Maria Chernobrovkina was born in Moscow, Russia. She loves both nature and painting as far back as she can remember. When she had to choose between becoming  a geographer and a painter, Maria decided… to do both – and got two degrees. After graduation she taught art and ecology to kids aged 3-15 and then started creating books. Her favourite techniques are collage and watercolor. Maria believes good books should not only entertain but teach as well. In her work she mostly focuses on nature and ecology. Maria has taken part in several exhibitions in Russia and Europe.”

She is an artist, designer and author.Her art is full with colour and reflects her view on life – “life is full with miracles, and should be taken with grain of humor. She is a very creative and a multi-talented person and is always busy with creating if not with pen, pencil, brush or any other media, then you will find her behind her computer and trusted Wacom board. She specializes in both traditional and digital techniques, and loves to mix in between them, to get to a more sharp look. In the rare cases that she is not working, she loves to travel to new places to expand her horizon and can be frequently found in China, Spain, Portugal or any other way the wind blows.

Emre is an aspiring young artist and an author with many published works in the international arena. Rumour has it that he started painting at the age of 2! Studying Fine Arts at high school and Graphic Design & Illustration at university, he has started a full time illustration career with children’s books and animations.

Mark Tedesco, author of That Undeniable Longing, I am John I am Paul, Lessons and Beliefs, The Dog on the Acropolis and Loving Hoping Believing, is an educator and author living in Los Angeles. His latest work is entitled She Seduced Me: A Love Affair with Rome. Mark lived in Rome for eight years and maintains a strong bond with, and passion for, the city. The author loves to engage his students in his love for history, literature and travel.

Danielle loves to work in colored pencils on watercolor paper, in part because it adds a rough textural element, and also because it’s too frightening to actually use watercolor paint on watercolor paper. Someday she plans on taking a course in watercolors and hopefully overcoming her fear of them. Until that day, however, she will continue to produce colorful, whimsical creations much to the delight of her family and friends. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and her two sons, who steal her colored pencils.

Bernie Leonard lives in West Yorkshire, England with her two amazing children and her soulmate Simon. She is a psychology graduate and a qualified teacher of Mindfulness. After teaching Psychology successfully over two decades, she re-trained as a Mindfulness teacher and now runs her own well-being business, Mindful Me Health & Well-Being Ltd. 

Conny Vischer was born in Switzerland. In her childhood she loves reading till late at night and in her early teenage years she started to write short stories which ended in a bin after a few years.
After her studies for nurse she restarted writing and started to travel around the United Kingdom and fell in love with this beautiful country, especially Scotland.
She finds ideas for her stories when she’s sitting on the shore of any water or on a walk and letting her thoughts wander to the music. Even while writing, music is a constant companion. It is as if the notes become words whispered to her. Compositions that turn into novels.

Joe Gray is a field naturalist who lives in the catchment of the River Colne on the island known as Great Britain. He has master’s degrees in Zoology from Cambridge and Forestry from Bangor and is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. Joe is also a Co-founder of The Ecological Citizen (a peer-reviewed, nature-centred journal), Chair of GENIE (the Global Ecocentric Network for Implementing Ecodemocracy), and a Knowledge Advisor on ecological ethics for the United Nations’ Harmony with Nature programme.

Alina is a half British, half German artist with a BA in Illustration from Falmouth University. She mostly works with inks but loves to try out all types of traditional media. Having grown up in the English countryside, her work is greatly inspired by nature and animals. Her greatest passion is her children’s books and bringing her characters and colourful scenes to life for all to enjoy. As well as painting, she enjoys travelling, adventuring by the seaside and baking.

George M. Johnson became an activist when he was a Grade Five student in Ontario. Since 1991, he has been the Chair of Global and Community Action at Kamloops United Church, and actually wrote and performed in the play and anti-fashion show described in How Hope Became an Activist. He is an award-winning writer, passionate about telling stories with humour to create empathy and provoke change. In 2019, he received the Y.M.C.A. Peace Medal for his social justice work and writing. He is currently a Professor and Chair of the English and Modern Languages Department at Thompson Rivers University. 

Andrew took on various roles over his lifetime – archaeologist, soldier, father, sustainability activist, and many more. He became interested in ecovillages in 2001. In his words, he was blown away by a world where human relationships were at the centre of existence. The particular way of existing in ecovillages where how you show up and contribute is more important than money and what you do for a living inspired him immensely. He also regarded it as one of the solutions to find meaningful work, water, food, energy, and social security. He has been a pioneer in two ecovillages and is currently a board trustee for the Global Ecovillage Network.

Sacha Baldwin is a creative Illustrator & Designer from Cambridgeshire with professional studio experience in Children’s Crafts, Stationary, and the Seasonal Craft Industry.  With a Bachelors in Illustration, and an extensive portfolio of exciting projects, Sacha enjoys working in traditional mediums such as watercolour, collage and monoprint, also making engaging, playful images using digital platforms.

An avid collector of Children’s books, and an amateur photographer, Sacha is inspired by nature, passionately capturing the beautiful skies where she lives.  Sacha enjoys collaborating on projects and regularly contributes to a drawing group with fellow creatives.

Inas Younis was born in Mosul, Iraq and emigrated to the United States as a child in 1982. An independent journalist and commentator, Inas writes on religion and politics for various magazines and websites. She is the co-founder of the first chapter of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom in Kansas City and served on the board of this national organization, based in New Jersey. She is an alumna of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In the realm of civic leadership, Inas currently serves on the board of the  KCPublic theatre and an active member of People of Faith for Peace.

