Monique Gray Smithis an award-winning, bestselling author and public speaker. Her books cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics and emotions. Woven into all of Monique's writing and her speaking engagements is the teaching that Love is Medicine. Her books include Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation, My Heart Fills With Happiness, You Hold Me Up, Lucy and Lola, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, Tilly and the Crazy Eights, When We Are Kind and I Hope. She has also created the young adult adaptation of Braiding Sweetgrassby Robin Wall Kimmerer. Monique is Cree and Scottish. She lives with her family on the Traditional Territories of the Lkon and WSÁNEc Peoples. Julie Flettis a Swampy Cree and Red River Métis artist and author.

She studied fine arts at Concordia University in Montreal and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. She won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature for her work onWhen We Were Aloneby David Robertson, and her book Birdsongwon the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. She is the three-time recipient of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Award for Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet, Dolphin SOSand My Heart Fills With Happiness.