Who's Touring

Tziporah Cohen was born and raised in New York, then spent eighteen years in Boston before landing in Toronto, where she lives with her husband, three kids, two cats, and one dog. She studied French and Theater Arts at Cornell University and went on to get an MD from Harvard Medical School. Twenty years later, she graduated with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Tziporah now splits her time between working as a psychiatrist in oncology/palliative care and writing, interspersed with mom duties, indoor rock climbing and dog walking. 

Peggy Collins is an award-winning Author and/or illustrator of over 35 books (and other media) for young people. One of her recent books, Harley the Hero was the Forest of Reading Blue Spruce winner for 2022. A Sky-Blue Bench – written by Bahram Rahman – and she illustrated was an ALA Youth Media – Schneider Family Honour Book. Peggy is a college art and animation professor and has worked as the visiting artist in residence for the Limestone District School Board. She loves presenting and has both in-person and virtually all over the country. 

Edmonton children’s writer and storyteller Kathy Jessup has been entertaining audiences since she first learned to talk. Over the years she’s performed her original stories and world folktales in schools, libraries, concerts and festivals across Canada and internationally. Kathy’s stories and articles have appeared in various publications including the children’s magazine chickaDEE, and the Alberta Centennial anthology Under the Wide Blue Sky: Alberta Stories to Read and Tell published by Red Deer Press. Kathy’s CD LISTEN UP: Tellable Tales for Hungry Ears features a selection of her original stories for families, and is recommended by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre as a top choice. 

Sarena Nanua and Sasha Nanua are twin sisters living in Ontario. Born on Diwali ten minutes apart from each other, they grew up loving stories about twins and magic, and began writing books together when they were nine years old. They are graduates of the English and Professional Writing programs at the University of Toronto and are also the authors of The Pendant Trilogy.  

Jeni Chen is a children’s book author and illustrator with experience in creating public art installations and leading community engaged workshops.

Sara de Waard is an author and screenwriter of Métis descent and is currently in the process of exploring her family’s heritage. She is an elementary school teacher and freelance social media manager with a love for film and a soft spot for rap and hip-hop music thanks to her two teenagers. Her writing is often inspired by her compassion for the trials and tribulations of today’s youth. After completing her BA in Radio and Television from Toronto Metropolitan University and a stint in London, ON, de Waard returned near her hometown of Port Colborne, ON where she currently lives with her kids.

As a children’s author, Kathy Kacer is dedicated to writing about the Holocaust in a way that is sensitive to the age and stage of development of a young reader. Kathy was born in Toronto and has lived there all her life. She has a Master’s degree in Psychology and worked for many years with troubled teens and their families.  She stopped working full time in 1995 to pursue her dream of becoming a children’s author.  That dream came true with the publication of her first book, The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, in 1999. She has been writing ever since.

Linda Trinh is a Vietnamese Canadian author who writes fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. She explores identity, cultural background, and spirituality. Her debut early chapter book series about Vietnamese Canadian siblings, The Nguyen Kids, published with Annick Press, will be released in October 2022. Her work has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines such as The Fiddlehead, Room, This Magazine, The Nasiona, and Prairie Fire. She has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards. 

Shauntay Grant is a poet, playwright, multimedia artist, and the author of several books for children including My Fade Is Fresh (Penguin, 2022) which has garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist. An associate professor of creative writing at Dalhousie University and former poet laureate for the City of Halifax, Shauntay “creates artworks that are engaging and accessible, but also challenging, rigorous, and informed by deep research (The Royal Society of Canada).”

Edward Kay was a staff writer and producer on the hit political satire series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, during its four most successful seasons and was a contributor to Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans. Since then, he has gone on to create three hit television series for kids, including Jimmy Two Shoes (Teletoon, Disney) and the comedy inflected science series, Finding Stuff Out (TVO). He is the author of three middle grade novels as well as four non-fiction science books for kids, including the Gross Science series, and, as co-author, Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge (to be released in May 2023).

Lydia Lukidis is the author of 50+ trade and educational books for children. Her titles include Deep, Deep, Down: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench (Capstone, 2023), The Broken Bees’ Nest (Kane Press, 2019) which was nominated for a Cybils Award, and No Bears Allowed (Clear Fork Media, 2019). A science enthusiast from a young age, she now incorporates her studies in science and her everlasting curiosity into her books. Lydia is very involved in the kidlit community. She volunteers as a judge on Rate your Story, co-hosts the annual Fall Writing Frenzy competition, and is an active member of SCBWI, CANSCAIP, 12 x 12, and The Authors Guild.

