Spencer Hall graduated from the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky in with a BS in English. He moved to Chicago to study improv, but soon realized when it came to being funny, he was better at writing things down than making them up on the spot. When he’s not writing, he can be found running by the lake, occasionally performing stand-up comedy at poorly attended open mic nights, and researching how to become a professional mini-golf player. Kind of Sort of Fine is his first novel. Check him out at https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Spencer-Hall/174414596
Lorna Schultz Nicholson has three sports books being released in the fall of 2021: Amazing Hockey Stories: Alexander Ovechkin (sports non-fiction with Scholastic), Taking the Ice (a hockey middle-grade novel with Scholastic) and When You Least Expect It (a YA rowing novel with Red Deer Press). She has published children’s picture books, middle grade fiction, YA fiction and hockey non-fiction. Her books have been nominated for many different awards and are often on the CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens list.
When Lorna was a kid, she loved to play sports, and she also loved to read, so she feels blessed that she has been able to combine her passions into a career. She can honestly say she loves her job! Her first pair of hockey skates were hand-me-downs from the boy down the street. In the summer she spent hours loosening up her ball glove. Today, she still loves sports. In her spare time, she likes to run, bike, swim, ski, play tennis and hit the golf course. She hates to admit that golf is perplexing to her and she hits the ball all over the place. Lorna also still loves to read, and she loves inspiring children to read.
Lorna lives in Edmonton with her husband (Go Oilers Go) and two dogs, a whiny bichon shih tzu, and a sort-of-naughty puppy she rescued from Mexico. Her website is https://lornaschultznicholson.com/
Brent is a recovering high school literature teacher, army medic and tree planter, who now considers himself to be an in-progress writer. He’s the author of the young adult novel Nothing but Life, the adult novels Boy and Saints, Unexpected, as well as Cut Road, a forthcoming collection of short stories. He has published some stories and won a few awards, too. When not writing, he can be found Daddying and Husbanding super hard, working for the local public library or wandering Hamilton, Ontario looking for stories. For more information, go to www.brentvans.com
Q: You’ve really burst on the scene, given all the awards and acclaim you’ve enjoyed for your work. And they’re hard-hitting books on heavy topics – lots of anguish, tragedy, loss, scars. What draws you to dark, contemporary topics and characters that one might call misfits?
Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Airborn, which won the Governor General's Award for children’s literature and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award, and the Silverwing trilogy, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. Some of his other books include The Boundless, Every Hidden Thing and Inkling. The Nest and Half Brother both won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award. His latest novels are Bloom and its sequel Hatch. Visit him online at www.kennethoppel.ca, or twitter @kennethoppel.
Q: Your work has been tagged magic realism, thriller, horror and paranormal. Is there a tag this list is missing, and is there a thread that connects your 33 (is 33 correct?) kidlit novels? What is your favored genre descriptor and main interest these days?
Paul is the author of Cub, the brand new The Player, and coauthor with Eric Walters of On the Line coming in March 2022. He has a specialisation in English Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing. He spends a lot of time baking in his Toronto kitchen with his nephew, three dogs (two big labs and one tiny morkie) and a grey parrot with a red tail.
Q: You’ve written two and a half books and I want to know where you’ve been all our lives. What work has claimed you outside of your relatively recent writing career, how long did it take to land your first novel, and how committed are you to the writing path these days?
A: I was hiding away in the family business. Anyone who has worked with family knows, you can quit a job but you can’t quit your family. It’s very The Godfather so once you’re in, you’re in for life. I love my family, but office work, nope.
Arthur Slade was raised on a ranch in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan. He is the author of twenty-nine novels for young readers including The Hunchback Assignments, which won the prestigious TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and Dust, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada. Visit him online at www.arthurslade.com.
Q: Some might peg you as a thriller, fantasy or steampunk writer. But you’ve also written nonfiction (including a biography of former Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker and the titles Monsterology and Villainology), as well as a historic novel, Megiddo's Shadow. What are you most drawn to and why?
A: In many ways I’m like a sponge. At first, as a young reader, I would just soak up everything I could, naturally gravitating toward reading history, science fiction, fantasy and horror. So when I became an author, it was equally natural to write about the very things I’d been reading about. When I get an idea, there’s a process I go through deciding the best way to tell the story and then I pursue that
DAVID A. ROBERTSON (he/him/his) is an award-winning writer and recent recipient of the Writer’s Union of Canada’s Freedom to Read Award. His books include When We Were Alone (winner Governor General’s Literary Award), Will I See? (winner Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award), Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story (listed In The Margins), and the YA trilogy The Reckoner (winner Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction, McNally Robinson Best Book for Young People). His most recent works include the graphic novels Breakdown (Top 10 Fiction Title, In the Margins) and The Barren Grounds , and his memoir Black Water: Family, Legacy and Blood Memory. A sought-after speaker and educator, David is a member of Norway House Cree Nation. He lives in Winnipeg. Robertson is of Cree, Scottish, Irish and English heritage.