Marty Chan is an award-winning author of dozens of books for kids and plays for adults. 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.

Michael Hutchinson is a former professional cyclist.

He has won multiple national titles in both Britain and Ireland, and represented both countries internationally, as well as Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games of 2002, 2006 and 2010.

He is the principal columnist for Cycling Weekly and a regular broadcaster on the sport.

Chad Lucas has been in love with words since he attempted his first novel on a typewriter in the sixth grade. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist. A proud descendant of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, he lives with his family near Halifax, Nova Scotia. He enjoys coaching basketball and is rarely far from a cup of tea.

Mahtab, in Persian, means moonlight. She was born in Bombay and immigrated to Canada in 1997. Her debut novel in the Tara Trilogy, The Third Eye (Dundurn, 2007), won the Silver Birch Fiction Award in 2009.

The Tiffin (DCB, 2011), a middle-grade novel based loosely on the dabbawallas, has received critical acclaim, was shortlisted for many awards, and named one of the five best books for Young People in 2011 by the Quill & Quire. It has been published in the UK, China and Taiwan.

Her most recent novel, Mission Mumbai, will be published by Scholastic US and Canada in Spring 2016. Mahtab lives in Toronto with her husband, son, and golden retriever. She continues to write, inspired by life, love and the desire to make sense of the world through stories.

Danny Ramadan is an award-winning Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, storyteller and an LGBTQ-refugee activist. His debut novel The Clothesline Swing won the Independent Publisher Book Award for Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Fiction, was shortlisted for the Evergreen Award and the Sunburst Award and was named as a finalist for the Gay Fiction Category in the Lambda Awards.

He is also the author of a children's picture book, Salma the Syrian Chef. Danny also translated Rafi Badawi's 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think and has published two collections of short stories in Arabic. He was awarded the StandOut Award for his social activism, the 2018 RBC's Top Immigrant in Canada award, and the Bonham Centre Award for Excellency. He lives in Vancouver with his husband.

Liselle Sambury is the Trinidadian Canadian author of the Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalist Blood Like Magic. Her work spans multiple genres, from fantasy to sci-fi, horror, and more.

In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the sometimes complicated business of being an author.