravel is an award-winning author and illustrator. Well known for her odd critters and unusual drawing style, Elise creates books that are popular with adults and children alike. In 2012 she won the Governor General's Award for French-language illustration for La cl&eagrave; á molette. Her books Potato on a Bike, I am Scary and The Wrench are also available from Orca. Elise lives in Montreal with her family.
Judith Graves Judith Graves writes YA fiction and is an award-winning writer and screenwriter. She lives in northern Alberta. For more information, visit www.judithgraves.com.
Jane Gray
Monique Gray Smith Monique Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage woman of Cree, Lakota and Scottish ancestry and a proud mom of twins. Monique is an accomplished consultant, writer and international speaker. Her first novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature. Monique's picture book My Heart Fills With Happiness won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize and was selected as the TD Grade One Giveaway Book for all grade one students in Canada in 2019. Monique and her family are blessed to live on Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia.
Patti Grayson
E. Graziani E. Graziani is a teacher, author and lifelong learner.Her book War in My Town was selected by the Canadian Children's Book Centre as one of its Best Books for Kids and Teens. She resides in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and four daughters. For more information, visit www.egraziani1.wix.com/egrazianiauthor.
Daphne Greer Daphne Greer is the author of Maxed Out, a 2013 YALSA Quick Picks nominee, and Jacob's Landing, which was a 2016 Hackmatack and 2016 Silver Birch finalist and was on the Best Books for Kids & Teens list from the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Daphne lives in Newport, Nova Scotia. For more information, visit www.daphnegreer.com.
Dean Griffiths Dean Griffiths is a popular picture-book artist with more than twenty-five titles to his name. His many awards include the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Book Prize for Maggie Can't Wait and the Chocolate Lily Award for Ballerinas Don't Wear Glasses. Dean lives in Duncan, British Columbia, with his daughter. For more information, visit www.deans-art.com.
Gabrielle Grimard Gabrielle Grimard has been drawing since she was young. Her passion for drawing and painting led her to pursue studies in fine arts and arts education at Concordia University. After she had her first child, she began her career as an illustrator. She moved from Montreal to Waterville, Quebec, where she now lives with her two children, several chickens and her husband, who builds wooden boats. They share an old barn as their artists' studio. For more information, visit gabriellegrimard.com.
Isabelle Groc Isabelle Groc is a writer, wildlife photographer, filmmaker and speaker who focuses on environmental issues, wildlife natural history and conservation, endangered species and the changing relationships between people and their environments. With degrees in journalism from Columbia University and urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she brings a unique perspective to documenting the impacts of human activities on threatened species and habitats. Her stories and photographs have appeared in numerous publications, and her wildlife films have been shown in communities and festivals around the world. Born in the South of France, with family roots in Spain, Isabelle now lives in Vancouver.
Ibolya Grossman Ibolya Grossman was born in Pécs, Hungary, in 1916. After the war, she was arrested and jailed by the communist regime in Hungary for trying to escape the country. On her second attempt she succeeded with her son, Andy, immigrating to Canada in 1957. Ibolya first wrote and published her memoirs in 1990; she passed away in Toronto in 2005.
Darren Groth Darren Groth is the author of several novels, including the acclaimed YA works Are You Seeing Me? and Munro vs. the Coyote. He was the winner of the 2016 Adelaide Festival Award for Young Adult Fiction and has been a finalist in numerous other prestigious prizes, including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the CBCA Book of the Year. Darren is a former special-education teacher and the proud father of a son with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He lives in Delta, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.darrengroth.com.
Simon Groth Simon Groth is a writer and editor whose books include Off The Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press and Hunted Down and Other Tales. Simon's work and reporting on the future of the book with Queensland Writers Centre has seen him travel the globe to discuss and explore the challenges and opportunities for writers and readers in a digital world. He lives in Brisbane, Australia. For more information, visit www.simongroth.com.
Sonia Gueldenpfennig
Jacqueline Guest Jacqueline Guest has written over a dozen books for young readers, specializing in sports themes and historical fiction. Many of her main characters come from different ethnic backgrounds, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Her books have been finalists for the Willa award and the High Plains Book Awards. For more information, visit www.jacquelineguest.com.
Kristina Guevremont
Elisa Gutierrez Elisa Gutiérrez is an award-winning designer, author and illustrator. Her book Picturescape was short-listed for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, was honored by the Alcuin Society and was the subject of a scholarly paper by the renowned Dr. Lawrence Sipe. Elisa has designed over 100 books and specializes in book design for children. Born and raised in Mexico City, Elisa now lives in Vancouver.
David Gutnick David Gutnick makes radio documentaries for the CBC. Over the past thirty years he's done stories on former child slaves in Togo, secret religious services in Beijing and ballet dancers in an American maximum-security prison. He also writes about art and trains for Ironman triathlons. David lives in Montreal, Quebec, with his wife and dog and has a grown daughter and stepson.
Pinchas Gutter
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Talleen Hacikyan
Kyla Hadden
Ron Hall Ron Hall is an Aboriginal artist of Okanagan and Thompson ancestry and is a member of the Osoyoos Band. The father of five children, he is recognized for his efforts to protect the environment and the rights of Native people. He participated in an art exhibit at the Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage in Moscow and in Siberia. One of his paintings is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery in Ottawa. Ron resides in Osoyoos, British Columbia. Dancing with the Cranes is Ron's first book with Theytus.
Jacqueline Halsey Jacqueline Halsey is the author of the award-winning book Peggy’s Letters, as well as Bluenose Adventure. She lives in Nova Scotia.
Marilyn Halvorson Blue Moon is Marilyn Halvorson's second book in the Orca Soundings series. Bull Rider was an ALA Quick Pick nominee. When she is not caring for cattle on her ranch, Marilyn spends her time writing. For more information, visit www.marilynhalvorson.ca.
Sigune Hamann
Marie-Micheline Hamelin
Jo Hammond

Born a stone's throw from the English Channel in Bognor Regis,Jo Hammond emigrated to the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada in 1967 on a 6,000 ton freighter, sailing with a cargo of Rolls Royces, Robertsons' Marmalade, and Cutty Sark Whisky. Jo lives in an orchard by the sea just outside Gibsons with three cats and a vast collection of music.

Kristie Hammond
Femida Handy
Gail F. Harcombe
Melissa Hardy Melissa Hardy has published five novels and two collections of short stories, including Broken Road, The Uncharted Heart and A Cry of Bees. She won the Journey Prize in 1994 and has been published in numerous journals, including The Atlantic, Exile and Descant. She lives in the village of Port Stanley, Ontario.
Kate Hargreaves Kate Hargreaves (aka Pain Eyre) is a writer, book designer and roller-derby skater. She is the author of Talking Derby: Stories from a Life on Eight Wheels and Leak, a collection of poems. She lives in Windsor, Ontario, and helped found the city's roller-derby league, the Border City Brawlers. When she's not working or skating, Kate spends her time cycling with her husband and cuddling with Winn the cat.
Jennifer Harper
Lisa Harrington Lisa Harrington’s first novel, Rattled, was published to critical acclaim in 2010 and was followed by the bestselling and award-winning Live to Tell. She holds a degree in English Literature from the University of Acadia and has worked as a childcare worker and a teacher. A lifelong resident of Nova Scotia, Harrington currently resides in Halifax.
Matilda Harrison
Nancy Hartry
Brian Harvey

Brian Harvey is a scientist and writer. He holds a PhD in marine biology and specializes in conservation of aquatic biodiversity. Brian’s first nonfiction book for a general audience, The End of the River, was published in 2008. He is currently finishing a second nonfiction book about sailing around Vancouver Island and is working on several fiction projects. Brian lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.brianharvey.org.
Sarah N. Harvey Sarah N. Harvey is the author of over a dozen acclaimed books for teens and young children. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she is a freelance editor and proud grandmother of three amazing grandchildren.
Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry studied Creative Writing and Literature at York University and has had her poetry published in The Antigonish Review, Room of One's Own, OnSpec and CV2. When not writing, she is a belly dancer and jewelry-maker. She lives in an old farmhouse with her husband, hawk and 2 dogs. Her website is www.waking.ca.
Brenda Hasiuk

Brenda Hasiuk is an award-winning short-fiction writer whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Her first novel, Where the Rocks Say Your Name, was nominated for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the coldest major city on earth, with her husband, author Duncan Thornton. For more information, visit www.brendahasiuk.com.
Holly Hatam Holly Hatam is an illustrator and graphic designer whose work has been featured on greeting cards, prints, clothes and much more. Holly's other passions include snuggling with her hubby and son, spending time hugging trees, filling up her pantry with tea and sticking her nose in a book.
Hostelma Pauline Hawkins
Susanna Hayes
Emily Hearn
James Hearne James Hearne is an internationally recognized illustrator and graphic designer. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Colleen Heffernan A Kind of Courage is Colleen Heffernan's first novel for young adult readers. She has previously published two early chapter books and several pieces of short fiction for young readers. Colleen lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
Lisa Heggum Lisa Heggum is a teen services librarian who began her career in New York City and currently works as the Toronto Public Library's Youth Collections Librarian. Lisa has served on young adult book award committees for the Ontario and Canadian Library Associations. She is the first Canadian to be certified as a Young Adult Library Services Association "Serving the Underserved" trainer, and has presented at numerous library conferences. Lisa won the inaugural Ontario Public Library Association Leadership in Youth Services Award.
Lisa Heggum "Lisa Heggum is a teen services librarian who began her career in New York City before becoming the Toronto Public Library's Youth Collections Librarian, coordinating the selection of materials for ages 13-24. Lisa has served on young adult book award committees for the Ontario and Canadian Library Associations. She is the first Canadian to be certified as a Young Adult Library Services Association ""Serving the Underserved"" trainer, and has presented at numerous library conferences. Lisa won the inaugural Ontario Public Library Association Leadership in Youth Services Award."
Robert Heidbreder Robert Heidbreder has been enchanting children with his joyful poems and rhymes and his brilliant performances for more than two decades. Robert lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Jessica Hein
Jane Heinrichs Jane Heinrichs is a children's book writer and illustrator. She starts her day at a clear desk with her huge sketchbook (for books) and her tiny sketchbook (for daily drawings) but usually ends up sitting on the floor, surrounded by a collection of paints, pencils and papers. Jane lives in the UK with her family.
Jane Heinrichs Jane Heinrichs is a children's book writer and illustrator. She starts her day at a clear desk with her huge sketchbook (for books) and her tiny sketchbook (for daily drawings) but usually ends up sitting on the floor, surrounded by a collection of paints, pencils and papers. Jane lives in the UK with her family.
Marilyn Helmer Marilyn Helmer was born in St. John's, Newfoundland. Marilyn's stories, poems and articles have appeared in children's magazines and anthologies in Canada and the United States. Her published books include picturebooks, chapter books, novels, riddle books and retold fairy tales. For more information, visit www.marilynhelmer.com.
Scott B. Henderson Scott B. Henderson has worked as an illustrator for comics, portraiture and advertising art. He is author/illustrator of the sci-fi/fantasy comic The Chronicles of Era and has illustrated two comics for the Canadian Air Force's For Valour series, the bestselling graphic-novel series 7 Generations, selected titles from the Tales from Big Spirit series, and the graphic novels Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story, Eisner-award nominee A Blanket of Butterflies and Fire Starters. For more information, visit www.scotthendersonart.wordpress.com.
Linda Hendry
James Heneghan A former fingerprint specialist with the Vancouver Police Department, James Heneghan has won numerous awards for his books for young readers, including the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Award three times for Flood, Wish Me Luck and The Grave. James lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.jamesheneghan.com.
James Heneghan A former fingerprint specialist with the Vancouver Police Department, James Heneghan has won numerous awards for his books for young readers, including the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Award three times for Flood, Wish Me Luck and The Grave. James lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.jamesheneghan.com.
Tasha Henry Tasha Henry has been traveling, writing and teaching for over twenty years. She currently lives on unceded Lekwungen territory in Victoria, British Columbia.
Janet Hepburn Janet Hepburn is a writer and poet. Her poetry has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. Her poetry was shortlisted in the Free Fall Annual Poetry and Prose Contest. She has been a regular contributor to a regional weekly newspaper, writing personal life stories of passion and success. Her travel stories have been published online. Flee, Fly, Flown is her first novel. She lives and work in Port Dover, Ontario.
Gyetxw Hetxw'ms (Brett D. Huson) Hetxw'ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson)
Linda Hewins
Karen Hibbard Karen Hibbard is a free-lance illustrator and draws on a long career as a visual artist. Karen has illustrated picture books for Planète rebelle (Montréal) and Annick Press (Toronto), as well as several activity books for youth with Éditions Mango on behalf of the Musée d'Orsay. Karen is currently teaching art at the University of Victoria and Emily Carr University of Art + Design and previously taught at the University of Manitoba's School of Art.
Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung was born in Dukla, Poland, in 1912. In 1941, he managed to escape Europe for Japan, immigrating to Montreal nine months later. A world-renowned Torah and Talmudic scholar, Rabbi Hirschprung became the chief rabbi of Montreal in 1969 and led its Jewish community until his death in 1998. Rabbi Hirschprung's Yiddish-language memoir was published in 1944 and translated into Hebrew in 1948; The Vale of Tears is its first English translation.
Ben Hodson Ben Hodson illustrates mostly for children in books, magazines and textbooks. He is the 2004 recipient of the Glass Slipper Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' Canadian Conference. He does presentations and workshops at local schools and libraries. Ben lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with his wife May and his daughter Zoe. For more information, visit www.benhodson.ca.

Mark Hoffmann Mark Hoffmann is a freelance editorial illustrator, children's-book illustrator, fine artist and professor in the illustration department at Montserrat College of Art in Massachusetts. He lives with his wife and son in the New England area. For more information, visit www.studiohoffmann.com.
Sophie Hogan
Pricilla Holbrook
Priscilla Holbrook
Heather Holland
Sue Farrell Holler
Heather D. Holmlund Illustrator Heather D. Holmlund has roots in the northern town of Fort Frances, Ontario, where she grew up. Her source of artistic vision has always been the spiritual essence of the Canadian landscape and its people. Heather attended York University in the visual arts program, before making her home in Pickering, Ontario. She is the award-winning illustrator of As Long as the Rivers Flow.
Katherine Holubitsky

Katherine Holubitsky's first novel, Alone at Ninety Foot, (Orca Book Publishers), won the CLA Book of the Year for Young Adults and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. She has also written Last Summer in Agatha, The Hippie House and The Mountain that Walked, all published by Orca. Katherine lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Anita Horrocks Anita Horrocks has published several award-winning books for young readers. Anita lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, where she divides her time between working part-time at the library, traveling, hiking, cycling, walking, writing, reading, quilting, baking and doing other grandma things.
Dr. Margret Horvance Dr. Margret Hovance is a psychologist in private practice in Toronto. Her long-standing professional interests are in work-life balance, exploring relationship issues, and women in career transition. She is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. She is married and her retirement is a work in progress.
Amy Hovey Amy Hovey graduated with an MA in English from the University of Victoria and worked for several years at Orca Book Publishers as an editor. Amy is also a yoga teacher who ran her own studio in downtown Victoria from 2011 to 2015. She is currently at home with toddler boy/girl twins, who are a constant source of humor and inspiration for new writing projects. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Eric Howling Eric Howling is an advertising creative director and the author of several sports novels, including Plunge, Gang Tackle, Head Hunter, Red Zone Rivals, Hoop Magic, Kayak Combat and Drive. His books have been shortlisted for the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award, named Resource Links Year's Best and picked as a CCBC Best Books selection. Eric lives and plays sports in Calgary, Alberta. For more information, visit www.erichowling.wordpress.com.
Shelley Hrdlitschka Shelley Hrdlitschka has written many novels for teens, including Sister Wife, which was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award. She lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia, where she hikes, snowshoes and hangs out with grizzly bears at the Grouse Mountain Refuge for Endangered Wildlife. For more information, visit www.shelleyhrdlitschka.ca.
Kirstie Hudson Kirstie Hudson is an editor and writer in Victoria, British Columbia. She worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for eighteen years at stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Victoria. In her award-winning career as a journalist, Kirstie's work has been recognized with a Jack Webster Award, Radio Television Digital News Association awards and an international Gabriel Award. Over the years she has covered hundreds of stories, including the making of the Witness Blanket. As an instructor at the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University, Kirstie shared her love of storytelling with students in writing, communications and journalism.
Kirstie Hudson Kirstie Hudson is an editor and writer in Victoria, British Columbia. She worked for the CBC for eighteen years at stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Victoria. In her award-winning career as a journalist, Kirstie's work has been recognized with a Jack Webster Award, Radio Television Digital News Association awards and an international Gabriel Award. Over the years she has covered hundreds of stories, including the making of the Witness Blanket. As an instructor at the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University, Kirstie shared her love of storytelling with students in writing, communications and journalism.
Alison Hughes Alison Hughes is an award-winning author of many books for children and young adults, including Hit the Ground Running, a nominee for the Governor General's Literary Award. Alison is a university Writing Advisor, volunteers with children and literacy groups and gives frequent workshops and presentations at schools, libraries, festivals and conferences across Canada. She lives in Edmonton with her family.
Steven P. Hughes Steven P. Hughes is an award-winning Canadian illustrator whose clients include the Globe and Mail, Reader's Digest and Scientific American. He graduated from Sheridan College with a BAA in Illustration. He lives in Bolton, Ontario.
Vi Hughes
Jesse T. Hummingbird

