Stan Rogers

Stan Rogers (1949-1983) was a gifted Canadian musician whose fame is known throughout the English-speaking world of folk music. He began his musical career as a teen, playing as a rock bassist, and then started writing songs about his Maritime roots, which were recorded on his first album, Fogarty's Cove. He had a talent for writing about the Canadian experience - about the people who worked on farms, and in mines and fisheries across the country. He traveled frequently during the last years of his life and tragically died in an airline fire. The Canadian Conference of the Arts posthumously awarded Stan Rogers the Diplôme d'Honneur. The Ontario Council of Folk Festivals awarded him the Estelle Klein Lifetime Achievement Award, and SOCAN, a National Lifetime Achievement Award. Rogers' music has been nominated twice for a Juno Award. The musical A Matter of Heart features Stan Rogers' songs and stories, which continue to move people young and old.

Matt James is a noted painter, illustrator and musician. His first picture book, Yellow Moon, Apple Moon by Pamela Porter, won the New Mexico Book Award and was a finalist for a Governor General's Award. I Know Here by Laurel Croza, won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, and was a finalist for the Governor General's Award, the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award. Matt has most recently illustrated Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers. He lives in Toronto. www.mattjames.ca