Bio
Ishta Mercurio is a sometime actor and a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children. They are the co-author with Kari-Lynn Winters of the Red Maple nominated non-fiction title Bite Into Bloodsuckers (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015), and the author of Crystal Kite Award winning Small World (ABRAMS Books for Young Readers, 2019), which is illustrated by Jen Corace and received a starred review from both the SLJ and CCBC and made NPR's Best Books list in 2019. They administer the SCBWI Canada East Rising Kite Diversity Award and chaired the Board of Directors at The FOLD Foundation from 2019-2022. They have also read for the CCBC's Best Books magazine and for CANSCAIP's annual Writing for Children Competition.