Dr. Laurie Stanley-Blackwell is a former history professor at St. Francis Xavier University. She has a lifelong love for the history of Maritime Canada. Her most recent children’s books are Big Rory of Market Square (The Pictou Bee Press, 2023), Big Rory Returns to Market Square (The Pictou Bee Press, 2024), A Pictou Christmas (The Pictou Bee Press, 2023), and The Pets That Came to Palmerston Street / Na Peataichean a thàinig gu Sràid Phalmerston (The Pictou Bee Press, 2023). Her work is delightful, lively, and endearing. Her children’s books have reached audiences as far away as Italy, Finland, Scotland, and the Yukon.

Teresa MacKenzie is curator of the McCulloch House Museum & Genealogy Centre in Pictou, Nova Scotia. She is the author and illustrator of Pictou town (The Pictou Bee Press, 2023), and the illustrator of The Pets That Came to Palmerston Street / Na Peataichean a thàinig gu Sràid Phalmerston (The Pictou Bee Press, 2023) and A Pictou Christmas (The Pictou Bee Press, 2023). Her illustrations are full of joy and life, and reflect her ability to bring a child’s perspective of wonder to her world view. Teresa recently created for Pictou’s new public library an impressive 8-foot mural of the buildings, both old and new, on Water and Front Streets in the downtown.