Our team

Dan Bar-el

Our Team

Dan Bar-el

Dan Bar-el (he/him) is an award-winning children’s author, educator and storyteller. Among his sixteen published books are middle grade novels, picture books and graphic novels, including Audrey (cow), which was nominated for the Governor-General’s award.

For the past thirty-one years, he has been working with children ages 3-17. He’s been a school age childcare provider, a preschool teacher, a drama teacher, and a creative writing teacher. His books have allowed him to tour across Canada to do presentations and workshops with hundreds of thousands of children in schools and libraries. He’s had the opportunity to present and teach in South Korea and the United States as well.

In the past, Dan trained and worked professionally as an actor, he wrote for theatre, and has written and performed sketch comedy across Canada, too. Hiking and travelling are two of his passions. Baking and cooking, and then eating the results of what was baked and cooked, are some of his others.

Selected publications:

  • Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North, Atheneum Books, 2020.
  • The Very, Very Far North, Atheneum Books, 2019.
  • It’s Great Being a Dad, Tundra Books, 2017.
  • Audrey (cow), Tundra Books, 2014.
  • Not Your Typical Dragon, Viking Books, 2013.
  • Things Are Looking Grimm, Jill, Orca Books, 2006.

Find out more at danbarel.com.

Dona Park
Dona Park

Dona Park (she/her) is an artist and jewellery designer. She is a graduate of Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana. 

She has worked intensively on art for peacebuilding initiatives with Women Peace Makers in Cambodia and is a co-author of Navigating the Nexus of Art and Peace.

Dona has worked with Mennonite Church USA to create art for several peace and justice initiatives, including “Laboring Toward Wholeness, A Training on Dismantling Patriarchy” and “Defund the Police? An Abolition Curriculum,” and received a Bring the Peace Award. 

Most recently, she showcased her artwork in “April Showers, Flowers Blooming” at Slice of Life Gallery in Vancouver, BC.

Selected publications:

  • Voices from Unframed Bodies. Re-Orient Zine, ReconciliAsian (USA), 2020.
  • Navigating the Nexus of Art and Peace. Women Peace Makers (Cambodia), 2020.
  • Hear, Listen. Look, See. Touch, Feel: Using our senses to understand ‘The Other.’ Women Peace Makers (Cambodia), 2020.
  • Serving with Art in Oxapampa. The Goshen College Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad: Essays on Intercultural Learning, Goshen College (USA), 2016.

Selected exhibitions:

  • April Showers, Flowers Blooming. Solo exhibition, Slice of Life Gallery, Vancouver, 2023.
  • Voices Together: A Celebration of Art and Music. Group exhibition, Grebel Gallery, Waterloo, 2022. 
  • Face-to-Face. Solo exhibition, Reach Museum, Abbotsford, 2022.

Find out more at donapark.com.

Greg Brown
Greg Brown

Greg Brown (he/him) is an award-winning writer and teacher. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina–Greensboro’s MFA program in Creative Writing and Memorial University of Newfoundland’s MA in English Literature. 

He’s the recipient of the UBC English Department’s Roy Daniells Memorial Essay Prize, a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, the winner of the 2018 Grouse Grind Lit Prize for V. Short Forms, and a finalist for the 2018 Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. His fiction and essays have appeared in Paragon, Postscript, Pulp Literature, Tate Street, PRISM international, the Best Microfiction anthology and The Journey Prize Stories 30: The Best of Canada’s New Writers. 

For more than ten years, Greg has taught creative writing to kids and teens, and has run writing workshops at the University of Virginia’s Young Writers Workshop, and for the non-profit organizations Literacy Central Vancouver Island and the Creative Writing for Children Society in Vancouver, BC.

Selected publications:

  • Birdhouse, short story, PRISM International. 2018. 
  • Love, short story: The Journey Prize 30: The Best of Canada’s New Writers, 2017. 
  • Bear, short story: The Journey Prize 30: The Best of Canada’s New Writers, 2017. 
  • The Procrastinator, short story, Paragon II, 2009.