Jesse T. Hummingbird is a Cherokee artist who has won awards for his paintings at major shows across the country. He most recently won the best of division for painting at the Heard Museum Indian Market and second place in painting at the SW Arts Festival in Indio, CA. In 2017, he was selected by the Cherokee Nation as a Cherokee National Living Treasure.
Dallas Hunt Dallas Hunt is a teacher, writer, and member of Wapisewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta, Canada. As a proponent of language revitalization, his debut book for children, Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock, includes words in Cree. Dallas lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba and enjoys reading great books to his nieces and nephews.
Sue Hunter
Fran Hurcomb Fran Hurcomb arrived in the Northwest Territories in 1975 and immediately succumbed to the spell of the North. She lived on a trapline, ran sled dogs for almost twenty years, built and lived on a houseboat, and has worked at a variety of jobs. Her first children's book was published in 1999, followed by two northern pictorial histories. Fran lives in Yellowknife with her husband, hockey-playing daughter and several pets.
Glen Huser Glen Huser’s novels for young readers have been highly praised and have won a number of awards, such as the Mr. Christie’s Silver Award, the Governor General’s Award and the R. Ross Annett Award. For more information, visit www.glenhuser.com.
Hazel Hutchins From her home in the mountain town of Canmore, Alberta, Hazel has written over forty books for children of all ages. She gives lively presentations at schools and libraries across Canada. For more information, visit www.hazelhutchins.net.
Michael Hutchinson Michael Hutchinson is a member of the Misipawistik Cree Nation. He currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he works with organizations that advocate for First Nation families in Manitoba and across Canada.
Natalie Hyde Natalie Hyde was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and grew up in Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario, where she still lives. She spent most of her childhood collecting crickets, toads and tent caterpillars. Natalie lives with her husband and four children in a house with too many stairs, which they share with a little leopard gecko and a cat that desperately wants to eat him. I Owe You One is Natalie's first book for Orca. To learn more about Natalie, please visit www.natalaliehyde.com.
Joel Hynes Actor/writer/director/musician Joel Thomas Hynes is the award-winning author of the novels Down to the Dirt, Right Away Monday, and We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night; acclaimed stage plays; a notoriously cheek manifesto; and a collection of poetic non-fiction. Born in Calvert, Newfoundland, he lives in Toronto.
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Tsema Igharas
Frances Itani

Frances Itani has published numerous books, including Requiem, chosen by the Washington Post as one of 2012's top fiction titles of the year; and the #1 bestseller Deafening, which won a Commonwealth Award, was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was published in 17 territories. Frances is a Member of the Order of Canada and is a three-time winner of the CBC Literary Award.
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Kung Jaadee
Bronia Jablon Bronia Jablon was born on April 15, 1918, in Dubno, Poland. She survived the war with her daughter, Lucy. After the war, she completed her nursing degree in Russia and had a successful nursing career. She lived in Russia, Poland and Israel before finally emigrating to Canada to be with her daughter and grandchildren in 1967. Bronia passed away in Toronto in 1994.
Johnny (Ephroim) Jablon Johnny (Ephroim) Jablon (né Jan Rothbaum) was born in Krakow, Poland, in 1927. After the war, Johnny spent three years in the Bindermichl DP camp in Austria before immigrating to Montreal as a war orphan. In Montreal, he worked in the garment industry, graduated from Sir George Williams University with a degree in electronics and then co-established Magic Touch TV Sales & Service. In 2018, Johnny is joining the educational tour March of the Living, which will be his first journey back to Poland since his liberation seventy-three years earlier.
Dennis Jackson
Graham Jackson Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Graham Jackson has been a journalist, a playwright, a researcher for Methuen Publishers, and a writer on male-on-male intimacy from a Jungian perspective. He lives in Toronto where, when not writing, he practices as an analytical psychologist. Learn more at www.grahamjacksonauthor.com.
Melanie Jackson A 2018 CCBC-TD Book Week author, Melanie Jackson has written several books for young readers in the Orca Currents series, including Tick Tock Terror, Medusa's Scream and Death Drop. Every spring Melanie teaches a mystery unit at a Vancouver secondary school. When not devising diabolical mysteries, she works for corporate clients as a contract writer/editor. Melanie lives in Vancouver.
Diane Jacobson Diane Jacobson is a member of the 'Namgis First Nation. She has family ties to the Mamalilakala of Village Island, the Mowachaht of the west coast of Vancouver Island and the Kwagu'l. Diane lives in Alert Bay, British Columbia. My Life in a Kwagu'l Big House is Diane's first published work and her first book with Theytus.
Kate Jaimet

Kate Jaimet is an author and journalist who recently began a freelance career after many years as a daily newspaper reporter for the Ottawa Citizen. Kate lives in Ottawa, Ontario. More information is available at www.katejaimet.com.
Laura James Laura James is an award-winning artist and self-taught painter of Antiguan heritage. Working as a professional artist for many years, she has exhibited widely, including at the Studio Museum, Harlem. She was born in New York City, where she now lives. For more information, visit www.laurajamesart.com.
Catherine Jameson Catherine Jameson is Secwépemc-syilx (Okanagan). She lives in Penticton, British Columbia. This is her first book.
Dani Jansen
Sharon Jennings
Katherine Jin
Marthe Jocelyn Marthe Jocelyn is the award-winning author and illustrator of over thirty-five books for babies, kids and teens. Her illustrated books have been shortlisted for both the Governor General's Literary Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. In 2009 she was the recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work. For more information, visit www.marthejocelyn.com.
Marthe Jocelyn Marthe Jocelyn is the award-winning author and illustrator of over thirty-five books for babies, kids and teens. Her illustrated books have been shortlisted for both the Governor General's Literary Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. In 2009 she was the recipient of the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work. Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Marthe settled in Stratford, Ontario, after a thirty-year stretch in New York, New York. For more information, visit marthejocelyn.com.
Helena Jockel Helena Jockel (née Kahan) was born in Mukacevo, Czechoslovakia on October 23, 1919. After the war, she returned to Czechoslovakia and in 1948 married her widowed brother-in-law, Emil Jockel. They remained in Czechoslovakia until Helena retired and then moved to Canada in 1988 to join their daughter, Jana. Helena Jockel lives in Halifax.
K.V. Johansen

K.V. Johansen has Master's Degrees in Medieval Studies and in English. She has held the Eileen Wallace Research Fellowship in Children's Literature and received the Frances E. Russell Award for research in children's literature in 2004. Johansen received the Canadian Authors' Association 2006 Lilla Stirling Award; she has had fiction titles nominated for the Silver Birch Award, the Diamond Willow Award, shortlisted for the Canadian Association of Children's Librarians Book of the Year for Children Award, and included on the Ontario Library Association's "Best Bets Top Ten List" and VOYA's "Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror" list. For more information, visit www.pippin.ca.
Susan R. Jolliffe Susan Rennick Jolliffe alighted into the world of children's books after many years as a visual artist. She is known for her humorous and beautiful transformations of what most people consider junk. Her books have been inspired by her standard poodle and even wilder Canadian animals. Susan lives in Ottawa, Ontario; she is available for school visits.
Susan R. Jolliffe "Susan Rennick Jolliffe of Ottawa, Ontario alighted into the world of children's books after many years as a visual artist. She is known for her humorous and beautiful transformations of what most people consider junk."
Andy Jones Actor, writer, director Andy Jones has won wide acclaim for his on-going series of Jack tales, illustrated by Darka Erdelji. Books in the series have won the BMO Winterset Award (for excellence in Newfoundland & Labrador writing) and the Bruno Family Children's Literature Award, and been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustrated Text, the Silver Birch Express Award, and the Hackmatack Award. He lives in St. John's.
Carolyn Jones Carolyn Jones teaches high school English and Spanish in Port Coquitlam. She lives in the Strathcona neighbourhood of East Vancouver with her beloved teddy bear, Theodora. Theodora Bear was written to entertain Carolyn's goddaughters, Emma and Sarah. They always want to hear about Theodora's latest adventures, and particularly enjoy stories in which the bear outsmarts the girl she lives with. Carolyn Jones was born in Havana, Cuba, and has lived there, in New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto and Vancouver. Theodora Bear is her first book.
Kari Jones Kari Jones is the author of several well-received books for kids and teens, including A Fair Deal, in the Orca Footprints series. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she teaches English and creative writing at Camosun College.
Stéphane Jorisch Stéphane Jorisch is one of Canada's most celebrated illustrators. He is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Award for Children’s Illustration (for Jabberwocky and The Owl and The Pussycat). He grew up in Montreal, Quebec, where he now lives with his family.
Andrew Joseph, Sr. Andrew Joseph, Sr., was born in the 1930s and raised in North Central Washington. At present, Andy still lives with his people on the reservation and is an active cultural leader of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
Katarina Jovanovic Katarina Jovanovic is a writer, teacher, journalistand poet. She has won many awards for her poetry. Katarina, who worked for many years in children's programming for Serbian radio, now resides in Vancouver with her husband and two daughters.
Vanja Vuleta Jovanovic
Vanja Vuleta Jovanovic
Mere Joyce Mere Joyce is the author of several novels for young people, including Shadow and Getting the Brush Off. As both a writer and librarian, she understands the importance of reading and the impact the right story can have. Mere lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with her family.
George Juhasz
Leolina Leila Juma
Liliane Leila Juma Liliane Leila Juma grew up in Uvira, a city in the western Congo on the shore of Lake Tanganyika near the border with Burundi. Her life as a young girl was brutally disrupted by the wars in Burundi (1993), Rwanda (1994) and the Congo (1994–1997), finally forcing her family to flee to Tanzania. After some time in a refugee protection camp, Leila, her maman and her sisters and brothers immigrated to Canada. Leila now lives in Vancouver, where she works as a women’s support worker. She is fluent in three languages—Swahili, French and English.
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Kathy Kacer

Kathy Kacer has won many awards for her books about the holocaust for young readers, including Hiding Edith, The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, Clara’s War and The Underground Reporters. A former psychologist, Kathy tours North America speaking to young people about the importance of remembering the Holocaust. For more information, visit www.kathykacer.com.
Janet Kaszonyi Born in Vancouver, Janet Kaszonyi is a Métis who traces her ancestry back to the Red River Settlement. She grew up with her deaf mother, great aunt and a dog on a farm in a small town called Onoway in Alberta. As an only child, Janet spent hours drawing pictures and exploring the woods, imagining and acting out incredible tales. Today she teaches art and photography and lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Racin' Jason is her first book.
Jennifer Katz Jennifer Katz, PhD, taught for 16 years in diverse classrooms from K to 12, including special education and inclusive classrooms in Winnipeg and Vancouver. She has also served as a resource teacher and counsellor. Dr. Katz received the MCEC Outstanding Achievement Award for Leadership, 2016. She now serves as an Assistant Professor of Inclusive Education at the University of British Columbia. www.threeblockmodel.com.
Carol Kauppi
Nelly Kazenbroot Nelly Kazenbroot is a prize-winning painter and writer, and she has been published in literary magazines across Canada. Her projects include everything from picture books, to adult fiction, to large surreal paintings. She lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia with her family. For more information, visit www.nellykazenbroot.com.
Richardo Keens-Douglas Richardo Keens-Douglas is well-known throughout North America and in his native Grenada as an accomplished storyteller. He has published many picture books and had his own television show in Canada. He won the American Storyteller's Association award for his book La Diablesse and the Baby. He lives in Grenada.
Monique Keiran Monique Keiran writes about nature, science, museums, parks, and much more. She lives on Vancouver Island, where few dinosaur bones but many fossils of extinct sea critters have been found. See more of Monique’s writing at www.moniquekeiran.com.
X.J. Kennedy
Deborah Kerbel Deborah Kerbel is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of several books for young people of all ages. Her books have been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Canadian Library Association's YA Book Award and the Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award, among others. Deborah was born in London, England, and raised in Toronto where she now lives with her family.
Brooke Kerrigan Brooke Kerrigan has loved to draw ever since she was a little girl, so it seemed only natural that she would grow up to be an artist. Of all her creative endeavors, illustrating children's books is her favorite. Born in Toronto, Ontario, she currently lives with her husband in the French Alps, in a little town that inspires her every day. For more information, visit brookekerriganillustration.com.
Anna Kerz Anna Kerz's first book, The Mealworm Diaries, was shortlisted for many awards, including a Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award. In her spare time, she tells stories to audiences of all ages and teaches students how to tell stories of their own. She lives in Scarborough, Ontario, with her husband, Frank, and their dog, Bailey.
Danah Khalil Danah Khalil was born in Toronto, Ontario, and was inspired to write at a very young age by some of her favorite authors. She continues to write journal entries, novels and poetry in hopes of inspiring others to tell their stories through writing.
Ausma Zehanat Khan Ausma Zehanat Khan is the author of the Khattak/Getty mystery series, which has been optioned for television. A British-born Canadian, she is a former adjunct law professor and the former editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl magazine. She lives in Colorado with her husband. For more information visit www.ausmazehanatkhan.com.
Soyeon Kim Soyeon Kim is a Toronto-based, Korean-born artist who specializes in fine sketching and painting techniques to create three-dimensional dioramas. She is a graduate of the Visual Arts and Education programs at York University and has illustrated a number of beautiful picture books including Sukaq and the Raven (Inhabit Media) and You Are Never Alone (Owlkids). Soyeon won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s award in 2013.
Judith King
Florence Kirsh
Sharon Kirsh
Eddie Klein Eddie (Icchok) Klein was born in Sieradz, Poland, in 1927. He immigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1945, where he worked for the Palmach and later the Air Force. Eddie married his wife, Miriam, in Tel Aviv in 1955; they immigrated to Montreal in 1956, where Eddie still lives.
Carol Koechlin
Alex Kolano alex kolano grew up on a hobby farm in Iona Station, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto. She studied illustration at OCAD and completed her degree in animation at Sheridan College. Her first illustrated picture book, Ralph, Flying Hound, written by Dave Paddon, was published in 2016.
Juliana Kolesova Juliana Kolesova is a Toronto based illustrator with more than twenty five years of experience. She has successfully created hundreds of book covers for for various publishers in Canada, USA, and Europe. Her works have been recognized through numerous national and international awards including Applied Arts awards for illustration, book cover design and photography.
Sheena Koops

