Tara Gereaux is the author of Saltus, which was shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Novel Award and three Saskatchewan Book Awards; and Size of a Fist, a teen novella, which was also shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Tara holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and has worked as a writer and story editor for film and television. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and lives in Regina on Treaty 4 territory and the homeland of the Métis.

Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and I Was a Teenage Slasher. He has been an NEA fellowship recipient and a recipient of several awards including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, and the Alex Award from American Library Association. He is the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Louis Busch is a Bear Clan member of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, a registered psychotherapist, and a behavioral scientist. With over two decades of experience in mental health, forensic, and community settings, Louis centers his work on relational, ethical, and culturally grounded approaches to wellness. He currently serves as an assistant clinical professor (adjunct) at McMaster University and as a special projects officer for Indigenous curriculum and pedagogy at the University of Toronto. His work is dedicated to centering Indigenous cultural knowledge as the way to restore balance and support the healing journeys of First Nations communities. A recent recipient of the prestigious 2024 SSHRC Impact Awards, Louis dedicates his work to advancing culturally relevant wellness initiatives that empower marginalized communities.

Eliana Ramage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she lives in Nashville with her family. To the Moon and Back is her first novel.

Rebecca Roanhorse is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sixth World series and the Between Earth and Sky trilogy. She has won multiple awards for her fiction including the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards. She has also written for Marvel and Lucasfilm, and for hit TV series including A Murder At the End of the World and Echo. She lives in New Mexico with her family.

Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and an assistant professor in Humanities at York University in Toronto. From the Ashes was the top-selling Canadian book in 2020, the winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, Indigenous Voices Award, and High Plains Book Award, and also a finalist for CBC Canada Reads. Jesse won a Governor General’s Academic Medal in 2016, and is a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a Vanier Scholar. A frequent keynote speaker, he lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his wife, Lucie, and is at work on multiple projects, including his next book. Visit him at JesseThistle.com.
 

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

Award-winning author Laurel Goodluck writes picture books with modern themes that reflect Native children’s cultural experiences and everyday life, showing they have a unique and powerful perspective. Her books include Forever Cousins, Rock Your Mocs, She Persisted: Deb Haaland, Too Much, Yáadilá!: Good Grief!, and Fierce Aunties!, a recipient of the American Indian Youth Literature Award Picture Book Honor. Laurel was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She comes from an intertribal background; is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation; and is an Alaskan Native Citizen of the Tsimshian Tribe. She received a BA in psychology and an MA in community counseling and family studies from the University of New Mexico. Laurel began writing by crafting a curriculum for community advocacy involving Native teen leadership and later for children newly diagnosed with mental health challenges. Laurel lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her Navajo husband, where they raised two sons who are also bent on storytelling. Please follow her on @LaurieGoodluck on Instagram.

Bridget George (Nimkiinagwaagankwe) is an Anishinaabe illustrator from Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. She was born and raised on the shores of Lake Huron—the traditional territory of her people. She currently makes her home with her son Noah and husband David in London, Ontario. Bridget’s author-illustrator debut It’s a Mitig! garnered the prestigious Periodical Marketers of Canada’s Indigenous Literature Award. She has also illustrated Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom and Too Much by Laurel Goodluck.