CATHERINE HERNANDEZ is a proud queer woman of colour and an award-winning author. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian heritage and is married into the Navajo Nation. Her debut novel, Scarborough, which was adapted into an award-winning motion picture, won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award as an unpublished manuscript. It was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Edmund White Award, the Trillium Book Award and Canada Reads. Her second novel, Crosshairs, made the CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction list and was named one of NOW magazine’s 10 Best Books, an Audible Best Audiobook and an NBC 20 Best LGBTQ Book. Her most recent novel, The Story of Us, was shortlisted for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and longlisted for a Toronto Book Award. Catherine Hernandez is also a playwright and the author of the children’s books M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book, I Promise and Where Do Your Feelings Live? She lives outside Toronto.

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus's work explores social justice frameworks and black activist culture. Syrus is a core-team member of both Black Lives Matter Toronto and Blackness Yes!/Blockorama. Syrus has won several awards, including the TD Diversity Award in 2017. Syrus is a PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.