Voice of the Valley is Sheena Koops' first novel. She is an author who has stuck to the old adage "write what you know" and that faith has served her tremendously well. Sheena Koops teaches high school and lives with her family in the historic Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan.
David Korn
Lynne Kositsky Lynne Kositsky is an award-winning Canadian poet and author. Her poetry has won the prestigious E.J. Pratt Medal and Award and the Canadian Author and Bookman Award. Her children's novels have also won many awards, including the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Youth and the International Youth Library’s White Raven Award, given to books that “contribute to an international understanding of a culture and people.”
William Kowalski William Kowalski is the author of the international bestseller Eddie's Bastard, winner of South Africa's Ama-Boeke Award, and, more recently, The Hundred Hearts, winner of the 2014 Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. His work has been translated into fifteen languages. Four of the titles William wrote for the Rapids Reads series have been nominated for the Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award. He lives with his family in Nova Scotia. For more information, visit www.williamkowalski.com.
Shane L. Koyczan Shane Koyczan writer, poet, spoken word artist, and has performed around the globe at universities and at music and literary festivals. His writing and performance is vital, witty and sincere: he reaches the hearts of his audiences with his powerful verses and has brought the Canadian spoken word movement to the international stage.
Renate Krakauer Renate Krakauer obtained a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Masters of Environmental Studies, and a doctorate in education. She has worked in the fields of pharmacy, education, and human resources, and was president and CEO of the Michener Institute of Applied Health Sciences. She lives in Toronto with her husband and has written and published numerous short stories and essays.
Zorica Krasulja Zorica Krasulja is a Canadian artist and illustrator from Burlington, Ontario. Visit her website at www.zorica.ca.
Paul Kropp
Karen Krossing Karen Krossing writes novels and short stories for kids and teens. Karen also encourages new writers through workshops for kids, teens and adults. She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.karenkrossing.com.
Ian Krykorka
Vladyana Krykorka Vladyana Krykorka has illustrated nine stories written by Michael Kusugak. Their books have received international acclaim and won numerous awards. Vladyana lives and works in Toronto, Ontario.
Alice Kuipers Alice Kuipers is the author of more than 10 books for young readers, including the Arthur Ellis Award winner, The Worst Thing She Ever Did (HarperCollins) and World's Worst Parrot in the Orca Currents line. Her work has been published in dozens of countries and has also been made into plays and produced for radio. She lives with her family in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Janice Kun Janice Kun is an illustrator whose work is a distinctive multimedia blend of drawing, collage, digital and photographic elements. Her organic constructions reflect the dynamic energy of nature, combined with the lyricism of music and found street art. Janice's approach has created lush and tactile illustrations for magazine editorials, postage stamps, book covers and advertising campaigns. Janice is based in Toronto, Ontario, with roots in the Maritime provinces and southeast China. When not in her studio, she can be found hiking through the woods, hanging out by a lake or roaming through the city with her camera.
Fartumo Kusow Born in Somalia, Fartumo Kusow immigrated to Canada at the start of the civil war. Her first novel, Amran, was serialized in October Star, Mogadishu: Somali National Press in 1984. Since her arrival in Canada in 1991 she has earned a B. Arts Honours in English Language and Literature and B. Education from the University of Windsor. She now teaches English literature courses for the Greater Essex County District School Board. A mother of five adult children, she lives in Windsor, Ontario.
Michael Kusugak Michael Kusugak is Inuit and was raised in Nunavut. He writes books for children and travels, often telling the stories he heard from his grandmother when he was growing up. Michael's work has won the Ruth Schwartz Award for children's literature and has been short-listed for various other awards. In 2008, Michael was the recipient of the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature for his body of work. Michael lives and works in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.
Michael Kutz Michael Kutz was born in Nieswiez, Poland (present-day Belarus) on November 21, 1930. He arrived in Canada as a war orphan in 1948 and lived in Winnipeg before settling in Montreal in the early 1950s, where he joined various charitable organizations dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth, the elderly and war veterans. He continues to be engaged in community initiatives and regularly speaks to students about the Holocaust. Michael Kutz and his wife, Pat, live in Montreal.
Irene Kuziw Irene Kuziw has worked in galleries, museums and schools. Irene now devotes her time to doing what she loves—drawing and exploring the abstraction of reality, whether it be the human face or the animal spirit. A graduate of the University of Manitoba School of Art, she lives in the Interlake region of Manitoba.
Nadya Kwandibens Nadya Kwandibens is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from the Animakee Wa Zhing #37 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. She is a self-taught portrait and events photographer and has travelled extensively across Canada for over 10 years. Nadya's photography has been exhibited in group and solo shows across Canada and the United States.
Tanya Lloyd Kyi Tanya Lloyd Kyi is a freelance graphic designer and writer. She grew up in Creston, British Columbia, but now lives in Vancouver. For more information, visit www.tanyalloydkyi.com.
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Mary Labatt Mary Labatt breeds collies with her daughter, Elizabeth. She has written two series of books about dogs, Dog Detective Sam and Puppy Sam. Mary lives and writes in Port Rowan, Ontario.
Sophie Labelle
Ferenc Laczó Ferenc Laczó is assistant professor in history at Maastricht University. He is the author of Hungarian Jews in the Age of Genocide. An Intellectual History, 1929-1948 (2016) and co-editor (with Joachim von Puttkamer) of Catastrophe and Utopia: Jewish Intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s (2017). His articles have appeared in Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Leo Baeck Institute Year Book and Yad Vashem Studies, among others. In 2019, Ferenc Laczó will be a Yetta and Jacob Gelman Fellow at the Mandel Center of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Linda Laidlaw
Louise-Andrée Laliberté Louise-Andrée Laliberté is an author and illustrator from Quebec. For more information, visit www.louiseandreelaliberte.com.
Ann Lambert
Eva Lang
Laura Langston Laura Langston is the award–winning author of over fifteen books for children and young adults. A former journalist with the CBC, Laura also writes non-fiction for such publications as Canadian Gardening magazine. For more information, visit www.lauralangston.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @LauraLangston.
Theresa "Corky" Larsen-Jonasson
Joan Larson
Evelyn Lau
June Lawrason
Katherine Lawrence Katherine Lawrence is a writer and fund-development consultant whose poetry has appeared in literary journals across Canada and the UK. Her work has also been performed onstage and broadcast on CBC radio. She has two award-winning poetry collections to her credit and a third published in April 2016.
Lisa J. Lawrence Lisa J. Lawrence grew up as a free-range kid in small towns in British Columbia and Alberta. She currently works as a writer and Spanish teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, where she lives with her husband and three children. Her first novel, Rodent, was nominated for numerous awards.
Julie Lawson Julie Lawson is the award-winning author of many books for young people. Her three novels for the popular Dear Canada series have been acclaimed by readers of all ages. No Safe Harbour won the Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award. She currently lives on the west coast of Canada. For more information, visit www.julielawson.ca.
Julie Lawson
Anne Lazurko
Sara Leach Sara Leach is a writer and teacher-librarian in Whistler, British Columbia. She loves hiking the nearby alpine trails with her husband and two children. Fortunately, they have never been stranded in any mountain huts, although they have endured many rainy days. For more information, visit www.saraleach.com.
Jennifer Leason Jennifer Leason self-identifies as Saulteaux–Métis Anishinaabek. Her maternal Indigenous roots are from Duck Bay, Pine Creek First Nation and Camperville, Manitoba; her paternal Ukrainian-Norwegian roots are in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan. She is the mother of two children. Jennifer is an advocate for women and for Indigenous communities, and she teaches at the University of British Columbia. She holds a PhD (2017), an MA (IGS), and a BA in psychology. Jennifer is a member of the Pine Creek Indian Band in Camperville, Manitoba.
Maria Luisa Lebar
Jordana Lebowitz
Annette LeBox
Ingrid Lee

An avid reader of Grimm's fairy tales as a child, Ingrid Lee enters the world of the imagination with ease. She herself has made sandy shapes on many beaches over the years. And always, she says, she has trouble leaving them to fend for themselves at the end of the day. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, where, in addition to writing, she teaches art and English.
Jen Sookfong Lee Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in East Vancouver, British Columbia, and she now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Her books include The Conjoined, a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, The Better Mother, The End of East, Gentlemen of the Shade and, with Orca, Chinese New Year: A Celebration for Everyone and The Animals of Chinese New Year. Jen appears regularly as a contributor on “The Next Chapter” on CBC Radio One and teaches at The Writer's Studio Online with Simon Fraser University. For more information, visit sookfong.com.
Deanne Lee Bingham
Diane Carmel Léger

Diane Carmel Léger grew up in the Acadian village of Memramcook, New Brunswick. For 20 years, she lived in Victoria, British Columbia, where she taught French Immersion and wrote books in French and English. Diane has left the West but a little part of herself stayed behind in the virgin rainforests of Vancouver Island where her family was involved in saving some of the world's tallest trees. Diane has toured schools in Canada and the United States since 1991. For more information, visit www.dianecarmelleger.com

Michael Léger Michael Léger divides his time between his work in the film industry and his love of nature. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Nate Leipciger Nate Leipciger was born in Chorzów, Poland. He chaired the Toronto Holocaust Remembrance Committee for six years before becoming an executive member of the Canadian Jewish Congress National Holocaust Remembrance Committee; he was a member of the International Council of Auschwitz for fifteen years. He has educated adults and youth through countless speaking events and has been an educator on March of the Living trips to Poland and Israel for more than ten years. Nate Leipciger lives in Toronto and remains actively involved in Holocaust education.
Mark Leiren-Young Mark Leiren-Young is a writer, documentary filmmaker, podcaster and orca activist. His book The Killer Whale Who Changed the World won the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada general audience book award. He wrote, directed and produced an award-winning documentary called The Hundred-Year-Old Whale, and his documentary about Moby Doll is being produced by Middle Child Films. Mark hosts a podcast about orca and ocean stories and is actively involved in the fight for the survival of the endangered southern residents. Mark has written for other young audiences for ABC, PBS, YTV, Treehouse and BBC Kids. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Christina Leist Christina Leist lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she works as a graphic designer. She has illustrated many books for young people. For more information, visit www.christinaleist.com.
John Lekich

John Lekich is a Vancouver-based author and freelance writer whose work has appeared in Reader's Digest, the Los Angeles Times and the Hollywood Reporter. A former West Coast arts correspondent for The Globe and Mail, he is the recipient of ten regional and national magazine awards.
Qin Leng Qin Leng was born in Shanghai, China and lived in France before moving to Montreal. She now works as a designer and illustrator in Toronto and is the illustrator of a number of award-winning children’s books.
Georgia Lesley
Alex Levin Alex Levin was born in 1932 in the shtetl of Rokitno, Poland, not far from the Soviet border. In 1944, after the region was liberated by the Red Army, Alex Levin was sent to the USSR as a war orphan and enrolled in military cadet school. He became a professional engineer in the Soviet army until he was forced out for being a Jew. He married his wife in 1957 and their daughter was born in 1961. Alex decided to build a new life for himself and his family in Canada in 1975, where he worked first as an engineer and then as a successful builder. He continues to live in Toronto and speaks tirelessly to students about his experiences in the Holocaust.
Karen Levine
Tamara Levine Tamara Levine is an adult educator and literacy activist who worked with unions and employers on workplace literacy and clear language initiatives across Canada. Now retired from her job in labour education, she lives in Ottawa with her family.
Joanne Levy Joanne Levy is the author of a number of books for young people, including Double Trouble and Fish Out of Water in the Orca Currents line, the middle-grade novels Crushing It and the Red Maple Award-nominated Small Medium At Large. She lives in Clinton, Ontario.
Wendy A. Lewis

Wendy A. Lewis is the author of several stories and books. Her collection Graveyard Girl received the Canadian Authors' Association Vicky Metcalf Award for excellence in young adult short fiction. Wendy loves to visit schools and libraries to talk about the writing process and conduct creative writing workshops. She lives in Uxbridge, Ontario with her family.

Glenda Leznoff
Cornelia Li
Sharen Liddell
Leanne Lieberman Leanne Lieberman is the author of several books for young adults. Leanne lives with her family in Kingston, Ontario, where she teaches elementary school. For more information, visit www.leannelieberman.com.
Ron Lightburn Ron Lightburn's career as a children's book illustrator was launched with his Governor General's Award-winning artwork for Waiting for the Whales in 1991. Since then he has illustrated numerous other bestselling picture books and has become internationally renowned for his sensitive storytelling skills and range of illustration styles. For more information, visit www.thelightburns.com.
Arielle Lipshaw
Rachel Lisogurski
Ashley Little Ashley Little completed a BFA in creative writing at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Ashley teaches yoga and writes fiction in Alberta's badlands. The New Normal is her first novel for teens. For more information, visit www.ashleylittle.com.
Jean Little Born in Taiwan, celebrated children's author Jean Little grew up in Ontario and graduated from the University of Toronto with an honors degree in English. A member of the Order of Canada, Little has received six honorary degrees and was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages and have won numerous awards, including a Canada Council Children's Literature Award (now known as the Governor General's Literary Award, a CLA Book of the Year, the Little, Brown Children's Book Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award.
Renata Liwska Renata Liwska is a children's book author and illustrator. Her books include the New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book and The Loud Book. Visit her website at www.renataliwska.com.
Kevin Locke
Andrew Lodwick Andrew Lodwick is an artist and printer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Jim Logan Jim Logan was born in 1955 in New Westminster, British Columbia and studied at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson, BC. Logan's humor and affection for his culture is tempered by a concern for the restoration of identity and self-awareness within First Nations communities.
Alison Lohans Alison Lohans is the author of numerous books for children and young adults that deal with the darker side of family life and growing up. Her books include The Raspberry Room, Picturing Alyssa, Collapse of the Veil, Crossings, and This Land We Call Home.
Sheena Lott Sheena Lott has illustrated several children's books. She also exhibits her paintings across North America and her work can be found in corporate and private collections throughout the world. Sheena works from her home studio in Sidney on Vancouver Island BC. For more information, visit www.sheenalott.com.
Deb Loughead Deb Loughead is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults. Her books have been translated into seven languages, and her award-winning poetry and adult fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian publications. Deb has conducted workshops and held readings at schools, festivals and conferences across the country. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.debloughead.ca.
Regina Louie
Larry Loyie Author Larry Loyie was born in Slave Lake, Alberta. He spent his early years living a traditional Cree life and treasures the lessons he learned from the elders. He went to residential school from the age of 10 to 14, then began his working life. Larry returned to school later in life to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a writer. He received the 2001 Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement (British Columbia). In 2003, Larry was the first First Nations writer to win the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for his first children’s book As Long as the Rivers Flows.
Jodi Lundgren Jodi Lundgren is the author of several published short stories as well as novels for adults and for teens. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she teaches English and Creative Writing to college students.
Kathleen Gould Lundy
Irene Luxbacher Irene Luxbacher is an illustrator, children's book author and a graduate of Queen's University and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Her children's books have received numerous awards and accolades, including being nominated for a Governor General's Award for illustration and chosen for USBBY's Outstanding International Books List. Irene lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit ireneluxbacher.com.
Mary Lynch
Annabel Lyon Annabel Lyon is the author of four books of adult fiction, Oxygen, The Best Thing for You, The Golden Mean and The Sweet Girl. All-Season Edie is her first work for children. She lives in New Westminster, British Columbia with her husband and two children.
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Carrie Mac

Carrie Mac's first novel The Beckoners won the Arthur Ellis YA Award, is a CLA Honour book. She is available for school and library presentations, and has been known to hold the interest of a couple hundred teens where others have failed. Maybe it's the tattoos. For more information, visit www.carriemac.com.
Julie Macfie Sobol Julie Macfie Sobol and her husband Ken moved with their three children from the US to Canada in 1973. Julie, a musician and painter, has works displayed in homes in Canada, the U.S., and England. As Ken's neurological illness worsened, the couple was forced to find new ways to live and write together. Julie, now a grandmother of six, continues to make her home in Toronto.
Elly MacKay Elly MacKay creates tiny worlds from cut paper, ink and light, which she then photographs. Her work has been featured in international publications, including O: The Oprah Magazine, Chatelaine and Cosmopolitan. For more information, visit www.ellymackay.com.
Jill MacLean
Elizabeth MacLeod Biographies, picture books, cookbooks—Elizabeth MacLeod has written them all and more. She has won many awards for her writing, including the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Nonfiction, as well as Children's Choice awards across Canada. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Sarah MacNeill Sarah MacNeill is a graphic designer with a background in architecture. She has wanted to create children's books since she was a child herself and can spend hours in the picture-book section of her local bookstore, being inspired by imaginative illustrations. She loves New York City, avocados and new art supplies but could do without alarm clocks and spiders. Sarah lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her family. For more information, visit www.cartestudio.com/.
Sarah MacNeill Sarah MacNeill is a graphic designer with a background in architecture. She has wanted to create children's books since she was a child herself and can spend hours in the picture-book section of her local bookstore, being inspired by imaginative illustrations. She loves New York City, avocados and new art supplies but could do without alarm clocks and spiders. Sarah lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her family. For more information, visit www.cartestudio.com/.
Rabindranath Maharaj Rabindranath Maharaj is the author of three collections of short stories and six novels, and winner of the Trillium and Toronto Books Awards. He lives in Ajax, Ontario.
Duncan Major Duncan Major was born and raised in St. John's, where he lives with his wife and son. He is a letterpress printer, graphic designer, and musician, as well as an illustrator. He and Dave Paddon have collaborated on a series of letterpress-pirnted chapbooks that feature single recitations by Dave.
Rajni Mala Khelawan Rajni Mala Khelawan is an emerging Indo-Fijian Canadian writer. In addition to being a visiting writer at The University of the South Pacific, Fiji Islands in August 2011, Khelawan was profiled on hit TV and radio shows such as Bollywood Boulevard, CBC Radio, Omni South Asian News, Asian Magazine TV, and NUTV. Her first novel is The End of the Dark and Stormy Night. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Isabelle Malenfant

