Sarah Lewis is an Ojibwe and Cree spoken word artist from Curve Lake First Nation, Ontario. She is a proud member of the 2019 Peterborough Poetry Slam Team, as well as a national semi-finalist at the 2019 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Most recently, she was selected as the first Poet Laureate of Peterborough, Ontario. As well as a published poet, she has also been featured on Global News and CBC morning radio. Shortly, she will be publishing her poetry on CBC Arts’ ongoing series: Poetic License. Her poetry highlights the struggles and more importantly, the resiliency within Indigenous communities.
Tomson Highway is a Cree author, playwright, and musician. His memoir, Permanent Astonishment, won the 2021 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He also wrote the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, and the bestselling novel Kiss of the Fur Queen. Tomson Highway is a member of the Barren Lands First Nation and lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Saskatchewan Métis and nêhiyaw writer. Her fiction book, Just Pretending, won 4 Saskatchewan Book Awards, including 2014 Book of the Year, and was the 2019 One Book, One Province selection. Her debut poetry collection, The Red Files, is inspired by family and archival sources, reflects on the legacy of the residential school system and the fragmentation of families and histories. She is the chair of the Saskatchewan Ânskohk Writers Circle Inc. (SAWCI), the group that hosts the Ânskohk Indigenous Literature Festival, and the CEO of the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research Inc. in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
David A. Robertson is the recipient of the Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. His memoir, Black Water, won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. His middle-grade fantasy series, The Misewa Saga, includes the #1 bestseller The Barren Grounds. He won the Governor General’s Literary Award for On the Trapline and When We Were Alone. Robertson is also the writer and host of the award-winning podcast Kiwew. The Theory of Crows is his first novel for adults. David is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. He lives in Winnipeg.