TANYA BOTEJU is a writer and educator living on stolen Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land (Vancouver, BC). Her debut novel, Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens, was named a Top Ten Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association and Messy Perfect was a BC and Yukon Book Award finalist. Setting the Stage for Christmas is her debut adult novel. Typically, you can find her cozy in her cabin, writing at cafés, or smooshing any dog that will let her. In both teaching and writing, Tanya hopes she’s bending the universe even the tiniest bit toward justice. Her latest YA book is Lake Life.

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JOANNA CHEEK, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist, psychotherapist trained in dozens of modalities, researcher, meditation teacher, journalist, and clinical professor at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine. She co-created the national-award-winning MindSpace Collective, which offers workshops that have taught effective mental health strategies to tens of thousands of community members and physicians who, like everyone else, experience the mental health symptoms that arise from living in a disordered world. Her book is called It’s Not You, It’s the World: A Mental Health Survival Guide for Us All.

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EMILY CHOU is a writer/cartoonist from stolen xʷməθkʷəy ̓ əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ territory. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and publications in Room, Geist, Chinatown Today, and various other magazines and anthologies. She has lived in the UK, Japan, and Italy, and can recommend snacks in all three. Her book is the graphic novel On Your Way.

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FAITH ERIN HICKS is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer and artist of over a dozen books. Her books are frequently YALSA selections. She lives in Vancouver, B.C. Hicks’s latest book is the graphic novel Inbetweens.

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FANNY KEARSE is a Black, Queer, Jewish, Disabled multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans performance, writing, and curation. A recovering people pleaser, late bloomer, dreamer, and community tender, their work traces pathways of self-reclamation; where grief becomes a guide, pain opens portals to the divine and joy emerges through the process of unbecoming. In 2021, they won the Harold Green Theatre Monologue Competition, published their debut poetry and prose collection, umi’s prayer, in 2023, and are the co-creator of the 2025 TELUS STORYHIVE docuseries Glimmers. They are an artist with the Artists in Residence in Schools (AiRS) program, serve in board leadership with several arts organizations and organize transcendental community gatherings. They live and create with their life and art co-creator, Que, on the unceded Coast Salish Territories.

For their Writers in the Classroom event, fanny will conduct a writing and/or spoken word workshop depending upon the learning goals of the students.

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SOPHIE LI is a Chinese Canadian author-illustrator based in Vancouver, British Columbia. When not writing or drawing, she is likely chugging bubble tea while watching Chinese stand-up comedy. Her book is called Last Night I Dreamed of Home.

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HAYLEY LOWE is an illustrator and storyteller who enjoys exploring a range of media. In previous chapters of her life, Hayley worked as a contemporary dancer and as a children’s yoga instructor, where she used storytelling as a tool to teach and ignite imaginations. She is the author-illustrator of The Pie Reports and the illustrator of Diaper Kid and Memory Stones. Her latest book is Juni and the Anything Tree.

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WILLIE POLL is a Métis author from the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada) and a proud member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Willie has worked in Indigenous education across the Nation for over ten years. She currently resides on Prince Edward Island as a guest on the traditional lands of the Wabanaki and Mi’kma’ki people. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous studies and a Master of Arts in archaeology. Poll joins this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest with her books Minnow and A Salmon Story.

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DANNY RAMADAN is a Syrian-Canadian author and a Canada Scholar. His memoir Crooked Teeth is critically acclaimed, and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the BC and Yukon Book Prize, and the City of Vancouver Book Award. He is also the author of the novels The Foghorn Echoes and The Clothesline Swing, along with the award-winning Salma children’s series. His upcoming novel, A Saltwater Requiem, will be published in the US and Canada in April 2027. His books have won the Lambda Literary Award, the Publishing Triangle Award, and the Independent Publisher Book Award, and they’ve been translated into multiple languages. Since arriving in Canada, Danny has raised over $300,000 to support queer and trans refugees. When not writing, he can be found playing video games. His latest book is Salma Keeps Her Word.

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ALEX RITANY is a lifelong reader and writer who is currently a bookseller at Indigo. They live in Calgary with their roommate, cat, and dice collection. They have two YA books out this year: Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know and All the Way Home.

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ERIKA RODRIQUEZ MEDINA is a Mexican illustrator and book publicist living in Vancouver, BC. An award-winning picture book artist represented by the New York-based literary agency Painted Words, she has illustrated several books, including Fighting Words, Adela’s Mariachi Band, Miya Wears Orange, and Paulina and the Picadillo. She loves drawing expressive characters, big families, spooky stories, and all the wonderfully strange things you might find at a grandma’s house. She shares her work and other creative oddities on social media as @erikadecanella.

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COLTRANE SEESEQUASIS is a young fantasy writer of Willow Cree heritage who grew up in Gatineau, Quebec. Inspired by a love of nature as well as myths and folklore that challenge the limits of creativity, Coltrane joins a new generation of writers, adding his voice to the immersive genre of fantasy. Seesequasis joins this year’s Vancouver Writers Fest with the third book in the four-volume A Wolf in the Sun series, The Crucible of Pain.

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KIM SPENCER is an award-winning, bestselling author. Her debut novel, Weird Rules to Follow, won multiple awards, including a 2024 Pacific Northwest Book Award, a 2023 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and a 2023 Jean Little First-Novel Award. Named to both the USBBY Outstanding International Books list as well as the IBBY Honour List, the book also received a Kirkus starred review and was a finalist for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award. Spencer’s recent books include the award-nominated sequel, I Won’t Feel This Way Forever (2025), Here For A Good Time (2026), and the picture book Springtime in Kitkatla. She is a proud member of the Gitxaala Nation and lives in Northwest BC.

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ROBIN STEVENSON is an award-winning author of more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction for kids and teens. Her books have received numerous starred reviews, won the Silver Birch Award, the Sheila A. Egoff award and a Stonewall Honor, and been finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and many others. In 2022, she was the Book and Periodical Council’s Champion of Free Expression, and in 2023, she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence for her body of work and contributions to BC’s literary community. Robin was born in the UK and lives on the west coast of Canada. Her latest book is The Book of Jupiter.

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