ERIC WALTERS, a former elementary school teacher, is one of Canada’s most popular authors for children and young adults. He has written more than seventy books that together have won more than a hundred awards, and talks to hundreds of young people in schools and libraries across the country each year. He is also the founder of Creation of Hope, which provides care for orphans in the Makueni district of Kenya, and lives in Mississauga, Ontario. Visit him online at www.ericwalters.net.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, John Wilson grew up on the Isle of Skye and outside Glasgow, without the slightest idea that he would ever write books. After obtaining a degree in geology from the University of St. Andrews, he worked in Zimbabwe and Alberta before taking up writing full time and moving to Vancouver Island in 1991. John is the author of numerous articles, essays, poems and reviews, and almost fifty novels and nonfiction books for kids, teens and adults. He was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award (The Alchemist's Dream, 2007), and his books have won or been shortlisted for most Canadian children's-literature prizes. For more information, visit johnwilsonauthor.com.

RICHARD SCRIMGER is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for children and adults, including The Nose from Jupiter, Zomboy, Viminy Crowe’s Comic Book and The Wolf and Me. When he’s not writing or talking about writing, Richard teaches at Humber College and gets laughed at by his children. He has four of them. Well, really, they have him. He lives in Toronto. Visit him at www.richardscrimger.com.

Norah McClintock won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction for young people five times. She wrote more than sixty YA novels, including contributions to Seven (the series), the Seven Sequels and the Secrets series.

Sigmund Brouwer is the award-winning author of over 100 books for young readers, with close to five million books in print. He has won a Christy Book of the Year and an Arthur Ellis Award, and some of his titles were finalists for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award (twice) and the Red Maple Award. For years, Sigmund has captivated students with his Story Ninja writing program during his school visits, reaching over one million students since 1990. His many books in the Orca Sports, Orca Soundings and Orca Currents lines have changed the lives of countless striving readers. Sigmund lives in Red Deer, Alberta.

Shane Peacock, biographer, journalist, and screenwriter, is also the author of six novels and three plays, and has been nominated for numerous awards including the Governor Generals Award, several National Magazine Awards, and the Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction. He is the creator of the award-winning The Boy Sherlock Holmes series, and is now part of Seven (the series). When not writing, Shane Peacock enjoys playing hockey with his three children and watching sumo wrestling. He lives near Cobourg, Ontario. The Artist and Me is Shane’s first picture book.