Carol Matas is an internationally acclaimed author of over forty-five novels for young people. Her best-selling work has been translated into sixteen languages and has received over 100 awards and honors. She is well known for her books concerning the Holocaust, writing Daniel’s Story at the request of The United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. which has sold over a million copies in Canada and the U.S. She just published her first picture book.

Dustin Archibald is a devout author, editor, storyteller, and technology evangelist. He believe stories and technology change and shape our worlds in unimaginable ways. From comic books to novels to non-fiction books he believes reading is one of the best ways of discovering the world.

Edward Kay was a staff writer and producer on the hit political satire series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, during its four most successful seasons and was a contributor to Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans. Since then, he has gone on to create three hit television series for kids, including Jimmy Two Shoes (Teletoon, Disney) and the comedy inflected science series, Finding Stuff Out (TVO). He is the author of three middle grade novels as well as four non-fiction science books for kids, including the Gross Science series, and, as co-author, Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge (to be released in May 2023).

Emil Sher’s wide-ranging works for the stage, screen and children have been honoured at home and internationally and translated into French, Italian, Hebrew, Slovak, Russian, Japanese and Turkish. Young Man with Camera, Emil’s debut young adult novel, was a 2015 Governor General’s Award finalist. His picture books include Away and Mittens to Share.

Farida Zaman is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist and writer, who is well known for her whimsical, uplifting designs of flowers, plants, and a wide breadth of subject matter in watercolour, gouache, acrylics and digital art. She has illustrated over 16 picture books, including My First Book of Hindi Words, Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes!, and The Yoga Game, and is author-illustrator of I Want To Be… A Gutsy Girls’ ABC, with more books coming soon. She is currently working on 2 picture books as the author and Illustrator with Owl books and Orca Publishing, for 2023 and 2024 Born in Bangladesh, and having called many different countries home, including the UK, the US, and Canada, Farida describes herself as a global citizen, with a flair for illustrating stories related to different cultures, travel, history, and diverse lived experiences.

Joan Marie Galat was first published at the age of 12, when she became a weekly newspaper columnist. Today she is the award-winning author of more than 25 books with titles in eight languages. Her newest book—Mortimer: Rat Race to Space (DCB)—tells the story of a journal-keeping lab rat on the International Space Station. Other titles include Solve This! Wild and Wacky Challenges for the Genius Engineer in You (National Geographic Kids) and the Dot to Dot in the Sky series (Whitecap Books). Her title—Stories of the Aurora—won the Crystal Kite Award in Canada. Also a freelance writer and editor, Joan enjoys broadcast, print, and multi-media projects. 

Dustin Archibald is a devout author, editor, storyteller, and technology evangelist. He believe stories and technology change and shape our worlds in unimaginable ways. From comic books to novels to non-fiction books he believes reading is one of the best ways of discovering the world.

Marty Chan writes books for kids, plays for adults, and tweets for fun. He wrote the bestselling book, Haunted Hospital. This Orca novel for reluctant readers has gone into second printing and is being translated to French. He’s a community builder who has taught workshops across Canada and presented over 1,000 virtual sessions during the pandemic. His latest novel is Final Cut. Marty works and lives in Edmonton with his wife Michelle and their two brand-new kitties.

Joshua Goudie’s first book, Jack and the Hurricane (Breakwater Books), was published in October 2014 with its sequel, Jack and the Magnificent Ugly Stick (Breakwater Books), following in October 2016. A collection of children’s narrative poetry, Where the Crooked Lighthouse Shines (Breakwater Books) was released in September 2022. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, and he has been shortlisted for the Cuffer Prize for Short Fiction on three separate occasions. In 2013, his novel manuscript, The Last Portrait, was shortlisted for the Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union Fresh Fish Award, going on to be awarded the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Percy Janes First Novel Award in 2021.

Lydia Lukidis is the author of 50+ trade and educational books for children. Her titles include Deep, Deep, Down: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench (Capstone, 2023), The Broken Bees’ Nest (Kane Press, 2019) which was nominated for a Cybils Award, and No Bears Allowed (Clear Fork Media, 2019). A science enthusiast from a young age, she now incorporates her studies in science and her everlasting curiosity into her books. Lydia is very involved in the kidlit community. She volunteers as a judge on Rate your Story, co-hosts the annual Fall Writing Frenzy competition, and is an active member of SCBWI, CANSCAIP, 12 x 12, and The Authors Guild.

Sara de Waard is an author and screenwriter of Métis descent and is currently in the process of exploring her family’s heritage. She is an elementary school teacher and freelance social media manager with a love for film and a soft spot for rap and hip-hop music thanks to her two teenagers. Her writing is often inspired by her compassion for the trials and tribulations of today’s youth. After completing her BA in Radio and Television from Toronto Metropolitan University and a stint in London, ON, de Waard returned near her hometown of Port Colborne, ON where she currently lives with her kids.

