Jordan Scott is a poet and children’s author. Scott is the author of three picture books with Holiday House / Neal Porter Books and two forthcoming titles with Random House Studio and Viking Kids. His debut children’s book, I Talk Like a River (illustrated by Sydney Smith), was a New York Times best Children’s Book of 2020 was translated into nineteen languages and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award, which honors authors for the artistic expression of the disability experience. I Talk Like a River also received numerous international awards and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Prize for Young People’s Literature.  Scott is also the author of four books of poetry and the recipient of the Writers’ Trust Latner Poetry Prize, given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.

Jen Ferguson (she/her) is queer woman with Red River Métis and white Canadian settler ancestry, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and Creative Writing. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. Her debut YA novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (Heartdrum/HarperCollins) won a 2022 Governor General's Literary Award and a 2023 Stonewall Honor. Jen's second YA novel Those Pink Mountain Nights has four starred reviews and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection. 

Scott Fraser is a Grammy-winning recording, mixing, mastering, and concert engineer, producer, and sound designer for acoustic music recordings and live performances. He specializes in classical, jazz, folk, world and avant-garde genres. In a career spanning multiple decades he has engineered over 700 albums, as well as having mixed thousands of concerts worldwide.  

Since 1992 he has toured extensively as sound designer for the Kronos Quartet. Scott has mixed over a thousand concerts for Kronos, in venues including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Kennedy Center, Disney Hall, La Scala, Concertgebouw, etc.  

Scott co-produced, recorded, and mixed the Laurie Anderson/Kronos Quartet collaboration Landfall, which won the 2018 Grammy for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. He co-produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered You’ve Stolen My Heart, an album of Bollywood classics, interpreted by Kronos, featuring the legendary vocalist Asha Bhosle. In 2005 it was nominated for a Grammy in the World Music category. Scott also engineered The Ten Thousand Things, music of John Cage, as well as the Harry Partch compendium Bitter Music, both of which were Grammy nominees. In 2021, Scott recorded tracks for Opium Moon’s Night + Day CD, and mixed & mastered classical guitarist Mak Grgic’s Mak|Bach CD, both of which received Grammy nominations.

Scott has also worked with artists as diverse as Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, The Residents, Harold Budd, The Klezmatics, Katia & Marielle Lebeque, Tigran Hamasyan, Sandra Tsing-Loh and Mel Tormé.

Scott has taught recording master classes at Tainan University of Technology in Taiwan, New York University in Abu Dhabi, & Scripps College in Claremont, California.
 

Michel Vrana discovered his passion for publication design while studying at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. He has designed comics, graphic novels, magazines, and directed a design studio. Since 2009, he has focused on creating book covers for various publishers, with his work being honored by the Alcuin Awards. In 2019, he relaunched his comic book micro press, Black Eye Books, becoming a publisher himself. 

Tom Hart is a cartoonist and the founder / Executive Director of The Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW), an online school and arts organization in Gainesville, Florida. He has created graphic novels, short stories, memoir, comic strips and many instructional books.  He is the author of the New York Times #1 Bestseller, Rosalie Lightning, a book about the loss of his young daughter, Rosalie. That book has been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese, and was featured on many best of 2016 lists, and nominated for two Eisner Awards. His work has been featured in Greatest American Comics in 2004 and 2015. His daily “Hutch Owen” comic strip ran for 2 years in newspapers in New York and Boston, and his “Ali’s House”, co-created with Margo Dabaie was commissioned by King Features Syndicate. 