Isabelle Malenfant has a bachelor's degree in graphic design, but never worked in the field because she fell in love with illustration first. She likes to mix mediums such as watercolor, pastels and charcoal to create poetic and sensitive worlds. Isabelle has illustrated more than a dozen children's books, including Maggie's Chopsticks (Kids Can), which was awarded the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize. She was born in northern Quebec, between gold mines and lakes, in the city of Val-d'Or. Isabelle currently lives and works in Montreal, Quebec, with her little family.
Joey Mandel
Rachel Manley Rachel Manley is an author and poet. She is best known for her memoir, Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood (winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction), which was inspired by life with her grandfather, Norman Washington Manley, founder of Jamaica's first national party. Born in Cornwall, England, and raised in Jamaica, Manley now resides in Toronto, Ontario. Learn more at www.rachelmanley.com.
Fred Mann
John Manthorpe Jonathan Manthorpe is the author of three books on international relations, politics, and history. He has been a foreign correspondent and international affairs columnist for nearly 40 years. He was the foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa, and Europe for Southam News, the European Bureau Chief for the Toronto Star, and the national political reporter for The Globe and Mail. For the last few years he has been based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Rosa Mantla
Lynn Manuel Lynn Manuel published dozens of books for young people, including The Summer of the Marco Polo.
Jenny Manzer Jenny Manzer is the author of Save Me, Kurt Cobain, which was nominated for the Bolen Books Children's Book Prize. She has a degree in creative writing and was a finalist for the 2013 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious literary competitions. She lives with her family in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.jennymanzer.com.
Lee Maracle Lee Maracle has been published worldwide, and is the author of a number of critically acclaimed literary works including the collection Sojourners and Sundogs and the novels Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, and Daughters Are Forever. A mother of four and grandmother of seven, Maracle was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and is a member of the Sto:Loh nation. Maracle received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work promoting writing among Aboriginal Youth.
Molly March Molly March is an accomplished painter and set designer. She is the illustrator and mapmaker of Brother XII's Treasure and its sequel, The Silver Lining, both written by Amanda Spottiswoode. She lives in Coldstream, British Columbia.
Barbara Marchand Barbara Marchand is a published author and editor and an illustrator of children's books and young adult books. Her credits include Kou-Skelowh/We are the People: A Trilogy of Okanagan Legends (new bilingual edition). She lives in the Okanagan region of British Columbia.
Dave Margoshes Dave Margoshes grew up in New York, where his father was a reporter and columnist for the Yiddish daily, Der Tag (The Day). His 2012 collection of linked short stories, A Book of Great Worth, is a fictional love letter to his father and an evocation of the world he lived in on the Jewish lower east side. His novel, Wiseman's Wager, is based loosely on the life of Henry Roth, the great Jewish-American novelist (Call It Sleep).
Nicole Marsh
C.K. Kelly Martin C.K. Kelly Martin is a graduate of the Film Studies program at York University and currently resides in Oakville, Ontario. For more information, visit www.ckkellymartin.com.
Cara Martin Cara Martin is the pseudonym that bestselling author C.K. Kelly Martin uses for her horror writing. Her work includes such acclaimed novels as I Know It's Over, The Lighter Side of Death, My Beating Teenage Heart, Yesterday, The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing and Delicate. Martin has been twice short-listed for the Canadian Library Association's Young Adult Book Award. A graduate of the film studies program at York University, Martin currently resides in Orleans, Ontario.
Martha Brack Martin Martha Brack Martin is the author of River Traffic and Mayan Murder from Orca Soundings. She is also an award-winning teacher–librarian and has written several nonfiction books for children. She frequently facilitates workshops on children's literature, teaching with technology, and librarianship. She lives in a small town near Windsor, Ontario.
Ron Martin
Rachel Martinez
Michael Mason Michael Mason was born as Miklos Friedman in Beregszász, Czechoslovakia, in 1928. In 1948, to immigrate to Canada, he took on the identity of Miklos Moskovits, later changing his name to Michael Mason in response to antisemitic hiring practices. In Canada, Michael worked in a variety of businesses before opening his own dental office in 1973. Michael Mason lives in Toronto.
Philinda Masters Philinda Masters was the editor of Broadside: A Feminist Review from 1979 to 1989 and editor of Resources for Feminist Research at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education from 1987 to 2011. She has been a feminist activist since the early 1970s, when she worked at Toronto's women's center. Philinda lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Carol Matas

Carol Matas is an internationally acclaimed author of over thirty-five novels for children and young adults. Her best-selling work, which includes three award-winning series, has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Taiwanese, Turkish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, German, French, Indonesian and Russian. Her work has won numerous awards, and has been twice nominated for a Governor General's Award. More information is available at /www.carolmatas.com
Rae Maté Rae Maté’s first children’s picture books, Crocodiles say… and Crocodiles Play! were published by Tradewind Books. She and her husband, Gabor, have three children, a dog and two cats, and live in Vancouver, British Columbia. Rae divides her painting time between her backyard studio in Vancouver and Hornby Island, BC.
K. Mateus K. Mateus is a Canadian illustrator who has always known art was her calling. She hopes her work will inspire others with a similar calling to follow her on the path of illustration. Three Feathers is her first graphic novel.
Shirlee Smith Matheson Shirlee Smith Matheson is the author of several critically acclaimed books for young adults. Her stories are inspired by the universal struggle to fit in as an adolescent, especially those who have been uprooted from their homes and familiar surroundings. For more information, visit www.ssmatheson.ca.
Dianne Maycock

Dianne Maycock has always wanted to write books about animals. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from UBC and a combined Master's degree in Adult Education and Counselling from the University of Toronto. She has visited every Canadian province except for P.E.I., as well as most of the countries in Europe. Dianne lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her family and is available for school presentations.
Tash McAdam Tash McAdam is a Welsh Canadian author of several books for young people including The Psionics series (Nine Star Press). Tash identifies as trans and queer and uses the neutral pronoun "they." As an English teacher, they are fully equipped to defend that grammar! They teach high school English and computer science and have a couple of black belts in karate. They live in Vancouver.
Ian McAllister Ian McAllister is an award-winning photographer and author of numerous books. Ian directed the 2019 IMAX film Great Bear Rainforest and co-wrote the film's tie-in book, Great Bear Rainforest: A Giant Screen Adventure in the Land of the Spirit Bear. A recipient of the North American Nature Photography Association's Vision Award and the Rainforest Action Network's Rainforest Hero Award, he and his wife, Karen, were named by Time magazine "Leaders of the 21st Century" for their efforts to protect British Columbia's endangered rainforest. The founding director of Pacific Wild, a Canadian nonprofit wildlife-conservation group, Ian lives with his family in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Ian McAllister Ian McAllister is an award-winning photographer and author of numerous books. Ian directed the 2019 IMAX film Great Bear Rainforest and co-wrote the film's tie-in book, Great Bear Rainforest: A Giant Screen Adventure in the Land of the Spirit Bear. A recipient of the North American Nature Photography Association's Vision Award and the Rainforest Action Network's Rainforest Hero Award, he and his wife, Karen, were named by Time magazine "Leaders of the 21st Century" for their efforts to protect British Columbia's endangered rainforest. The founding director of Pacific Wild, a Canadian nonprofit wildlife-conservation group, Ian lives with his family in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Ian McAllister Ian McAllister is the author of many books and his award-winning photographs have appeared in publications around the world. He is a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a recipient of the North America Nature Photography Association's Vision Award and the Rainforest Action Network's Rainforest Hero award. He is the founding director of Pacific Wild, a Canadian nonprofit wildlife-conservation group. He lives with his family on an island in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. For more information, visit www.pacificwild.org.
Bruce McBay Bruce McBay collaborated with James Heneghan on Waiting for Sarah, his first book with Orca. He is the department head of Learning Support Staff at a Burnaby Secondary School and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Deborah McCallum
Stephen McCallum
James McCann James McCann grew up on the icy plains of Manitoba, where he spent most of his teenage years reading comics and training in tae kwon do. In 2002 he came to the West Coast, where he's worked as a book-seller and a workshop leader, mentoring youth in creative writing. James lives in New Westminster, British Columbia.
Rosemary McCarney Rosemary McCarney is Canada's Ambassador to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva. She was previously president and CEO of Toronto-based Plan Canada where she helped create the very important Because I am a Girl campaign. She is the author of the internationally best-selling Every Day is Malala Day, Because I Am a Girl: I Can Change the World, The Way to School, and the Rosie the Red series. Rosemary lives in Toronto with her family
Doris McCarthy Doris McCarthy was a great painter who produced an unparalleled body of work, was the first woman President of the Ontario Society of Artists, taught some of Canada's most distinguished creative people, and was a mentor for many artists. A key figure in this Canada’s art scene since the 1920s, McCarthy experimented with, and contributed to, major art developments throughout the 20th century.
Norah McClintock Norah McClintock won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction for young people five times. She wrote more than sixty YA novels, including contributions to Seven (the series), the Seven Sequels and the Secrets series.
Patricia McCowan Patricia McCowan has written several novels and short stories that have appeared in YA anthologies, as well as in print and online magazines. Patricia lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.patriciamccowan.com.
Virginia McCoy
Kim McCullough Kim McCullough has published reviews and commentary no a number o literary websites. Clearwater is her first published book. McCullough lives and teaches in Calgary, Alberta. She leads various writing workshops for students of all ages, including a writing class for women in recovery.
Bob McDonald
Regan McDonell Regan McDonell studied writing at the University of Victoria with poets Patrick Lane and Lorna Crozier, and then promptly put the pen down to pursue a career in textile and graphic design. Now the creative director at a Toronto-based marketing agency, Regan spends her days designing apparel for kids, and her nights writing fiction for teens. For more information, visit www.writerregan.com.
Kathleen McDonnell
Pamela McDowell Pamela McDowell's first career was in education, teaching junior high and high school. She began writing when she left teaching and has now written more than fifty nonfiction books for children. Pamela grew up in Alberta and enjoys writing about the diverse animals and habitats of her home province. Pamela lives in Calgary, Alberta, with her husband, two kids and an Australian shepherd. For more information, visit pamelamcdowell.ca.
Sheryl McFarlane Sheryl McFarlane is the author of more than a dozen award-winning books for young readers. A former teacher, Sheryl loves bike riding, beachcombing and discovering new books for her grandchildren. She lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, where she keeps a little free library stocked with books for her friends and neighbors. For more information, visit www.sherylmcfarlane.ca.
Gayle McGuire Tremblay
M.J. McIsaac M.J. McIsaac is the author of several books for young people. She has a master's degree in writing for children from the University of Winchester in the UK. M.J. currently lives with her family in Whitby, Ontario. For more information, visit meaghanmcisaac.com.
Julie McLaughlin Julie McLaughlin is an award-winning illustrator whose work includes commissions for editorial, advertising and publishing clients from around the world. Her previous books have been nominated for several awards, and she won the 2015 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for Why We Live Where We Live (OwlKids). Julie grew up on the Prairies and now resides on Vancouver Island.
Chum McLeod
Geraldine McLeod
Neal McLeod
Chris McMahen Chris McMahen is an elementary school teacher-librarian living near Armstrong, British Columbia. When he's not busy writing, teaching or spending time with his family, he can be found cycling the back roads of the Spallumcheen Valley or making peculiar pottery.
Michelle E. McMartin
Melody DeFields McMillan Melody DeFields McMillan is a teacher who lives in Simcoe, Ontario, not far from where she grew up. When she's not writing, she's enjoying all that nature has to offer. Her first book about the irrepressible Addison, Addison Addley and the Things That Aren't There, was nominated for a Silver Birch Award.
Ray McSwain Raised in Behchoko, the largest Dene community in the Northwest Territories, Ray spent his life surrounded by the same natural, scenic beauty that has inspired many Northern Aboriginal people to become artists. The Legend of the Caribou Boy is Ray's first book.
Tessa McWatt Tessa McWatt currently lives in London, England, where she is working as a producer and scriptwriter.
Leslie Meisels Leslie Meisels was born on February 20, 1927, in Nádudvar, Hungary. His whole immediate family survived the Holocaust. He immigrated to the US in 1958, following the Hungarian Revolution, and to Canada in 1967. He and Eva married in 1961 and they live in Toronto.
Amy Meissner Amy Meissner currently lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska. Her two, bad orange cats keep her company in the studio all day long where she paints, draws, writes, cuts fabric and moves cats off the things they aren't supposed to sleep on. Creating art for children's books is Amy's favorite job, but she also illustrates for posters and articles. She recently completed an MFA in Creative Writing and has undergraduate degrees in both Art and Textiles.
Esperança Melo Esperança Melo is a graduate of Sheridan College's Animation Program and has completed an honors degree in graphic design from George Brown College. She has illustrated and designed several children's books. Esperança was born in the Azores and now lives in Millbrook, Ontario. For more information, visit www.esperancamelo.blogspot.ca
Angela Mesic
Mireille Messier Mireille Messier is a Montreal-born, Ottawa-raised and now Toronto-based children's writer with a background in broadcasting and theater. Mireille has published over twenty books, some in French, others in English, for children of all ages. The Branch nominated for the Shining Willow, Blue Spruce and Governor General's Awards. Mireille lives in Toronto with her husband, two wonderful daughters, three fluffy cats and over a hundred goldfish. For more information, visit mireille.ca.
Leslie Mezei Leslie Mezei (also Laszló, Laci) was born on July 9, 1931, in Gõdõllõ, Hungary. His town was invaded by the Nazis in 1944, and his family separated. In 1948 Leslie arrived in Canada, and he eventually became a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto. Leslie lives in Toronto, where he is involved in a global interfaith and interspiritual movement, the mission of which is to promote a message of unity in diversity, and he published the Interfaith Unity News for a number of years.
Klara Mezei Noy Klara Mezei Noy was born in 1920 in Gõdõllõ, Hungary. Klara survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp and moved to Israel, where she had two daughters and worked as an office administrator and taught typing. Klara passed away in Israel in 2001.
Roy Miki Roy Miki is a poet, writer, and editor. He is the author of Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice and Surrender, which received the Governor General’s Award for Poetry. Roy and Slavia Miki grew up in Winnipeg and moved to Vancouver in the late 1960s shortly after getting married.
Slavia Miki Slavia Miki is a life coach and studied feng shui under the late Henry Dorst. She earned her teacher’s licence in ikebana while living in Tokyo.
Pascal Milelli Pascal Milelli graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design. His first picturebook was the award-winning Rainbow Bay (Raincoast), followed by The Art Room (Groundwood), which was awarded the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award for Illustration. Pascal lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Victoria Miles

Victoria Miles is the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including Old Mother Bear, which received a Henry Bergh award from the American Society for the Protection of Animals. Victoria lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband and two daughters.
Elizabeth Milkau
Carole Miller
Rachelle Anne Miller

