About Me
Lauren Soloy is the author and illustrator of When Emily was Small (Tundra Books, 2020) and Etty Darwin and the Four Pebble Problem (Tundra Books, 2021), The Hidden World of Gnomes (Tundra Books, 2023), Tove and the Island With No Address (Tundra Books, 2024), Every Leaf on Every Tree (Nimbus Books, 2025), The Newest Gnome (Tundra Books, 2025), and Dear Petal: Emily Dickinson and her Flower Friends (Tundra Books 2027), and the illustrator of I’s the B’y (Greystone Kids, 2022) and A Tulip in Winter, a Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis (written by Kathy Stinson, Greystone Kids, 2023), as well as the author of Hello, Beautiful Animal (illustrated by Janie Hao, Kids Can Press, 2026). She has lived on both coasts of Canada, always within reach of the sea. She currently lives in a house that is exactly 100 years older than she is in rural Nova Scotia, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. She shares her home with her librarian husband, two curious children, an ever-expanding collection of books, two hives of bees, and one cat. She has a Visual Arts BFA with Honours from the University of Victoria, and a certificate of Fine Furniture from Camosun College. Along the way, she has learned to make a Queen Anne Highboy, a pottery mug, a hand knit pair of socks, a headstand, and a mess. She is represented by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists.
I believe in wonder.
I believe in rain,
and eggs that hatch,
and plants that dance.
I believe in the hum of bees
saving summer for a winter’s day,
and memories of places we have never been,
and the scent of a loved one,
drifting in the wind.
Mushrooms that appear overnight,
arms that hold the world at bay,
the particular taste of biting into
a slice of chocolate cake,
geese that call each other home,
frogs that sing the approach of
spring.
I believe in the moon,
and the stars,
and the spaces in between.
I touch my heart and feel it beat.
I believe that wonder appears
when we allow ourselves
to allow ourselves
to see.