Zahgausgai “Sun Ray”, Mukwa “Bear Clan”, is an Ojibwa and a 3rd Degree member of the Three Fires Midewiwin Society. John’s home community is Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario. John’s childhood was rich in stories of his people; his Midewiwin Education began in 1982 and is ongoing. He has made it a life passion to study the “Mlikaans” Teachings which are about the whole development of the human before, during and after life. John is a Storyteller, Big Drum Carrier, Ceremonialist, Singer and Dancer. His greatest joy is watching Ojibwa youth learn and practice the culture. John generously shares his knowledge throughout Ontario. He currently works as an Elder and Knowledger Keeper at Dnaagdawenmag Binnoojiiyag Child & Family Services and is woven across many organizations. Nationally he is a founder of Feather Carriers: Leadership for Life Promotion and has carried many different roles in his life from being a young Chief for his community bringing the culture forward, to moving out into different teams, from the Early Psychosis Intervention Team at Canadian Mental Health Association as a Healer to an Elder/Healer at the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene and Fenbrook Medium Institution. He lectures and shares teachings in various orgnaizations and learning institutions. John travels internationally and is a well-respected teacher and elder in the Anishinaabe Nation.

Marcia Turner is an award-winning consultant and TEDx speaker. She is Gitxsan from the community of Gitanyow and grew up in Gitsegukla. Marcia is from the Lax Gibuu (wolf clan) and Wilp Haijimsxw (House of Chief Haijimsxw) and carries the name Tsu’malit, a leadership responsibility. She is a mother of four grown sons and currently lives on Vancouver Island in unceded Snuneymuxw territory also known as Nanaimo. 

Marcia is the CEO/Founder of Daxgedim Haanak’ Consulting, a company specializing in systems change and decolonization to dismantle white supremacy and advance the rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2023 she received the Indigenous Business of the Year award from the BC Achievement Foundation, and in May 2024 was invited to speak at TEDxRRU about a framework she developed – the Four Indigenous Conditions of Systems Change™. Drawing from her ancestral teachings, Marcia’s work is rooted in her Gitxsan values, teachings and practices. Marcia and her team of all-Indigenous associates address equity for Indigenous peoples, privilege Indigenous knowledge systems, and amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples. 

Marcia brings a wealth of knowledge with over thirty years of experience working collaboratively with a diverse range of First Nations communities, Indigenous organizations, public agencies, non-profit organizations, post-secondary institutions, and governments across BC and Canada. She has a Master’s Degree in Leadership from Royal Roads University, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science with a minor in Indigenous Studies from the University of Victoria. 

Karri-Lynn Paul, a seasoned Indigenous adult educator from Wôlastôqewisqehsan (Woodstock First Nation), brings a distinctive leadership approach. Beyond mere theory, her personal leadership journey is filled with stories of resilience, perseverance and turning failures into stepping stones. Holding a Master's in Adult Education and over two decades of practical experience, she's dedicated to creating transformative learning experiences and promoting positive social change. Karri-Lynn is passionate about tapping into our inner wisdom and envisioning a future rooted in Indigenous values. She believes that recognizing life's abundance, sharing our stories, and engaging in reflective practices are the foundations of powerful and enduring leadership.

Cherie Dimaline is an internationally bestselling author. Her 2017 book The Marrow Thieves was named by TIME magazine, one of the Best YA Books of All Time and won the Governor General’s Award and the Kirkus Prize. Her novel Empire of Wild became an instant Canadian bestseller, was named Indigo's 2019 Best Book and is being adapted into an opera. Hunting By Stars was a 2022 American Indian Library Association Honor Book and her new novel VENCO debuted at #1 on Canadian bestseller lists. Other 2023 titles include Funeral Songs for Dying Girls, Anthology of Monsters and Into the Bright Open. Cherie lives in her Georgian Bay Métis Community and writes/produces for screen and stage.

Catharine Chen is the editor of Arsenal Pulp Press, a small publisher located in Vancouver, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, that has twice won the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year award. Now in its 54th year, Arsenal publishes literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry; LGBTQ2S+ and BIPOC voices; social issues and gender studies; graphic novels and non-fiction; children’s and young adult lit; and books in translation. Born and raised in Vancouver, Catharine earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia before moving to Toronto to pursue a career in publishing. She is currently writing a short fiction collection, and she has done freelance work for Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Vancouver Writers Fest, HarperCollins Canada, Dundurn Press, Inhabit Media and Education, and Wattpad Books.