Rachelle Anne Miller studied at NSCAD University, where she earned her Bachelor of Design in 2002. She worked as a graphic designer for several years before deciding to venture out as a freelance illustrator. Rachelle's art has been featured in various international magazines and websites. Her work can be seen in children's books, greeting cards, craft supplies, children's room decor, tech accessories and more. For more information, visit www.rachelleannemiller.com
David Mills, MBE, Founder and owner of the British Wildlife Centre
Rob Mills Rob Mills has been an award-winning reporter, newspaper editor and writer in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Ontario. Charlie's Key is his first published novel. He lives in Pererborough, Ontario with his wife and two daughters.
Jessica Milne Jessica Milne is from the Comox Valley, British Columbia and grew up painting, drawing and taking photographs. She completed a double diploma in Fine Art and Graphic Design in the spring of 1998 from North Island College in Courtenay for which she received the Governor General's Award for outstanding achievement. She went on to the University of Victoria where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Honours in the fall of 2001. Following her graduation from the University of Victoria, Jessica spent time teaching drawing and painting to adults and taking photographs for weddings. Along with that she discovered the magic of illustrating children's books. For more information, visit www.jessicamilne.com.
Marywinn Milne
Cristina Minaki
Angela Misri Angela Misri was born in the United Kingdom and now lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario. A journalist and writer, she has worked in digital media with The Walrus and CBC Radio. She is the author of the Portia Adams mystery series.
Adrian Mitchell
Brandon Mitchell From Listuguj, Quebec, Brandon Mitchell is the founder of Birch Bark Comics and creator of the Sacred Circles comic series, which draws on his Mi'kmaq heritage.
Karen Mitchell
Anna Molnár Hegedús Anna Molnar Hegedüs was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire on August 2, 1897. She married Zoltan Hegedüs in Szatmár (Satu-Mare) on June 14, 1921, and had two children, John and Agnes. Anna Hegedüs immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1949 and to Canada in 1952. She died in 1979.
Marylène Monette As a former teacher and pedagogical counselor, Marylène Monette has worked with children and teachers for many years. She firmly believes that all aspects of our personalities are essential to a balanced self. Simon Steps into the Ring is Marylène's first book. She lives in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.
Marc Mongeau
Kent Monkman Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who is well known for his provocative reinterpretations of romantic North American landscapes in a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. His glamorous gender fluid alter-ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle reverses the colonial gaze, upending received notions of history and Indigenous people.
Michelle Monteith
Maggie Mooney
Shelley Moore Shelley Moore is an inclusive-education consultant supporting access to education for every learner. She presents at conferences both nationally and internationally, and has developed courses at Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia. Shelley has worked in both elementary and secondary schools supporting students with and without special needs. A PhD student at the University of British Columbia, her research focus is on the interactions of inclusive education, curriculum, and teacher professional development.
Irene Morck

Irene Morck is an accomplished author and trail-rider. Her first book with Orca, Tough Trails is based on many of her adventures riding in the Rocky Mountains. Irene lives on a farm with ten mules, one horse and her husband.

 
Anna Morgan
Bernice Morgan Bernice Morgan is author of Random Passage, which was filmed as a four-part television series; its award-winning sequel, Waiting for Time; Cloud of Bone; and The Topography of Love. Seasons Before the War is her first book for children. She lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Cindy Morgan Cindy Morgan is an award-winning singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. A two-time Grammy nominee, Cindy is an adjunct professor of songwriting at Nashville's Belmont University. For more information, visit www.cindymorganmusic.com.
Peter Morin
Kim Moritsugu Kim Moristugu's novel The Glenwood Treasure (2003) was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best Crime Novel Award. She leads a walking tour for Heritage Toronto, teaches creative writing at the Humber School for Writers, writes a food blog called The Hungry Novelist and sings in a community rock/pop choir. And Everything Nice is her fifth novel and first book in the Rapid Reads series. For more information, visit www.kimmoritsugu.com.
Marietta Morry Marietta Morry was born in Budapest, Hungary. She immigrated to Canada at age twenty, graduating from McGill University with an M.Sc. in Mathematics. After she moved to Ottawa, she became acquainted with memoir author Ferenc Andai. While pursuing a career as methodologist for Statistics Canada, Marietta translated several literary texts from Hungarian into English. Since 2012, she has been collaborating on translations from Hungarian with Lynda Muir, mostly on works within the Azrieli Foundation's Holocaust Survivor Memoir series. In 2015, her collaboration with Lynda Muir on Anna Hegedüs's memoir As the Lilacs Bloomed (Azrieli Foundation, 2014) won them the John Glassco Prize from the Literary Translators' Association of Canada.
Beatrice Mosionier Beatrice Mosionier was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. The youngest of four children, she grew up in foster homes. After a short time living in Toronto, where she attended college, she returned to Winnipeg. Beatrice has written more books of fiction, a play, a short film, and her memoir. She previously worked as publisher of Pemmican Publications. Beatrice lives in Manitoba with her husband.
Antoine Bear Rock Mountain

Antoine Mountain has received many awards for his art, community activism, and athletic achievement. Mountain is currently completing a PhD in Indigenous Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario but will always call Radelie Koe (Fort Good Hope), Northwest Territories home.
Naomi M. Moyer Naomi M. Moyer is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist and writer. As a black woman, Naomi is forever interested in African diasporic histories and how they connect to black identity. Naomi is a new mama and lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario. You can find out more at www. naomimichelle.com.
Una-Ann Moyer
Lynda Muir Lynda Muir was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. She has always had a passion for languages and literature. An M.A. graduate in German literature, she taught English in Quebec and Botswana. In 1974, she moved to Ottawa, where she worked as a translator from German to English before embracing a 25-year-long career as editor for the National Gallery of Canada. Her collaboration with Marietta Morry on Anna Hegedüs's memoir As the Lilacs Bloomed (Azrieli Foundation, 2014) won them the John Glassco Prize from the Literary Translators' Association of Canada in 2015.
Doris Muise Doris Muise is of Mik'maq, French, and Scottish descent in rural Newfoundland. She holds a Master of Art Education from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and has taught all over Canada. She has made her home on traditional Nuxalk territory in Bella Coola BC, where she teaches the wonderful children at Acwsalcta School when she isn't writing or working on her art.
Michelle Mulder Michelle Mulder is the founding author of and has written six other titles in the Footprints series—Pedal It!, Brilliant!, Every Last Drop, Trash Talk, Pocket Change and Going Wild. Michelle has also written the novels The Vegetable Museum, Not a Chance, Out of the Box, After Peaches and several other books for young people. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit michellemulder.com.
Rachel Dunstan Muller Rachel Dunstan Muller has spent most of her life on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She is the mother of five and the author of three other novels for children. For more information, visit www.racheldunstanmuller.com.
Caryl Cude Mullin
Patricia Murdoch A language arts teacher, Patricia Murdoch knows all too well the importance of learning to read and the power of a strong story. She lives in Bradford, Ontario.
Eric Murphy Eric Murphy spent summers sailing the Ottawa River. After writing his MA thesis in Quebec City, he worked in New York and Paris. He sails when visiting relatives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in Toronto, Ontario, where he lives with his family. Eric works as an actor and writer. For more information, visit www.eric-murphy.com.
Shelley Murphy
Susan Musgrave Susan Musgrave has been nominated for and has received awards in five different categories of writing—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, personal essay, children's writing—and for her work as an editor. She has published many books, including Love You More, More Blueberries and Kiss, Tickle, Cuddle, Hug. Susan lives on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and teaches poetry in the Optional Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia. For more information, visit susanmusgrave.com.
Danson Mutinda Danson Mutinda’s parents, Ruth and Henry Kyatha, co-founded the Hope Development Centre orphanage with Eric and Anita Walters in 2007. When Henry passed away, Dansen became patron of the program. He and his co-author, Eric Walters, worked together to write this story of two energetic and joyful children who are based on many of the children they work with at the centre. Danson lives in Kikima, Kenya, on the grounds of the orphanage.
Muguette Myers Muguette Szpajzer-Myers was born in 1931 in Paris, France. In 1947, Muguette, her older brother and their mother immigrated to Montreal, where Muguette eventually started a family and worked as a translator. Muguette Myers returned to Champlost in 2005 for a ceremony to honour four members of the community as Righteous Among the Nations for hiding her and her family during the war.
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Kelly Nakatsuka
Shenaaz Nanji
Mahtab Narsimhan Mahtab Narsimhan is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including Embrace the Chicken (Orca), Mission Mumbai (Scholastic), The Tiffin (DCB) and The Third Eye (Dundurn), which won the Silver Birch Award. She was a Writer in Residence at the Toronto District School Board from 2015-2016. Born in Mumbai, India, Mahtab immigrated to Canada in 1997. She now lives in Vancouver.
Nadine Neema
Nicole Neidhardt Nicole Neidhardt is Diné (Navajo) on her motherÆs side and a blend of European ancestry on her father's side and is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art. Nicole's Diné identity is the heart of her practice, which encompasses mylar stencilling, painting and creating digital art and large-scale murals. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Mark Douglas Nelson
Mary Elizabeth Nelson

Born in Calgary, Mary Elizabeth Nelson has been both a teacher-librarian and a language arts teacher. She wrote her first book at age four. She has four children and three grandchildren and presently lives and writes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Karen Nesbitt

Karen Nesbitt works as a high school counselor near Montréal, Québec. The mother of two teenagers, Karen spends most of her days immersed in teen culture. She lives with her husband and children in Pierrefonds, Québec. Subject to Change is Karen's debut novel.
Erica Neumann Erica Neumann is well known for her striking oil paintings of bears and other wildlife. Her art resides in collections worldwide, including in Britain, Germany and Australia. For more information, visit www.ericaneumann.com.
William New
Gillian Newland Gillian Newland has illustrated a variety of publications, ranging from magazines to children's books. She finds most of her inspiration outside her studio. She can often be found sketching her fellow customers at Starbucks or the animals at the zoo. Gillian lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.gilliannewland.com.
Carey Newman Carey Newman or Hayalthkin'geme is a multidisciplinary artist and master carver. Through his father he is Kwakwaka'wakw from the Kukwekum, Giiksam, and WaWalaby'ie clans of Fort Rupert, and Coast Salish from Cheam of the Stó:lo Nation along the upper Fraser Valley. Through his mother he is English, Irish, and Scottish. In his artistic practice he strives to highlight Indigenous, social or environmental issues. Carey was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2017 and was named to the Order of British Columbia in 2018. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit witnessblanket.ca.
David Newman David Newman was born in Chmielnik, Poland, in 1919. He immigrated to Paris with his wife, Anna, and son, Jack, in 1946. In 1951, the Newman family immigrated to Toronto, where they raised their children, Jack and Gloria. David was a performer in Yiddish theatre productions, taught Yiddish to countless students and co-founded the Kol Yisroel congregation at the Borochov Centre. David Newman passed away in 2002.
Arthur Ney Arthur Ney was born in Warsaw, Poland on June 25, 1930. He came to Canada in 1948 and settled in Montreal, where he raised a family. Now a widower, he still lives in Montreal.
Lorna Schultz Nicholson Lorna Schultz Nicholson is an award-winning author of many books for children and young adults. She has also worked as a television producer, radio host and rowing coach. Lorna lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with her husband and two dogs. For more information, visit lornaschultznicholson.com.
Barbara Nickel Barbara Kathleen Nickel is an award-winning poet and author of books for young adults. Born in Rosthern, Saskatchewan she moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and then back to British Columbia where she now lives and writes.
Brock Nicol
Godfrey Nkongolo Godfrey Nkongolo is a doctoral student in political science with extensive experience working in international and community development in Tanzania. One of his passions both within his studies and beyond is to promote African thought and to show the world that Africa has a message of hope even though the story of Africa that is most widely known is one of despair. This book is, therefore, a part of his life mission—to promote a positive message of, and from, Africa. He now lives in Toronto, Ontario with his family.
Margaret Noodin
Maria Noriega Rachwal Maria Noriega Rachwal is a music teacher and musicologist living in Toronto, Ontario. She has given many lectures on women in music throughout the country and written articles on the subject for professional organizations. Her work on the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra was featured on the CBC Radio documentary, "It Wasn't Tea Time: Ethel Stark and the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra."
Cynthia Nugent

Cynthia Nugent is a nationally recognized and award-winning children's book author and illustrator. Her first book, Mister Got To Go, is now considered a Canadian classic. All of her books have been on the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Our Choice lists. Cynthia lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her Yorkshire terrier Emma. More information is available at www.cynthianugent.com.
Cynthia Nugent

Cynthia Nugent is a nationally recognized and award-winning children's book author and illustrator. Her first book, Mister Got To Go, is now considered a Canadian classic. All of her books have been on the Canadian Children's Book Centre's Our Choice lists. Cynthia lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her Yorkshire terrier Emma. More information is available at www.cynthianugent.com.
Lori Nunn
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Kathryn O'Brien
Clare O'Connor Clare O'Connor is a communications professional and writer. She now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with her family and still owns a skateboard.
Heather M. O'Connor Heather M. O’Connor is a freelance writer, editor, author and mother of five (and grandmother of two). She lives in Whitby, Ontario, with her family and her yellow lab, Lady. For more information, visit heathermoconnor.com.
Liam O'Donnell Liam O'Donnell is an author and educator who has created over forty books and graphic novels for young readers, including the Max Finder Mystery, Graphic Guide Adventures, West Meadows Detectives series. He was born in Northern Ireland and came to Canada when he was five years old. He studied media at Ryerson University and has worked on film sets in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Liam lives in London, Ontario. For more information, visit liamodonnell.com or follow him on Twitter @liamodonnell.
Joanne O'Mara
Andreas Oertel Andreas Oertel was born in Germany and has lived most of his life in eastern Manitoba. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Shenanigans series, which has been nominated for several awards, including the Silver Birch Award, the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award and the New York State Reading Association Charlotte Award. He has a lifelong passion for archeology, history and writing for young people. For more information, visit www.andreasoertel.com.
Sylvia Olsen

Sylvia Olsen is the author of many books and has been nominated for and won numerous awards. She has spent most of her life living in theTsartlip First Nation, where her children and grandchildren now live. Sylvia usually writes for children and young adults about the place between cultures where Canada's First Nations and settlers come together. She is also a storyteller who loves to work with young people to help them find their written and spoken voice. Sylvia is the mother of four and grandmother of seven. She lives in North Saanich near Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.sylviaolsen.ca.
Felix Opatowski Felix Opatowski was born in Lodz, Poland on June 15, 1924. He was liberated in Austria by the US army on May 9, 1945 and worked at a US army base where he married his wife, Regina, in 1947. Felix and Regina arrived in Toronto in 1949; they were married for 69 years. Regina passed away in 2016. Felix Opatowski lives in Toronto.
Orca Book Publishers Founded in 1984, Orca Book Publishers is an independently owned Canadian children's book publisher of award-winning, best-selling books in a number of genres. With over 800 titles in print and more than 80 new titles a year, Orca prides itself on publishing Canadian authors and bringing them to a wider market.
Leslie Owen
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Dave Paddon Born and raised in Northwest River, Labrador, Dave Paddon writes original recitations that offer a quirky take on life in Newfoundland and Labrador. A crowd favourite at storytelling events in St. John's, he performs at festivals and concerts throughout the province and on the mainland. Some of his numerous recitations have been published as letterpress-printed chapbooks and released on CD. Ralph, Flying Hound, published as a children's picture book, was one of the 2017 TD Summer Reading Club's Top Ten Recommended Reads. Dave lives St. John's and English Harbour, Newfoundland.
Erinne Paisley Erinne Paisley is an activist, public speaker, youth content developer, writer and student. She was awarded one of ten University of Toronto National Scholarships and is now studying International Relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto. She is also the author of the PopActivism series. For more information, visit www.popactivism.com. Follow her on Twitter @ErinneP and subscribe to her YouTube channel, Erinne Paisley.
Erna Paris Erna Paris is the author of seven acclaimed works of literary non-fiction and the winner of multiple awards for her books, feature writing, and radio documentaries. Her most recent work, The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice was first on The Globe and Mail's Best Book of the Year list and shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. She lives in Toronto, Ontario. Learn more at www.emaparis.com.
Lana Parker
David Parkins David Parkins has illustrated numerous children's books. He also does editorial illustrations, political cartoons, and strip cartoons. David lives in Lansdowne, Ontario. For more information, visit davidparkins.com.
Marnie Parsons Marnie Parsons is an editor, letterpress printer, and publisher. She was born and raised in Leamington, Ontario; she lives in Tors Cove, Newfoundland, where she runs a small print shop with a view of Fox Island and the sheep and goats who spend their summers there. On clear nights, she also has a great view of the stars.
Jacques Pasquet Passionate about memories, Jacques Pasquet is a writer and storyteller. Now that his busy career as a professor is behind him, he splits his time between writing and visiting schools. Jacques is the author of nearly twenty books for children in Québec and France. He lives in Montréal, Québec. For more information, visit www.jacquespasquet.com .
Kathy Paterson
Life Patrick4
Anne Patton Born in Ontario, Anne Patton taught elementary school for many years before retirement launched her into her career as a prolific children’s author. She has won numerous awards, including the Moonbeam Spirit Award and the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild John V. Hicks Unpublished Long Manuscript Award.
Manjusha Pawagi Manjusha Pawagi was a journalist, children's author and lawyer before being appointed a family court judge in 2009. Her children's book The Girl Who Hated Books is an international bestseller, translated into more than a dozen languages and made into an award-winning animated short by the National Film Board of Canada. She lives in Toronto with her husband Simon and children Jack and Anna.
Eveline Payette Eveline Payette studied theater, followed by childhood education. After a brief career in theater, she discovered the field of cultural mediation and now works in schools teaching acting to the young. She lives near Montreal with her family.
Mary Jennifer Payne Mary Jennifer Payne is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers' Summer Workshop in Creative Writing and a special-education teacher at Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto, Ontario. Her writing has been published in journals, anthologies and magazines in Canada and abroad. Since You've Been Gone, her first full-length young-adult novel, was published in 2015. For more information, visit www.maryjenniferpayne.typepad.com.
Shane Peacock

