Monique Gray Smithis an award-winning, bestselling author and public speaker. Her books cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics and emotions. Woven into all of Monique's writing and her speaking engagements is the teaching that Love is Medicine. Her books include Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation,My Heart Fills With Happiness,You Hold Me Up, Lucy and Lola,Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience,Tilly and the Crazy Eights,When We Are Kind and I Hope. She also created the young adult adaptation of Braiding Sweetgrassby Robin Wall Kimmerer. Monique is Cree and Scottish. She lives with her family on the Traditional Territories of the Lkon and WSÁNEc Peoples. Nicole Neidhardtis Diné (Navajo) of the Kiiyaa'áanii Clan and is from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She has a BFA from the University of Victoria and a MFA from OCAD University in Toronto. Nicole's Diné identity is the heart of her practice, which encompasses illustration, installation, murals and Indigenous Futurisms.