Sandra Pomar is an exceptionally busy mom of five spectacular children. Her previous work entails being an Educator in both Canada and the United Kingdom. Sandra’s undying compassion for children has led her to volunteer for The Make a Wish Foundation, POPS-Les Enfants de la Rue, Christmas in July children’s toy donations & the NSPCC. Her passion for writing has become a reality last year when she embarked on her journey as an author for Women’s Perinatal Health, and as an avid lover of children’s books, she hopes for her new stories to be a fresh change for children globally. Sandra aspires to spread the word that “a little respect and compassion go a long way,” hence her motto “Every child should go to bed at night feeling safe, loved, and well cared for.” 

Her mission and desire in life is to help children worldwide experience laughter, peace and joy.

Edna Gee is a South African artist and English teacher currently living and working in Milan. From an early age, she was exposed to her country’s rich fauna and flora through regular trips to the national park and her grandfather’s stories about birds and animals. Her family also had a wide variety of pets including a pig, chickens, cats, birds and a dog. She completed a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria after which she moved to Milan to pursue further studies in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti. She has been working with Isola Art Center since 2012.

Dhwani Gosalia is an independent Graphic Designer and Illustrator from Mumbai. She does both digital and traditional illustrations. From an early age, she knew what she wanted to do for the rest
of her life. Making the world of plain boring text to interesting and engaging visuals. She has graduated from Rachana Sansad College of Mumbai in Bachelors of Fine Art and Craft (BFA) with a specialization in Illustration. She is commited to make reading exciting for kids visually and encourage them to grow while she discovers and experiments with diferent styles and techniques. Besides children’s books she loves all things colourful, nature and desserts.

Teena Raffa-Mulligan is a reader, writer and daydream believer who believes there is magic in every day if we choose to find it. She grew up in an English/Italian family in Western Australia, surrounded by natural story tellers whose tales about their lives captured her imagination. Books also opened a window into the world of make believe and her ambition to be a writer was born at an early age.

Altierra – alias Alessandra Ciogli – was born in Italy and graduated from the School of Arts of Verona.

She collaborated with public elementary schools through art projects for the development of creativity in children. She worked as a photographer and graphic designer, moving on to her first love, painting.

She has traveled extensively, being interested in nature, farming, and other cultures, discovering  meditation in India, and becoming yoga teacher to adults and childrens. 

Nola is an Australian children’s book author, about to debut her YA novel, ‘Enough Is Enough’. She is a retired teacher who’s relishing her new found freedom to focus on writing truthful, authentic stories that her readers can escape into. She wants her novels to give hope and courage to anyone doing it tough because of the difficult circumstances they find themselves in. 

Nola is passionate about writing, her family, spending time with friends, travelling the world and championing the underdog. 

After studying in Oxford and London, Simon pursued a conventional career in local government and the third sector during which time he obtained an Open University MBA.  A defining moment came when he and his wife bought a 52 acre plantation woodland in Hertfordshire, England.  Since 2015 they have lived in temporary accommodation on the edge of their wood trying to secure planning permission for a permanent home.  Gradually Simon learned that their wood was not so much a collection of trees as a numinous presence (a Thomas Berry phrase).

Simon’s woodland restoration work has featured in Royal Forestry Society articles and  ECOS, the journal of the British Association of Nature Conservationists (BANC), of which he is a trustee.  In addition to caring for their woodland Simon divides his time making copious cups of tea for his professor wife, small business consultancy work, and caring for a flock of rescue sheep and chickens.

Federica Ambroso was born in Italy, near Verona, in 1993. She is a PhD in Modern Languages, Literature and Cultures. She has a BSc in Modern Literatures from the University of Bologna and a MSc in European Literatures and Cultures from the Universities of Bologna and Thessaloniki.

Ever since she was a child, she has had a passion for writing and reading. She has won 60 literary contests in Italy and Greece. She published a children’s book in Greek (Ο Μάγειρας των Εποχών και η μυστική συνταγή της Άνοιξης) ̶ winner of the 2019 EPOK Book of the Year Award ̶, a bilingual collection of short stories (Με τις βαλίτσες γεμάτες ήλιο /Con le valigie piene di sole), a children’s book in Italian (La grande avventura di Lily Selvaggia), a collection of poems in Veronese dialect (In serca del sol) and a romance novel in Italian (Il canto del meltemi). Other texts have been published in Greek and Italian literary and cultural magazines as well as in anthologies.

She is also a translator and a singer. She loves travelling and dancing.

Alastair McColl is a writer, software developer and sailor, with degrees in English, Philosophy and Computer Science. Alastair lives with his wife, two children and dog in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, on the north eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean. He is currently developing a novel which centres on social life, in a world where most employment is performed through artificially intelligent avatars. He is also creating a graphic novel, as well as children’s books depicting life on the Canadian west coast.

Highly qualified, engaging, and multiple award-winning online and face-to-face instructor.  Over 20 years of experience in adult education. Designed and taught courses in finance, financial analysis, financial planning, accounting, and Microsoft Office, with a specialization in building Excel models. Proven track-record of leading students to success. Recognized and awarded for instructional techniques for both online and in-class courses. Professional intrapreneur with high internal motivation, adept in both creative and technical skills. Currently teaching a master’s level course online through Simon Fraser University’s globally recognized Beedie School of Business.