Shane Peacock is an award-winning novelist, playwright, journalist and television screenwriter. His bestselling series for young adults, The Boy Sherlock Holmes, has been published in ten countries in twelve languages and has found its way onto more than forty shortlists. For more information, visit www.shanepeacock.ca.
Jacqueline Pearce Jacqueline Pearce grew up on Vancouver Island. She has always been fascinated with local history and her first three novels are stories about Vancouver Island's past. Her interest in other countries and cultures, nature and animals also makes its way into her novels and short stories. Jacqueline has degrees in English literature and environmental studies. She currently lives in Burnaby, British Columbia, on the edge of a ravine with her husband, daughter, dog and two cats. For more information, visit www.jacquelinepearce.ca.
Kit Pearson Kit Pearson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and grew up there and in Vancouver, British Columbia. After attending the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia, Kit worked for ten years as a children's librarian in Ontario and BC. She became inspired to write for children after attending Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature. Her books have been published in several different countries and have won many awards, including the Governor General's Award and the BC Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with partner Katherine Farris and their two dogs, Piper and Brio. For more information, visit kitpearson.com.
Ninon Pelletier As a child, Ninon Pelletier wanted to become an astronaut in order to see the world differently. Instead, thanks to her great imagination, she became an illustrator. She studied photography and graphic design, and has illustrated over thirty children's books. She was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award in 2016. She lives in Montreal, Quebec, surrounded by her pencils, charcoals and friends. For more information, visit ninonpelletier.blogspot.com.
Mary Ann Penashue
Janet Perlman
Janet Perlman
Guillaume Perreault Guillaume Perreault is a graphic designer but now works mainly as a freelance illustrator and author. His techniques vary according to his projects, but balance, contrast and humor are present in all of his work. Guillaume lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
Sandra Perron Sandra Perron was Canada's first female infantry officer, and the first woman member of the Royal 22e Régiment, the legendary "Van Doos." She is now a senior partner with A New Dynamic Enterprise Inc., and founder and president of the Imagine Project, a non-profit organization mentoring an orphanage in Boma, Tanzania. She currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Learn more at www.sandraperron.com/home.html/a>.
Ulla Petersen
Lois Peterson Lois Peterson wrote short stories and articles for adults for twenty years before turning to writing for kids. She was born in England and has lived in Iraq, France and the United States. She now lives in Surrey, British Columbia, where she writes, reads and teaches creative writing to adults, teens and children.
Glen Petrie
Jérôme Peyrat A graduate of the HEAR art school in Strasbourg, France, Jérôme Peyrat uses a combination of techniques to create original and hybrid illustrations. He is the illustrator of numerous books, including Barry and Melvin, Carnivore, Cargo and Bertie & Twig. Jérôme lives in Cernay, France.
Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane is an Anishinaabe dancer, educator, writer, artist and orator from Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Her grandparents, maternal and paternal, come from Wiikwemkoong. Her parents are residential school survivors. Karen is a PhD candidate in Educational Policy Studies/Indigenous Peoples Education at the University of Alberta and is an Assistant Professor at Mount Royal University in the Treaty Seven region. She is cross-appointed to the Department of General Education, Of?ce of Teaching and Learning, and the Department of Humanities–Indigenous Studies. Karen lives in Calgary.
Elizabeth Phillips Elizabeth Phillips is a voice actor who has narrated for Orca's Secrets series.
Valérie Picard Valérie Picard is the artistic director at the Quebec publishing house Monsieur Ed. After obtaining a diploma in visual arts and a degree in anthropology, she fell in love with children's literature. She draws, reads, buys way too many books (ignoring the fact that she has no more space for them) and entertains herself with online Harry Potter questionnaires in order to discover in which house the Sorting Hat would place her. Valerie lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Marilyn Gear Pilling Marilyn Gear Pilling lives in Hamilton, Ontario, and has roots in Huron County. She is the author of two collections of short fiction and six of poetry. A finalist for the CBC literary awards and the Western Magazine Awards, she has won nine Hamilton and Region Arts Council awards for her poetry and short fiction.
Jeff Pinkney Jeff Pinkney likes to be out in his canoe or on his mountain bike on forest trails. He holds an English degree from Trent University, is a former newspaper columnist and currently works as a business advisor in Peterborough, Ontario. Jeff's Echoes, Soapstone Porcupine and Soapstone Signs, draw on Jeff's experiences while traveling as a development consultant in Canada's James Bay Frontier, where he acquired a deep appreciation for the culture and the landscape. Jeff is an emerging poet, writer and an amateur stone carver. He and his wife, Leslie, share a brood of three story-loving daughters. For more information, visit www.jeffpinkney.com.
Judith Plaxton
Jenn Playford
Monique Polak Monique Polak is the author of over 20 books for kids and young adults including the nonfiction book for teens, I Am a Feminist: Reclaiming the F-Word in Turbulent Times and the Quebec Writers Federation Literature Prize winner, What World is Left. Monique teaches English literature, creative writing and humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal.
Ruth Porter
Sherie Posesorski
Matthew Posner Matthew Posner is a voice actor who has narrated two titles from Orca's Seven series.
Keith Powell
Pierre Pratt Pierre Pratt studied graphic design at Ahuntsic College in Montreal. Since 1990, he has illustrated (and also written) close to fifty books for children. He has won several prizes, including the Governor General's Award of Canada three times, a Golden Apple and a Golden Plate in Bratislava, a Totem at the Montreuil Salon du Livre in France, a UNICEF Prize in Bologna, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, the Elizabeth Cleaver Prize, the Mr. Christie Book Award and the TD Children's Literature Award. In 2008, he represented Canada for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. For more information, visit www.pierrepratt.com.
Gabrielle Prendergast

Gabrielle Prendergast has written a number of books for young people, including Audacious, Capricious and Pandas on the Eastside. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband, daughter and varying numbers of chickens. For more information, visit www.angelhorn.com.
Jules Price Jules Price is a voice actor who has narrated for Orca's Secrets series.
Alice Priestley Alice Priestley has illustrated numerous books. She lives in Toronto with her husband and children.
Francois Prince
Kelly Pruner Kelly Pruner is a voice actor who has narrated for Orca's Secrets series.
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Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley was born at the northernmost edge of Baffin Island.
Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley Sean Qitsualik-Tnsley was born at the southernmost edge of Ontario.
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Barbara Radecki Barbara Radecki is a screenwriter and a film and television actress. The Darkhouse is her debut novel.
Elspeth Rae Elspeth Rae has a BEd from Simon Fraser University and is a certified Orton-Gillingham teacher for children with dyslexia and other language-learning difficulties. Elspeth was diagnosed with dyslexia at age eight and received Orton-Gillingham instruction during her school years. As a certified teacher, she works as a literacy specialist in the public school system, where she teaches reading, spelling and writing to children ages five to thirteen. She lives in Vancouver with her family.
Rowena Rae Rowena Rae worked as a biologist in Canada and New Zealand before becoming a freelance writer and editor and a children’s author. She is the author of Chemical World in the Orca Footprints series and co-author of Meg and Greg: Duck in a Sock. Rowena writes both fiction and nonfiction from her home in Victoria, British Columbia.
Falah Raheem Falah Raheem is a Canadian/Iraqi translator and writer. He has published the translation of about twenty books from English to Arabic. His first novel “The Parable of the Hedgehogs” was published in Arabic in 2012. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Ethel Raicus
Arushi Raina Arushi Raina grew up in South Africa. She now lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Bilaal Rajan Bilaal Rajan started fundraising at the age of four, when he sold clementines to raise money for the victims of an earthquake in India. Since then he has raised funds for children in Southeast Asia, Haiti and Africa. In March 2005, Bilaal became the UNICEF Canada Child Representative. He continues his fundraising efforts while attending school and traveling the world spreading his message of hope. Bilaal lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his parents.
Maya Rakitova Maya Rakitova was born in Smolensk, in the Soviet Union, on June 4, 1931. After the war, she attended school in Chernivtsi and Leningrad, graduating in 1954 from the Faculty of Radio and Television. In 1961, she and her husband moved to Warsaw, where she worked at the Radio and Television Project Bureau. Maya, her husband and their youngest daughter immigrated to Montreal in 1981. There, Maya worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for seventeen years. She and her husband live in Montreal.
Anuradha Rao Anuradha Rao is a conservation biologist, writer and facilitator born and raised in the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Mississauga Nations and currently based in unceded Coast Salish territories. She has worked on research, conservation, restoration, planning and stewardship projects with communities and organizations on the coasts of Canada and in 12 other countries. Her worldview and approach to science are heavily influenced by teachings from her Indian heritage and from Indigenous knowledge holders.
Bryan Ratushniak
Nicholas Read Nicholas Read is a retired journalist and journalism instructor who has written 10 books for children including two series about the Great Bear Rainforest with Ian McAllister. He lives in Vancouver.
Nicholas Read Nicholas Read is a retired journalist and journalism instructor who has written 10 books for children including two series about the Great Bear Rainforest with Ian McAllister. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with two rescued cats.
Nicholas Read Nicholas Read is a retired journalist and journalism instructor who has written 10 books for children including two series about the Great Bear Rainforest with Ian McAllister. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with two rescued cats.
Leslie Redhead Leslie Redhead is an artist, teacher, illustrator and author whose watercolor paintings have earned international awards and recognition. In addition to being a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society (NWWS), the Canadian Society for Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC) and the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA), Leslie holds a Master of Education in Art Education. She divides her time between Victoria, British Columbia, and Idaho, giving painting instruction at the University of Victoria and in workshops throughout Canada, the United States and Spain. For more information, visit leslieredheadart.blogspot.com.
PJ Reece
Kass Reich Kass Reich is an educator and artist who was born in Montreal, Quebec. She earned a degree in art education from Concordia University in 2010. Kass is currently living in Melbourne, Australia, where she is spending time working on new projects. For more information please visit www.kassreich.com.
Kass Reich
Donalda Reid
Janine Reid
M.E. Reid Born in Chatham, New Brunswick, M.E. Reid has lived in Cold Lake (Alberta), Edmonton (Alberta), Petawawa (Ontario) and West Germany. She currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario. She has published fiction for adults under the name Mary Fanjoy Reid. The Turing Machinists is her first work for young adults.
Henia Reinhartz Born in 1926 in Lodz, Poland, Henia Reinhartz endured the Nazi occupation in the Lodz ghetto and then survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Following the war, she lived briefly in Belgium and then moved to Paris where she graduated as a professionally trained Yiddish and Hebrew teacher and where she met her husband, Nochem. Henia immigrated to Canada in 1951 and initially lived in Montreal. She married Nochem in 1952 and soon after moved to Toronto. Henia and her husband have two children, Adele and Avrom.
Ruby Remenda Swanson Originally from Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Ruby Remenda Swanson is currently General Manager of the University of Alberta Devonian Botanic Garden. She was a freelance promotional writer with the Children's Television Workshop in New York City. She is a recipient of the University of Alberta Human Rights Education Recognition Award and was a director of PFLAG Edmonton. Ruby lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with her husband.
Frederic Remington
Anne Renaud Anne Renaud has a penchant for stories that have a historical slant. She has written several nonfiction books for nine-to-twelve-year-olds, on the topics of Pier 21, the Empress of Ireland, the Canadian Tulip Festival, Grosse Ile and the Nova Scotia giantess Anna Swan. Another outlet for her creativity is children's picture books, which Anne writes in both English and French. Anne's picture books include Mousseline vole au vent, Missuk's Snow Geese, Amande Lavande, Les pierres d'Emma and Mr. Crum's Potato Predicament. Anne is also a regular contributor to Australian and American children's magazines, including Orbit, Blast Off, Spider, Cricket and Highlights. Anne lives in Westmount, Quebec. For more information, visit www.annerenaud.net.
Andy Réti Andy Réti was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1942. He was liberated from the Budapest ghetto in January 1945. Andy has been a volunteer at Toronto’s Holocaust Education Centre since 1998, and joined his mother on many of her events as a survivor speaker. Since his mother’s passing, Andy has continued in her footsteps, telling their stories to numerous audiences.
Cindy Revell Cindy Revell's illustrations have been used on billboards and wine bottles, and in magazines and numerous children's books all over North America. She has worked with clients like Disney, Penguin Putnam, the L.A. Times and Scholastic. Her book Mallory and the Power Boy (Annick Press) was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award for children’s book illustration. She lives in Edmonton.
John Lawrence Reynolds John Lawrence Reynolds has had many works of fiction and nonfiction published. His work has earned several awards, including two Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Mystery Novel, a National Business Book Award, and a CBC Bookie Award. His bestselling book Shadow People, tracing the development and influence of secret societies through history, was published in fourteen countries and twelve languages. He is also the author of the Maxine Benson Mystery series. He lives in Burlington, Ontario, with his wife, Judy. For more information, visit www.wryter.ca.
Marilynn Reynolds Children's author Marilynn Reynolds was born in Sudbury, Ontario and grew up in Nipigon, Vancouver and Calgary. She worked as a reporter, book reviewer and editor before publishing her eight children's books with Orca Book Publishers.
Betty Rich Betty Rich was born Basia Kohn in Zdunska Wola, Poland on June 10, 1923, the second youngest in a family of seven children. She spent the war years in the Soviet Union and after the war lived in Lodz, Poland, where she married her husband, David Recht. They fled the Polish Communist regime in January 1949 and arrived in Toronto later that year. Betty and David had two children and four grandchildren. David became a real estate developer and after his untimely death in August 1971, Betty took over management of one of his buildings and continued to work in mortgages and investments until her retirement. Betty still lives on her own in Toronto.
Ian Richards
Katherine Richards Katherine Richards has a BA in creative writing from the University of Victoria. She is currently living abroad in the town of Bath, England, while she completes her MA. She trained in classical ballet at the International School of Ballet for fourteen years, dancing in productions such as The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides and Coppélia. Nova in New York is her first novel. For more information, visit katherinerichards.ca.
Linda L. Richards Linda L. Richards is a journalist and award-winning author. She is the founding editor of January Magazine, one of the Web's most respected voices about books. Linda divides her time between Vancouver, Phoenix and Paso Robles, California.
Nina Richmond Nina Richmond is a voice actor who has narrated for Orca's Secrets series.
Yolanda Ridge Yolanda Ridge lives in Burnaby, British Columbia, near an old-growth forest, where the trees are much too big for her to climb. Visit www.yolandaridge.com for more information.
Paul-Henri Rips Paul-Henri Rips was born in 1929, the son of a diamond merchant in Antwerp's famous diamond exchange. He was ten years old when the Nazis invaded Belgium in May 1940 and ended his golden childhood forever. After the war Paul-Henri Rips continued to live in Antwerp, where he worked in the diamond industry. He left in 1950 and moved to the Belgian Congo for ten years and then to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he met and married his wife, Lily, and their two children were born. In 1997, the couple immigrated to Toronto to join their children and grandchildren, where Paul-Henri lives with his wife.
Raquel Rivera The author of several books for children, Raquel Rivera has lived and worked in Washington, DC, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Barcelona and Toronto, Ontario (where she was born and raised). She now lives in Montréal, Québec, with her family. For more information, visit www.raquelriverawashere.com.
Karen Rivers

Karen Rivers is the author of fourteen novels, mostly for young adults. Her books have been nominated for a number of awards, including the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the Silver Birch Award. Karen lives, reads and writes in a yellow house near the beach in Victoria, British Columbia, and can almost always be found online at www.karenrivers.com..

