Geneviève Jannelle is an author and creative director based in Montreal. She holds a creative writing degree from the Université de Québec à Montreal and has won the Radio-Canada Short Story Award.
Anita Yasuda
Anita Yasuda is an award-winning Canadian writer of South Asian descent. She was born and raised in the rolling hills of southern Ontario. From a young age, Anita was passionate about writing and often found herself with a pencil in her hand, crafting stories. When she wasn’t recruiting friends to act out her tales, she was studying various forms of dance, watching Bollywood movies and dreaming of the stage.#|When she grew up, Anita attended high school in Japan and fondly remembers learning Nihon buyo (Japanese classical dance). She later earned a degree in East Asian and South Asian studies at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College. Of course, her favorite course was on the art of storytelling. Since then, she has worked as a firefighter (for one day), a yoga instructor for children and a Montessori teacher, before transitioning to writing full-time.|Anita still loves sharing stories with everyone she meets. When she is not writing in her garden studio, she enjoys hiking in provincial parks, exploring the Bruce Trail and playing with her dog, Lenny.
Naseem Hrab
Naseem Hrab is the award-winning author of many stories for children, including Otis & Peanut, How to Party Like a Snail, Weekend Dad, which was a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist, and The Sour Cherry Tree, which won a Governor General’s Literary Award. Her work has been translated into several languages, including Turkish, Swedish, Italian, Spanish and Catalan, and has been praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the CBC, NPR, Bank Street College and more. She worked as a librarian for a time and currently works in children’s publishing. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Heather Beaumont
Heather Beaumont emigrated from England at seven years old with her parents and big sister. She spent her childhood exploring in the woods, riding her bike, making weekly visits to the library and directing and acting out stories with friends. Her love of words and stories led to careers in magazine journalism and communications and marketing. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Naomi McIlwraith
Naomi McIlwraith is dedicated to bringing Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous people together to wrestle with the truth of Canada’s colonial origins and to leave a better story for our descendants to tell about how we are healing a broken relationship. A Métis educator, poet and essayist, Naomi gratefully uses her education to build a more peaceful world. She lives in amiskwacî-wâskahikan, Plains Cree for Beaver Hills House, also known as Edmonton, Alberta.