Debby Dahl Edwardson grew up in Minnesota where she spent summers at her family cabin on an island near the Canadian border. She attended school in Norway and has lived for over 40 years in Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost community in the country. Her picture book, Whale Snow was named an NCSS/CBC Notable, a Banks Street Best, Independent Publishers' Best Picture Book of the Year and an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society. Her first novel, Blessing's Bead was selected by the Junior Library Guild and named an ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and, by Booklist . Her novel My Name is Not Easy was a finalist for the National Book Award. She earned an MFA from Vermont College in 2005 and is an adjunct instructor at Ilisagvik College, a tribal college. George Saggan Edwardson served as President of the Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS) for nearly 30 years. ICAS is federally recognized tribal government with jurisdiction over the 89,000-square-mile territory known as the North Slope of Alaska.

ICAS is charged with preserving the inherent sovereign rights and powers of the Iñupiat. George was also a longtime delegate to the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an organization representing the Inuit peoples of Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. He earned a degreein Geology from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and worked on mapping the geology of Native regions of Alaska. He was born and raised in Utqiagvik, Alaska, where he grew up hunting, whaling and learning from his elders. He is a traditional storyteller and oral historian. He and his wife Debby have seven children and 16 grandchildren. Born and raised in the rural expanse of the North Slope of Alaska, Nasugraq Rainey Hopson grew up on fantastic tales from her unique and rich Indigenous Iñupiaq culture. When she is not writing or creating art inspired by these stories, she is studying how to grow food in the arctic and is working at preserving traditional Iñupiaq knowledge.

She has a degree in Studio Art and has taught all levels of Art from kindergarten to college level. She lives in Anaktuvuk Pass Alaska with herhusband and daughter, three dogs, and a small flock of arctic chickens where she lives off the land and the amazing bounty it provides like her ancestors did for thousands of years. She is the author of Eagle Drums .