Monique Gray Smith

MONIQUE GRAY SMITH is an award-winning, bestselling author of books for children and adults, as well as an accomplished international speaker and consultant. As a writer and storyteller, her books cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics, and emotions. Woven into all of Monique's writing is the teaching that Love is Medicine and she truly believe that literature, both written and oral stories, are the fabric that strengthens society.

Monique's most recent children's book is, Dreaming Alongside and in 2022 I had the privilege and joy of adapting Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass for a new generation, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults. One of my adult novels, Tilly and the Crazy Eights was longlisted for Canada Reads 2021. My novella, Lucy and Lola, was inspired by a visit to Gabriola in 2016.

Of Cree and Scottish descent, she has been sober and on her healing journey for more than thirty-four years. Her debut novel, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Literature. Monique Gray Smith and her family are blessed to live on the traditional territory of the WSÁNEĆ people near Victoria, British Columbia.