Edward Kay was a staff writer and producer on the hit political satire series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, during its four most successful seasons and was a contributor to Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans. Since then, he has gone on to create three hit television series for kids, including Jimmy Two Shoes (Teletoon, Disney) and the comedy inflected science series, Finding Stuff Out (TVO). He is the author of three middle grade novels as well as four non-fiction science books for kids, including the Gross Science series, and, as co-author, Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge (to be released in May 2023).

Farida Zaman is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist and writer, who is well known for her whimsical, uplifting designs of flowers, plants, and a wide breadth of subject matter in watercolour, gouache, acrylics and digital art. She has illustrated over 16 picture books, including My First Book of Hindi Words, Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes!, and The Yoga Game, and is author-illustrator of I Want To Be… A Gutsy Girls’ ABC, with more books coming soon. She is currently working on 2 picture books as the author and Illustrator with Owl books and Orca Publishing, for 2023 and 2024 Born in Bangladesh, and having called many different countries home, including the UK, the US, and Canada, Farida describes herself as a global citizen, with a flair for illustrating stories related to different cultures, travel, history, and diverse lived experiences.

Jeni Chen is a children’s book author and illustrator with experience in creating public art installations and leading community engaged workshops.

Shauntay Grant is a poet, playwright, multimedia artist, and the author of several books for children including My Fade Is Fresh (Penguin, 2022) which has garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist. An associate professor of creative writing at Dalhousie University and former poet laureate for the City of Halifax, Shauntay “creates artworks that are engaging and accessible, but also challenging, rigorous, and informed by deep research (The Royal Society of Canada).”

Rukhsana Khan is an award-winning author and storyteller. She has 15 books published that range from picture books to YA and has garnered dozens of awards and accolades. One of her books was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of the 100 greatest children’s books in the last 100 years.

Karen Krossing is the author of many books for children and teens, and a mentor of new and emerging voices. Her titles include the picture books One Tiny Bubble and Sour Cakes, as well as the novels Monster vs. Boy, Bog, Cut the Lights, Punch Like a Girl, and The Yo-Yo Prophet. She won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Canada and has been a finalist for the Ontario Library Association White Pine Award and the Joan F. Kaywell Books Save Lives Award. As a speaker, Karen offers book talks, where she discusses her work and promotes literacy.

Alisha Sevigny is a children’s book author and literary consultant and hold a degree in Professional Writing from the University of Victoria. She is also a film school graduate, former literary agent, and freelance editor. Born and raised in Kitimat, British Columbia, she has always had a strong connection to the environment and conservationist spirit. 

J. Torres was four years old when his family immigrated to Canada from the Philippines. At an early age, he learned to read from the Peanuts and Family Circus newspaper comic strips. By the third grade, he was writing and drawing his own comic strip for his school paper. In the sixth grade he wrote and directed a play based on an Archie comic. By the time he graduated high school, he knew he wanted to be a writer and aspired to work for the publishers of his favourite superhero comics. That dream came true in the early 2000s when he wrote some X-Men stories for Marvel and was then hired to write the original Teen Titans Go series for DC Comics. He’s been writing comics and graphic novels professionally ever since.

Joshua Goudie’s first book, Jack and the Hurricane (Breakwater Books), was published in October 2014 with its sequel, Jack and the Magnificent Ugly Stick (Breakwater Books), following in October 2016. A collection of children’s narrative poetry, Where the Crooked Lighthouse Shines (Breakwater Books) was released in September 2022. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, and he has been shortlisted for the Cuffer Prize for Short Fiction on three separate occasions. In 2013, his novel manuscript, The Last Portrait, was shortlisted for the Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union Fresh Fish Award, going on to be awarded the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Percy Janes First Novel Award in 2021.

Lydia Lukidis is the author of 50+ trade and educational books for children. Her titles include Deep, Deep, Down: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench (Capstone, 2023), The Broken Bees’ Nest (Kane Press, 2019) which was nominated for a Cybils Award, and No Bears Allowed (Clear Fork Media, 2019). A science enthusiast from a young age, she now incorporates her studies in science and her everlasting curiosity into her books. Lydia is very involved in the kidlit community. She volunteers as a judge on Rate your Story, co-hosts the annual Fall Writing Frenzy competition, and is an active member of SCBWI, CANSCAIP, 12 x 12, and The Authors Guild.

Sadé Smith is a Canadian children’s book author of Granny’s Kitchen (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 2022) which is nominated for the Blue Spruce Award for the 2023 Forest of Reading. Her books often involve food with colourful illustrations to capture the vibrancy and beauty of the Caribbean islands. She loves the beach and enjoys fruits and she is very passionate about literature. Sadé holds a Bachelor of Interior Design (Hons.) Degree and an Advance Diploma in Architectural Technology, as well as a certificate in Creative Book Publishing. She writes books of representation for young readers so children can see themselves in books.