Dr. Jillian Roberts Dr. Jillian Roberts is a renowned child psychologist, author, professor and parent. Considered a go-to child psychology expert for journalists, Dr. Roberts has had her work published in the New York Times and the Toronto Sun, is a regular contributor to HuffPost and Global News. Her bestselling Just Enough series of children's books was released in 2015 to international acclaim. In early 2017 Dr. Roberts co-founded FamilySparks to offer families a supportive, resource-rich community to help them navigate our increasingly complicated world. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Dr. Jillian Roberts Dr. Jillian Roberts is a renowned child psychologist, author, professor and parent. Considered a go-to child psychology expert for journalists, Dr. Roberts has had her work published in the New York Times and the Toronto Sun, is a regular contributor to HuffPost and Global News. Her bestselling Just Enough series of children's books was released in 2015 to international acclaim. In early 2017 Dr. Roberts co-founded FamilySparks to offer families a supportive, resource-rich community to help them navigate our increasingly complicated world. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
David A. Robertson David A. Robertson is an award-winning writer. His books include When We Were Alone (Governor General's Award winner, TD Canadian Children's Literature Award nominee), Will I See? (winner Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award, Graphic Novel category), and the YA novel Strangers. David educates as well as entertains through his writings about Canada's Indigenous Peoples, reflecting their cultures, histories and communities, as well as illuminating many contemporary issues. David is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
David A. Robertson David A. Robertson is a member of Norway House Cree Nation, and he lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Joanne Robertson Joanne Robertson is AnishinaabeKwe and a member of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek. She received her fine arts degree at Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig. She founded the Empty Glass for Water campaign to bring attention to the drinking-water crisis in Indigenous communities. She works as a research assistant at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre and continues to support the water walks. Joanne lives near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Gary Robinson Award-winning writer and filmmaker Gary Robinson (Choctaw/Cherokee) has participated in the production of dozens of Native American educational, informational and documentary television projects and has worked to create Native American content for most of his adult life. He is the author of sixteen books, including seven PathFinders teen novels. Gary lives in Santa Ynez, California. For more information, visit www. tribaleyeproductions.com.
Karen Robinson
Shantala Robinson
Nora Rock Nora Rock is a college professor and freelance writer. The author of a dozen textbooks for high school, community college and university, Nora specializes in writing about the law for non-lawyers like police officers, social workers and health-care professionals. She lives in Ajax, Ontario, with her husband and two sons.
Sabrine Rock
Sean Rodman Sean Rodman is the child of two anthropologists, who gave him a keen eye for observation and a bad case of wanderlust. His interest in writing for teenagers came out of working at schools around the world, including the Snowy Mountains of Australia, where he taught ancient history to future Olympic athletes. When not working on his own books, Sean works with The Story Studio, a charity that is dedicated to getting kids excited about writing. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit srodman.com.
Sally Roesch Wagner
Lori Jamison Rog
Trudee Romanek Trudee Romanek is the award-winning author of a dozen nonfiction books for young readers. Raising the Stakes is her first novel. Trudee lives with her family in Barrie, Ontario. For more information, visit www.trudeeromanek.com.
Ellen Rooney Ellen Rooney is a designer, artist and children's book illustrator. Her textural mixed media artwork combines many traditional art techniques, like pencil drawing, painting, printmaking and collage, often combined with digital techniques. Originally from Massachusetts, she now lives in the southern Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.
Frances Rooney
Simon Rose
Michael Rosen
Bev Katz Rosenbaum Bev Katz Rosenbaum is the author of several works of fiction. She has worked in-house as an editor for book publishers and magazines and has taught writing at the college level. Currently she juggles writing children's books with freelance editing. Bev lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, please visit bevkatz.com.
Margrit Rosenberg Stenge Margrit Rosenberg Stenge was born in Cologne, Germany, on December 27, 1928. In early 1943, she and her family reached safety in Alingsas, Sweden. Margrit moved back to Oslo in 1945, married in 1949 and immigrated to Canada, settling Montreal in 1951. Margrit worked in administration for forty years, after which she translated six books from Norwegian to English, including Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust by Moritz Nachstern (2008). Margrit and her husband, Stefan, live in Montreal.
Graham Ross A graduate of the illustration program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Graham Ross began his freelance illustration and graphic design career in Ottawa. A career that has spawned illustrations for such publishers as Orca Book Publishers, Scholastic Canada, and Meadowside Books of the United Kingdom, as well as numerous Canadian government agencies and private design firms. He lives in Merrickville, Ontario with a circus star family: his juggling wife, a helldriver daughter, a canine cannonball, and a fire breathing cat. For more information, visit www.kidwithacrayon.com.
Jeff Ross Jeff Ross is the author of several novels for young adults including several titles in the Orca Soundings and Orca Sports series. He teaches scriptwriting and English at Algonquin College in Ottawa.
Julian Ross
Steve Rotschild Steve Rotschild was born in Vilna, Lithuania in 1933. He immigrated to Israel with his mother and new step-father in 1949, and from there to Canada. He married Lillian Blumenfeld in Montreal in 1956 and they raised two daughters who have between them five children. Steve Rotschild now lives in Toronto.
Karen Rowe Karen Rowe is a voice actor who has narrated for Orca's Secrets series.
Eli Rubenstein Eli Rubenstein is the National Director of The March of the Living Canada. He is a religious leader at a Toronto synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors which sponsors Passover seders for the homeless, Holocaust education programs, and award-winning documentaries.
Judith Rubonstein Judith Rubinstein was born in Mezcsát, Hungary, in 1920. After surviving Auschwitz-Birkenau and being liberated by the Americans in May 1945 from a labour camp in Germany, Judith immigrated to Canada in 1948 with her husband, Bela Rubinstein. She had a son and a daughter and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Judith passed away in 2013.
Jeff Rud Jeff Rud was a print journalist in western Canada for twenty-eight years, twenty of them as a sports writer. He is currently executive director of communications and strategy in British Columbia's Office of the Representative for Children and Youth. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with his wife, Lana, and likes to coach high-school basketball in his spare time.
Richard Rudnicki Richard Rudnicki is an award-winning picture-book illustrator, an author and a painter. He is perhaps best known for his paintings, drawings and illustrations depicting scenes and stories from Canada's past. His plein air and studio paintings of regional landscapes are in many collections. He paints contemporary genre and historical scenes. Most of his picture books are about subjects from Canadian history. He conducts workshops in painting, drawing and illustration, gives illustrated talks and takes private students. He is resident artist with the Halifax Army Museum. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For more information, visit www.richardrudnicki.com.
Margariet Ruurs
Margriet Ruurs Margriet Ruurs is the author of many award-winning books for children. She enjoys speaking about reading and writing to students at schools around the world. Her adventures have taken her to such countries as Myanmar, Pakistan, Laos, Tanzania and many others. Margriet was born in the Netherlands but has been a Canadian for most of her life. She lives with her family on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. For more information, visit margrietruurs.com.
Darlene Ryan

Darlene Ryan has been writing for as long as she can remember and was the 2006 poet recipient of the Dr. Marilyn Trenholme Counsell Early Childhood Literacy Award. As Sofie Kelly, she writes the best-selling Magical Cats mysteries. She lives with her family in Fredericton, New Brunswick. For more information, visit www.darleneryan.com.
Tom Ryan Tom Ryan was born and raised in Inverness, Cape Breton. After high school, he studied English at Mount Allison University and then moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he studied film production. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his husband and their dog, Wheeler. For more information, visit www.tomryanauthor.com.
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Rachel Sa
Allan Safarik
Lori Saigeon
Danielle Saint-Onge Danielle Saint-Onge has a master's degree in social anthropology and is a crusader for equity in the classroom. She teaches in classrooms with students of diverse cultural backgrounds. Danielle is the co-author of Messy Miranda, X Marks the Spot and Something's Fishy all in the Orca Echoes line. Danielle lives in Kitchener, Ontario.
Martha Salcudean Dr. Martha Salcudean was born on February 26, 1934, in Chiochi?, Romania. After the war, she earned a bachelor's and post-graduate degrees in mechanical engineering. At Bucharest's Research Centre for Metallurgy, she spent twelve years working in the area of heat transfer and fluids. After much effort, Martha left communist Romania, and in 1976 she came to Canada. From 1976 to 1985 she was a professor at the University of Ottawa, and in 1985 was appointed head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, the first female to hold the position of engineering department head in Canada. Martha Salcudean has published extensively in the area of heat transfer and fluid flow, serves on numerous distinguished committees and advisory boards, and has received three honorary doctorates and a number of prestigious awards and honours in her field, including the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation (1993); the Engineering Institute of Canada’s Julian C. Smith Medal (1995); the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Award in Engineering (1998); the Order of British Columbia (1998); Officer of the Order of Canada (2004); and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). Martha Salcudean is professor emeritus at UBC and lives in Vancouver.
Medora Sale Mystery writer Caroline Medora Sale Roe is the author of fourteen novels. As Medora Sale, she has written six police procedurals, including Murder on the Run, winner of an Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel. Sale is a past president of both the international Sisters in Crime and the Crime Writers of Canada. She lives with her husband in Toronto.
Kitty Salsberg Kitty Salsberg and Ellen Foster were born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1932 and 1935, respectively. Orphaned after the war, Kitty and Ellen immigrated to Canada in 1948 through the Canadian Jewish Congress’s War Orphans Project. Kitty graduated from teachers’ college in 1954 and enjoyed a long and fulfilling career. Ellen moved to Los Angeles in 1952, where she raised a family.
Sampar Multitalented, self-taught illustrator and cartoonist Samuel Parent, better known by the pen name Sampar, possesses a lively imagination that draws viewers into worlds that are moving, wacky and sometimes even mythical. His career as an illustrator hit its stride at the humor magazine Safarir, earning him widespread acclaim in Quebec, the United States and Australia. Sampar lives in Victoriaville, Quebec.
Joseph M. Sánchez Joseph M. Sánchez is a leader in Indigenous and Chicano arts since the 1970s, Joseph has worked with hundreds of artists creating work, developing exhibitions, and advocating for the rights of minority artists, most importantly with the Professional Native Indian Artists (Native Group of Seven). A spiritual surrealist, Joseph's work is sensual and dreamlike, provocative and thought-inducing.
Dolores Sand
Heather Sander
Shelly Sanders

Shelly Sanders has worked as a freelance writer for almost twenty years. Rachel's Secret was inspired by Shelly's grandmother, a Russian Jew who fled to Shanghai to escape the ongoing pogroms.
Paulette Sarmonpal
B.L. Sauder
Kirk Savage
Muriel Sawyer
Juliana Saxton
Huck Scarry 'strong>Huck Scarry is the son of children’s authors Patricia Scarry and Richard Scarry. He has illustrated and written numerous children's books and since his father's passing in 1994 has created many new books featuring his father's charming animal characters. The commission to create illustrations for All About Anne was the "most challenging piece of work I have ever done." Huck worked on the spot in the Anne Frank House during several visits there, to get the illustrations as historically correct as possible, yet also engaging for young readers. He lives in Vienna, Austria.
Richard Scarsbrook Richard Scarsbrook’s short stories and poems have been published widely in literary journals, magazines and anthologies, and he has won a number of prizes and awards. Richard lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Vincent Schilling In addition to serving as the executive vice-president and co-owner of Schilling Media, Inc., a Native American media-relations corporation, Vincent Schilling is an enrolled member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe; an award-winning Native American author, producer and photojournalist; and a public speaker who has traveled throughout the United States and Canada.
Lawrence Schimel
René Schmidt Rene Schmidt always wanted to write books, but only got Cs in high school. He has traveled many countries and worked as a miner, taxi and truck driver, construction worker and ship's crew. He eventually entered university where he discovered the creative writing department. Now he is a father and teacher in Brighton, Ontario, encouraging boys to read and write. For more information about Rene, visit www.reneschmidt.ca .
Leyton Schnellert
Morris Schnitzer
Faye Schulman Faye Schulman lives near Toronto part of the year and in the United States the rest. A mother and grandmother who lectures extensively about her experiences during the war, she has been decorated by the Russian, American and Canadian governments. Her photographs are on view in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, as well as in exhibits throughout the world.
Betty Schultze
Ellen Schwartz Ellen Schwartz is the author of over fifteen books. In addition to writing books, she has published dozens of magazine articles and adult short stories, and her stories for children have been published in children's magazines and teaching anthologies. Ellen, whose background is in education, currently works as a corporate and curriculum writer and editor, and teaches creative writing classes at Simon Fraser University and Douglas College. Ellen has two daughters and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.ellenschwartz.net.
Julie Schwartz
Virginia Frances Schwartz
Magda (Miriam) Schwarz Magda (Miriam) Schwarz was born in 1918 in Gõdõllõ, Hungary. After surviving the war with her son, Adam, she moved to British Mandate Palestine in 1947, where she worked as a state comptroller, remarried and had a daughter, Nava. Miriam passed away in Israel in 1997.
Joseph Schwarzberg Joseph Schwarzberg was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1926. In September 1945, Joseph and his family were part of the second group of Jewish immigrants allowed to land in pre-state Israel. Joseph served as a sergeant in the Israeli army until his discharge in 1950. Joseph and his wife, Shulamit, immigrated to Toronto in 1968, where he established his own business, Adina J. Fashions, in the garment industry for twenty-five years. Joseph Schwarzberg lives in Toronto.
Alfred Scow Judge Alfred Scow, elder of the Kwakwa'wakw Nation, is a member of the Order of Canada. Now retired, Judge Scow and his wife live on Pender Island and in Vancouver.
Richard Scrimger

