E.G. ALARAJ grew up in the magical place that every child knows, where ideas look like pictures drawn from crayons, paint or ink and sound like stories from long ago and far away. The youngest of six girls in a homeschool family, she spent her childhood with her nose in storybooks, art books, music books, notebooks and trouble—especially trouble. In fact, she thinks trouble and imagination are best friends. She lives in Vancouver.

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EDDY BOUDEL TAN writes fiction that isn’t easily defined, including his novels The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, After Elias, and The Rebellious Tide. He was named a Rising Star by Writers’ Trust of Canada in 2021, and he’s been a finalist for the Giller Prize, Evergreen Award, Edmund White Award, and Ferro-Grumley Award. His short stories can be found in Joyland, Yolk, and various literary journals and anthologies. He lives in Vancouver with his husband. Eddy has led several creative writing workshops for Vancouver Writers Fest and he would like his Writers in the Classroom event to be an interactive session about writing and publishing.

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SARA CASSIDY’s children’s books include finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature, Chocolate Lily Award, City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Her early novel Genius Jolene won a BC Book Prize. Her most recent book for young readers is Star Sailor, The Story of Words. She also writes for adults. Sara lives in Victoria, BC, and visits France often.

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LAAN CHAM is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and wandering dreamer with a BIG imagination who enjoys all things cute, random, and a little bit strange (because the best things in life are kind of out there.) She aims to spread joy through her stories and illustrations by encapsulating all the things she loves.

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LINDA DEMEULEMEESTER is the author of the critically acclaimed Grim Hill series. The Secret of Grim Hill won the Silver Birch award in 2008 and was optioned for television. Her other books have been nominated or shortlisted for several awards, including the British Columbia Young Readers’ Choice Red Cedar Award, the Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Diamond Willow Award and the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award. Linda has worked in literacy and adult education. Many dedicated teachers and principals and librarians have invited her into their schools, classrooms and libraries. She considers middle-grade audiences the best audiences in the world!

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MARK LEIREN-YOUNG is a writer, documentary filmmaker, playwright, podcaster and orca activist. His book The Killer Whale Who Changed the World won a Science Writers and Communicators of Canada book award. He wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary The Hundred-Year-Old Whale, and his documentary about Moby Doll is being produced by Middle Child Films. Mark hosts Skaana, a podcast about orca and ocean stories, and is actively involved in the fight for the survival of the endangered southern residents. Mark has written for other young audiences for ABC, PBS, YTV, Treehouse and BBC Kids. His books for young readers include Big Whale, Small World, Orcas of the Salish Sea, Octopus Ocean and the City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize winner, Orcas Everywhere. He lives in Victoria.

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ROYDEN LEPP has written and published a variety of children’s books and other comics. His first series Rust was called “one of the best all-ages stories to be crafted in the past decade” and Royden has continued to create more stories for kids. Jurassic Jeff is Royden’s first comedy series. Originally from Salmon Arm, BC, he now lives in Seattle.

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SARAH MUGHAL RANA is a Muslim author and student who completed her bachelors with honours at the University of Toronto and is now at Oxford University, studying at the intersection of economics and policy. She is a BookTok personality and the co-host of the On The Write Track podcast, where she enjoys spilling tea with her favourite authors about the book world. Her debut YA novel, Hope Ablaze, was published in February 2024. Outside of school, she falls down history rabbit holes and trains in traditional martial arts.

Sarah’s Writers in the Classroom event will be a virtual one. 

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MANGESHIG PAWIS-STECKLEY is a multidisciplinary Anishinaabe artist and a member of Wasauksing First Nation. He is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and author whose work explores themes of language revitalization, ancestral knowledge sharing and memory. Mangeshig’s books have received a Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award, an Indigenous Voices Award and the Blue Spruce Award, and Miimaanda ezhi-gkendmaanh / This Is How I Know (written by Brittany Luby) was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Literary Award. Canada: We Are the Story is based on a poem written by Richard Wagamese and illustrated by Mangeshig. For the Writers in the Classroom event, Mangeshig is happy to do a reading as well as a little drawing session with the students.

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A poet, teacher, and reviewer, KEVIN SPENST (he/him) has published four full-length poetry collections, most recently A Bouquet Brought Back from Space (Anvil Press, 2024) and 19 chapbooks. He is one of the organizers of the Dead Poets Reading Series, has a chapbook review column for subTerrain magazine, occasionally co-hosts Wax Poetic on Vancouver Co-op Radio, and is one of the poetry ambassadors for Vancouver’s 2025-2027 Poet Laureate Elee Kraljii Gardiner. He is one of the Poetry Mentors at The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territory where he cohabitates with the one and only Cheryl Rossi.

Kevin Spenst is booked for a Writers in the Classroom event with Langara College Department of English.

ROBIN STEVENSON is the award-winning author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction for young readers of all ages. Her books have won the Silver Birch Award, the Sheila A. Egoff Award and a Stonewall Award Honor, and have been finalists for the Governor General’s Literary Award and many reader’s choice awards. Robin was the Book and Periodical Council of Canada’s Champion of Free Expression for 2022. In 2023, she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. She lives on the west coast of Canada with her family.

Robin’s Writers in the Classroom event will be a virtual one.

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AMANDA WHITE is a multi-disciplinary artist who writes, teaches, and makes art about the environment, sustainability, and climate. She is a member of the Hungry Stories Team. Originally from Toronto, she now lives in Vancouver with her family, where she is an assistant professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Amanda is the co-creator, with Dian Day, of Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge. She is excited to speak on the book, how she and Dian developed it, and the book’s theme — food security — as a whole.

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