Sophie Casson has illustrated more than 25 children’s books published in English and French. A finalist for the Governor General’s Award, she is also the illustrator of the Kirkus starred book and finalist to the Marylin Baillie Picture Book award, The Artist and Me written by Shane Peacock (Owlkids). Helen’s Birds, written by Sara Cassidy (Groundwood), was amongst others, a Best Bets 2020 by OLA and is in IBBY Canada’s Silent Collection 2021.

Sarena Nanua and Sasha Nanua are twin sisters living in Ontario. Born on Diwali ten minutes apart from each other, they grew up loving stories about twins and magic, and began writing books together when they were nine years old. They are graduates of the English and Professional Writing programs at the University of Toronto and are also the authors of The Pendant Trilogy.  

Erin Silver is a children’s author and freelance writer/editor with 20 years of professional industry experience. Her work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post, Today’s Parent and Chatelaine, among others. Her books for children include Just Watch Me (Common Deer Press), What Kids Did: Stories of Kindness and Invention in the Time of COVID-19 (Second Story Press), Proud to Play: LGBTQ+ Athletes Who Made History (Lorimer Kids), Rush Hour: Navigating Our Global Traffic Jam and Sitting Shiva.

Author-illustrator Carey Sookocheff graduated from Carleton University with a degree in English Literature, studied Illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and has been an illustrator for over 20 years. She has illustrated for many publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Her work earned recognition from the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, American Illustration, as well as a National Magazine Award.

Ted Staunton is the author of over 40 books for young people of all ages. His is a winner of the CCBC John Spray Mystery Award and has numerous nominations for tree awards across Canada for various books. An experienced presenter to all age/grade groups in many different settings, Ted brings a mixture of humor, music, and audience participation to his presentations. 

Josh Rosen (he/him) is a Toronto-based cartoonist and illustrator. A graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, Josh has done illustration work for magazines, animation projects, documentary films and tabletop roleplaying games, as well as a slew of small-press comics work.

Farida Zaman is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist and writer, who is well known for her whimsical, uplifting designs of flowers, plants, and a wide breadth of subject matter in watercolour, gouache, acrylics and digital art. She has illustrated over 16 picture books, including My First Book of Hindi Words, Two Shoes, Blue Shoes, New Shoes!, and The Yoga Game, and is author-illustrator of I Want To Be… A Gutsy Girls’ ABC, with more books coming soon. She is currently working on 2 picture books as the author and Illustrator with Owl books and Orca Publishing, for 2023 and 2024 Born in Bangladesh, and having called many different countries home, including the UK, the US, and Canada, Farida describes herself as a global citizen, with a flair for illustrating stories related to different cultures, travel, history, and diverse lived experiences.

Tziporah Cohen was born and raised in New York, then spent eighteen years in Boston before landing in Toronto, where she lives with her husband, three kids, two cats, and one dog. She studied French and Theater Arts at Cornell University and went on to get an MD from Harvard Medical School. Twenty years later, she graduated with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Tziporah now splits her time between working as a psychiatrist in oncology/palliative care and writing, interspersed with mom duties, indoor rock climbing and dog walking. 

Peggy Collins is an award-winning Author and/or illustrator of over 35 books (and other media) for young people. One of her recent books, Harley the Hero was the Forest of Reading Blue Spruce winner for 2022. A Sky-Blue Bench – written by Bahram Rahman – and she illustrated was an ALA Youth Media – Schneider Family Honour Book. Peggy is a college art and animation professor and has worked as the visiting artist in residence for the Limestone District School Board. She loves presenting and has both in-person and virtually all over the country. 

Khodi Dill is a Bahamian-Canadian author, spoken word artist, and anti-racist educator from Saskatoon. Centering equity at the heart of his practice, Khodi hopes that his work will engage people of all ages in social justice and the arts. Dill is the author of the picture book Welcome to the Cypher, introducing young people to the transformative power of rap music. 

Jennifer Faria is an illustrator, painter, and graphic designer who studied at Central Technical School and George Brown College in Toronto. Her works can be found in the collections of celebrities, politicians, and especially parents, as one of her specialties is portraits of babies and small children. She lives in Burlington, Ontario with her husband and three children. While illustrating the grandfather in “Raven, Rabbit, Deer”, and in “Finding Moose”, Jennifer drew inspiration from her maternal great-uncle, of whom she has warm memories. Similar to the boy in the story, both “Raven, Rabbit, Deer” and “Finding Moose” have been walks of discovery for Jennifer as she learns more about her cultural heritage as a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.