Richard Scrimger is the award-winning author of twenty books for children and adults, and has written for television and print media. His fiction has been translated into a dozen languages. The father of four children, Richard is used to being confused, misunderstood, and laughed at. For more information, visit www.scrimger.ca or follow him on Twitter @richardscrimger.
Lynn Scurfield Lynn Scurfield is a freelance illustrator from a quiet suburb outside of Toronto. She received her Bachelor of Illustration from Sheridan College in 2015 and has been drawing for a variety of clients ever since, including Macmillian Publishers and NPR. Her work has also been commissioned by publications such as the New York Times, The Walrus and Reader's Digest Canada.
Olive Senior Olive Senior is the prize-winning author of a dozen books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her short story collection Summer Lightning (Longman, 1986) won the inaugural Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book, and her poetry collection Over the Roofs of the World (Insomniac, 2005) was a finalist for the 2005 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. Born in Jamaica, she divides her time between Jamaica and Toronto, Ontario. Learn more at www.olivesenior.com.
Zuzana Sermer Zuzana Sermer was born in the small town of Humenné in what is now Slovakia. She and Arthur Sermer married in July 1945 and lived under a Communist regime in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia for the next twenty-three years. They raised four children there, but fled to Canada when the Soviets occupied the country in August 1968. Now a widow, Zuzana lives in Toronto, where she paints and enjoys life in Canada surrounded by her large extended family.
Loretta Seto Loretta Seto is a fiction writer, screenwriter and playwright. She has been published in Ricepaper magazine and the anthology Strike the Wok. Loretta completed her MFA in creative writing at UBC. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.lorettaseto.com.
Ken Setterington
Stan Shadick Stan Shadick is a lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Saskatchewan and an active advocate of recreational stargazing. He produced the award-winning Skywatcher’s Calendar series from 1996 to 2012.
Eva Shainblum Eva Steinberger was born in Nagyvárad, Hungary, in 1927. She immigrated to Canada in 1948, settling in Montreal, where she worked as a bookkeeper. Eva married Max Shainblum in 1959; they have two children. Eva Shainblum lives in Montreal.
Liane Shaw Liane Shaw was an educator for more than twenty-five years and has been a parent for over thirty. She has long been a passionate advocate for the rights of youth facing a variety of physical, emotional and academic challenges. All six of her YA novels, along with her teaching memoir, present a diverse array of stories based on young people she has had the honor to know both at home and in the classroom. Liane lives in the Ottawa Valley. For more information, visit www.lianeshaw.ca.
Emil Sher
Gisela Tobien Sherman Gisela Sherman is an actor and a writer. She has written several children’s books, including Grave Danger and King of the Class, and is a contributor to the Globe and Mail and other newspapers.
Valerie Sherrard
Carol Shields Carol Shields was an American-born Canadian author. Her 1993 novel, The Stone Diaries, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in the United States and the Governor General's Award in Canada, among others. Her next book, Larry's Party, won the Orange Prize and Le Prix de Lire. Her last novel, Unless, was published in 2002, before Carol's death in July 2003. Shields wrote her master's thesis on Susanna Moodie, and it was her first published work.
Sima Elizabeth Shifrin
Elizabeth J. Shilton Elizabeth Shilton has recently retired from one of Canada's leading labour and employment law firms, where she was a litigator and managing partner for a number of years. She has now returned to law school to pursue doctoral studies in pension policy. She is a member of the Ontario Financial Services Tribunal and lives in Toronto.
Jocelyn Shipley Jocelyn Shipley is an award-winning writer who has written several books for teens, including Raw Talent, Impossible and Shatterproof. A graduate from York University, Jocelyn has studied writing at St. Lawrence College and the Humber School for Writers. She lives in Toronto and on Vancouver Island.
Kathryn E. Shoemaker Kathryn E. Shoemaker is the illustrator of many books for children, among them A Telling Time, My Animal Friends and Floyd the Flamingo and his flock of friends for Tradewind Books. She teaches children’s illustration at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Nancy Shouse
Adam Shtibel
Rachel Shtibel Rachel Milbauer was born in 1935 in Eastern Galicia and Adam Shtibel was born in 1928 in Komarów, Poland. After liberation, Adam joined the Polish air force. With the situation for Jews in Poland worsening in the mid-1950s, the Shtibels moved to Israel, where Adam worked in the aircraft industry and Rachel obtained an MA in microbiology from Tel Aviv University and worked as a senior scientist in bacteriology. In 1968, Rachel and Adam moved to Toronto with their two daughters and continued their successful careers in their respective fields. They live in Toronto and have five granddaughters.
Melanie Siebert Melanie Siebert is a youth and family counsellor in Victoria, British Columbia. She works with people to transform depression, anxiety, trauma and inner conflict into meaning, purpose and hope. She also specializes in suicide intervention and prevention. Melanie has a Master of Social Work and a Master of Fine Arts. Her first poetry collection, Deepwater Vee (McClelland & Stewart), was a finalist for Canada's Governor General's Literary Award in 2010.
Alisa Siegel
Mary Siemens
Kim Sigafus Kim Sigafus is an award-winning Ojibwa writer and Illinois Humanities Road Scholars speaker. She has coauthored two award-winning 7th Generation books in the Native Trailblazers series of biographies: Native Writers: Voices of Power and Native Elders: Sharing Their Wisdom. Her fiction work includes The Mida, an eight-volume series about a mystically powerful time-traveling carnival owned by an Ojibwa woman. Kim resides with her husband in Freeport, Illinois. For more information, visit www.kimberlysigafus.com.
Sarah Silberstein Swartz Sarah Swartz was editor-in-chief of Jewish Women in America: An Historic Encyclopedia. Her other books include Found Treasures and Bar Mitzvah. Born in Germany and raised in the United States, she lives in Toronto where she works as a freelance editor and writer.
Judith Silverthorne Judith Silverthorne is the author of eight children’s novels, including The Secret of Sentinel Rock and books in the Dinosaur Adventure series, both published by Coteau Books. She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan. For more information, visit www.judithsilverthorne.ca.
Danielle Simard
Richard Simas Richard Simas is a free-lance writer with a background in literature, music, and the performing arts. His publications appear in contemporary art and literary reviews in Europe and North America, with awards from the Journey Prize anthology, the Fiddlehead Review Fiction competition, and a Camðes Institute prize in Lisbon.

In Montreal, Simas founded Théâtre La Chapelle, an interdisciplinary performing venue dedicated to multidisciplinary experimentation. He currently performs with Valody, a nine-member street band.
Karen Simon
Suzanne Simoni
Joseph Simons Joseph Simons lives happily with his wife, Karen, and their little white dog in Little Italy, Edmonton. Joseph works as a teacher's assistant with special needs kids in a junior high school. He does many school visits with his book to read to and workshop with students.
Caroll Simpson Caroll Simpson is the author and illustrator of Coastal Spirit Tales, an acclaimed series of children's picture books that celebrates and takes inspiration from the art, mythology and environment of the Pacific Northwest, as well as board books for younger children, including Creatures of the Land and Sky and Creatures of the Sea. Caroll is also an educator who taught Indigenous art and drama to elementary schoolchildren for over twenty years. She lives in Granisle, British Columbia.
Michelle Simpson
Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter's/Little Peguis) and an associate professor at the University of Manitoba.
Rina Singh Rina Singh has published several critically acclaimed books for children inspired by her Indian Canadian heritage, including Diwali Lights, Holi Colors and Diwali: A Festival of Lights, which was nominated for the Red Cedar Award. Rina lives in Toronto.
Crystal Sissons Crystal Sissons is an independent historian and works at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. She completed her Master's and Ph.D. in history at the University of Ottawa, after finishing undergraduate degrees in history and education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Crystal is also active in a number of organizations, including the Business and Professional Women's Club of Ottawa within BPW Canada.
Pat Skene Pat Skene lives in Cobourg, Ontario where she writes a syndicated newspaper story page for children. She is also the author of award-winning picture book, The Whoosh of Gadoosh, Illumination Arts, Bellevue WA 2002. Pat is a member of CANSCAIP and The Writer's Union of Canada. For more information, visit www.boomerrantz.wordpress.com or email her at pat.skene@sympatico.ca.
David Skulski
David Skuy David Skuy is the author of award-winning books for young readers. His books focus on the issues young people face, and he often uses sports as the vehicle to tell their stories. His work includes the Rocket Blues and Undergrounders series of hockey-themed novels, and the Striker series, which focuses on soccer. Skuy lives in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, visit www.davidskuy.com.
Linda Sky Grossman
Arthur Slade Arthur Slade is a Governor General's Award-winning author of many novels for young readers. Raised on a ranch in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Arthur now makes his home in Saskatoon. For more information, visit arthurslade.com.
Ruby Slipperjack
Maxwell Smart Maxwell Smart was born in 1930. After surviving the Holocaust on his own, he immigrated to Canada in 1948 through the War Orphans Project. Maxwell lives in Montreal, where he has become a successful painter, opening his own art gallery in 2006.
Emilie Smith
Heather Smith Originally from Newfoundland, Heather Smith now lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with her family. Her Newfoundland roots inspire much of her writing. Her middle-grade novel Ebb and Flow was short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award, and her YA novel The Agony of Bun O'Keefe won the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award and was short-listed for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. For more information, visit heathertsmith.com.
Linda Smith Linda Smith loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books when she was growing up on the prairies, and regularly pretended that she was a pioneer. Linda's published titles include Windshifter, Sea Change, The Turning Time, Sir Cassie to the Rescue, The Minstrel's Daughter, Talisa's Song, The Weathermage, Kelly's Cabin, and The Broken Thread.
Lori Joy Smith Lori Joy Smith is an artist and illustrator with many picture books to her credit. She's also illustrated for magazines, including Chirp, and for beloved children's entertainers Bobs & Lolo. She currently lives in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, with her family. For more information, visit www.lorijoysmith.com.
Mark David Smith Mark David Smith is an English teacher from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where he lives with his wife and children. Caravaggio: Signed in Blood is his first published novel.
Gloria Snively Gloria Snively is a professor emeritus of science, environmental, and marine education in the Faculty of Education, University of Victoria, and a former classroom teacher of primary and junior secondary grades. She is a founding member of the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators, and the author of Explore the Wild Coast with Sam and Crystal and the classic bestselling field guide Exploring the Seashore in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, now in its eleventh printing. She lives in Sooke, British Columbia.
Ken Sobol Ken Sobol moved with his wife Julie and their three children from the United States to Canada in 1973, where Ken continued his Emmy-winning tv writing career. Ken authored several children's books, and Julie and Ken began writing together in the 1980s, publishing two books together about Lake Erie. Ken and Julie collaborated on their last project until Ken died in 2010.
Gerta Solan Gerta Solan was born in Prague in 1929. After liberation, she made her way back to Prague where she met and married Paul Seidner (Solan). They lived in Prague until the Soviet invasion in 1968. In Canada, she worked for the Red Cross in Toronto, tracing and uniting families after disasters, until her retirement in 1995. Gerta still lives in Toronto.
Claudia Souza
Karen Spafford-Fitz Karen Spafford-Fitz is the author of several novels for young people, including Vanish and Dog Walker in the Orca Currents series. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta. For more information, visit www.karenspafford-fitz.com.
Andrea Spalding Andrea Spalding immigrated to Canada in 1967 from Manchester, England. After living in Alberta for 24 years, Andrea relocated to British Columbia and lived on Pender Island. Her first children's book, The Most Beautiful Kite in the World, was selected as a Canadian Children's Book Center's "Our Choice." She has garnered awards and nominations ever since. For more information, visist www.andreaspalding.squarespace.com.
Star Spider Star Spider's stories and poetry often explore mental health and LGBTQ themes. She is the author of Past Tense (HarperCollins) and Hey Jude in the Orca Soundings line. She lives in Toronto.
Trudy Spiller
Tasha Spillett-Sumner Tasha Spillett draws her strength from both her Nehiyaw and Trinidadian bloodlines. She is a celebrated educator, poet, and emerging scholar. Tasha is most heart-tied to contributing to community-led work that centres on land and water defence, and the protection of Indigenous women and girls. Tasha is currently working on her PhD in Education through the University of Saskatchewan, where she holds a Vanier Canada Award.
Ashley Spires Ashley Spires is the creator of the award-winning Binky the Space Cat series and has authored and illustrated many picturebooks. Her dog, Gordon, is very pleased that she finally illustrated a book without a cat in it. She lives in Ladner, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.ashleyspires.com.
Amanda Spottiswoode Born and raised in England, Amanda Spottiswoode was taught to sail as a child by the Royal Navy on the River Thames. After immigrating to Canada and ultimately settling on Salt Spring Island, she realized her childhood dream of exploring a rugged coastline by boat. Her yearly voyages on the thirty-four-foot wooden sloop South Islander were the inspiration for her first children's book, Brother XII's Treasure. Its sequel, The Silver Lining, was inspired by her lifelong love of horses and keen interest in ranching history. Amanda lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
Debbie Spring
Mike Spring Mike Spring is a voice actor who has narrated two titles from Orca's Seven series.
Dawn Sprung Dawn Sprung has a lifelong passion for storytelling and the outdoors. She lives on a ranch in southern Alberta, where the land and wildlife at her doorstep constantly inspire her.
Barbara Spurll Barbara Spurll is a professional illustrator from Toronto, Ontario. Visit her website at www.barbaraspurll.com.
Gerald Squires Gerald Squires was known for his dramatic Newfoundland landscapes in oil and acrylic, and for his portraits and surrealistic paintings. During his lifetime, he received many honors for his work, including an honorary doctorate from Memorial University, election into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Award, and an appointment to the Order of Canada. Several of his works have been deemed "national treasures" and collected through the Certified Canadian Cultural Properties Act. Squires died in 2015 at the age of 77.
Trina St. Jean

Trina St. Jean grew up in northern Alberta but later moved to pursue degrees in psychology and education. She also has an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College. She now lives in Calgary where she teaches ESL and enjoys strategically evading grizzlies in the nearby Rockies with her husband and two daughters. Blank is Trina’s first novel.Visit www.trinastjean for more information.
Anthony St. Pierre
Ted Staunton

Ted Staunton divides his time between writing and a busy schedule as a speaker, workshop leader, storyteller and musical performer for children and adults. Ted lives in Port Hope, Ontario. For more information, visit www.tedstauntonbooks.com.
Adrianna Steele-Card
Tania Duprey Stehlik
Christopher Steininger Christopher Steininger has done storyboards for numerous shows and video games, including Marvel's Avengers Assemble and Spec Ops: The Line. He's also created concept art for a variety of projects, such as Warhammer 40K and Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast. He is the illustrator of In Search of Hannibal, a historically accurate retelling of Hannibal's epic battle against Rome, and the creator of the Dead Heaven fantasy series. He lives in Inglewood, Ontario. For more information, visit www.christophersteininger.com.
Caroline Stellings Caroline Stellings is an award-winning artist, author and children's book illustrator. Her book The Contest, part of the Gutsy Girl series, won the 2009 ForeWord Book of the Year Award. Besides her many books for children and young adults, including the Nicki Haddon Mystery series, she is also the writer of The Nancy Drew Crookbook, a long-running series in The Sleuth magazine.
R. David Stephens
Alex Stephenson
George Stern George Stern was born on April 21, 1931 in the Budapest suburb of Újpest. After the war, he immigrated to Israel and fought in the War of Independence. George and his wife, Judit, left Israel for São Paulo, Brazil with their two children in 1960, where they lived until they immigrated to Canada in 1969. George is very active in Holocaust education both in Toronto, where he and his wife still live, and in Florida.
Willie Sterner Willie Sterner was born in Wolbrom, Poland on September 15, 1919. The eldest of seven children, he was the only one to survive the Holocaust. Throughout the war Willie worked in his trade as a painter in various labour and concentration camps, including one year when he worked for the celebrated Oskar Schindler. After the war, Willie Sterner lived in Displaced Persons camps in Austria, first in Wels, where he became chief of the Jewish police and courted his wife, Eva, and then in Linz-Bindermichl. They immigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Montreal, where their two sons were born. Willie and Eva Sterner live in Montreal.
Robin Stevenson Robin Stevenson is the author of more than twenty-five books for kids and teens, including The Summer We Saved the Bees and Pride Colors. The first edition of her nonfiction book Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community (2016) won a Stonewall Honor and was shortlisted for numerous other awards. Robin lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
H.E. Stewart H.E. Stewart is an artist and the author and illustrator of many award-winning books for both children and adults. She is a passionate gardener with a lifelong interest in nature. H.E. lives in Victoria, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.hestewart.com.
Michael F. Stewart Michael F. Stewart is an award-winning author of many books for young people in various genres, including Ray Vs. the Meaning of Life and Heart Sister (Orca Book Publishers). Michael lives in Ottawa.<
Sarah Stewart Sarah Stewart is a physiotherapist who lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Shannon Stewart Shannon Stewart teaches in a francophone school in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she has had the opportunity to meet and learn from students all over the world. She is the author of Sea Crow (Orca, 2004), Alphabad: An Alphabet Book for Wicked Children! (Key Porter Books, 2005) and Captain Jake (Orca, 2008). She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia.
Kathy Stinson
Tiffany Stone
Jen Storm Jennifer Storm is an Ojibway writer from the Couchiching First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jennifer completed Deadly Loyalties, her first novel, at age fourteen. In 2006, Jennifer received the Manitoba Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award as well as the Helen Betty Osborne Award.
Jen Storm Jen Storm is an Ojibway writer and artist from Couchiching First Nation in northwestern Ontario.
Jon C. Stott Jon C. Stott is a former professor of English at the University of Alberta, where he authored several publications on the study of children’s literature. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Amanda Strong Amanda Strong is a Michif, Indigenous filmmaker, media artist, and stop motion director currently based out of the unceded Coast Salish territory also known as Vancouver, British Columbia.
Chris Struyk-Bonn Chris Struyk-Bonn is currently a high school English teacher in Portland, Oregon, and has at last found a job she thoroughly enjoys. Whisper is her first book. For more information, visit www.chrisstruykbonn.com.
Joan Betty Stuchner Joan Betty Stuchner loved stories. When she wasn’t writing, she worked in a library, taught part-time and acted in community theater. Sadly, Joan lost her battle with cancer on June 7, 2014, but her stories will continue to bring joy to readers for years to come.
Mary Rose Sundberg