Find out more about Greg at gregorydbrown.com

Lee Edward Fodi
Lee Edward Födi

Lee Edward Födi (he/him) is an award-winning children’s author, illustrator, and educator who specializes in creativity workshops for young people. He is the author and illustrator of several books for children and has served as the official illustrator for the BC libraries’ summer reading program.

As a child, Lee was in an intensive gifted learning program, a foundational experience that he brings to the classroom. He is a funny and gifted storyteller, and has worked as an artist/writer-in-residence at numerous schools in Canada, the United States, Korea, and Thailand. He had led art therapy sessions for at-risk teens and is a co-founder of The Creative Writing for Children Society (CWC), a not-for-profit program that was started to help immigrant and first-generation Canadians write their own books. 

As an illustrator, Lee brings a very visual approach to the craft of writing while, as a writer, he brings the power of stories to illustration and prop-building. He graduated from the University of British Columbia and has a degree in English Literature and a diploma in Fine Arts.

Selected publications:

  • Spell Sweeper, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2021. 
  • The Guardians of Zoone, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2020.
  • The Secret of Zoone, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2019.
  • Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers, Simply Read Books, 2013.

Find out more at leefodi.com.

Marcie Nestman
Marcie Nestman

Marcie Nestman (she/her) is an actor, voice-over actor, and writing and theatre instructor—and recently made her debut as a playwright with On My Walk, which was co-written with Kari-Lynn Winters, and performed at Carousel Theatre for Young People. Marcie is a graduate of the Theatre Arts Performance Conservatory at Mount Royal University in Calgary, and continued her studies at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She has appeared in nearly 30 TV commercials, Film & TV, and theatre productions, and other projects.

In addition to teaching at Carousel, Marcie has taught at numerous theatre and writing camps, including the Mount Royal University Summer Camp, CWC camps in Korea, the Write It-Read It Camp for the Whistler Public Library. She has also served as an artist-in-residence for a school in Thailand.

Selected voice-over:

  • Happy Place, 2025, TVO Kids

Selected publications

  • On My Walk, written by Marcie Nestman and Kari-Lynn Winters, 2016.

Selected performances:

  • On My Walk, Carousel Theatre for Young People, 2016.
  • Communion, Ruby Slippers Theatre, 2013.
  • The Secret World of Og, Carousel Theatre for Young People, 2009.
  • The Big League, School Tour through-out BC (168 performances), Carousel Theatre for Young People, 2007-2008.

Find out more at marcienestman.com.

Stacey Matson
Stacey Matson

Stacey Matson (she/her) is the author of four middle-grade novels, most recently of Finding Cooper. Stacey graduated in 2012 from the University of British Columbia with a Master of Arts in Children’s Literature. 

Her first novel, A Year in the Life of a Total and Complete Genius, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, a Snow Willow, MYRCA and Rocky Mountain Book Award nominee and the winner of the Chocolate Lily award. In 2017, Stacey was a Berton House Writer-in-Residence. Stacey works as an educator with the Creative Writing for Children Society, a literacy mentor with youth and teens at the Writers’ Exchange, and is one of the co-founders of Ink Well Vancouver, a children’s literature-focused workshop community.

Selected publications:

  • Eleven out of Ten, Scholastic Canada, 2026
  • Finding Cooper, Scholastic Canada, 2019.
  • Notes from the — Life of a Total Genius, Scholastic Canada, 2016.
  • Scenes from the Epic Life of a Total Genius, Scholastic Canada, 2015.
  • A Year in the Life of a Total and Complete Genius, Scholastic Canada, 2014.

Learn more about her at staceymatson.com.

Victor Mariano
Victor Mariano

Victor Mariano (he/him) is a Vancouver-based theatre artist with a focus on physical theatre and theatre for young audiences (TYA). 

Recent TYA productions include Heavy and Light, Learning and Forgetting, Where the Wild Things Are, and Pop! Pop!(Presentation House Theatre), The House at Pooh Corner, The Velveteen Rabbit, and On My Walk (Carousel Theatre for Young People).

As an acting and drama instructor, Victor has taught at Carousel Theatre for Young People (2008-current), the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (2016-19), Theatre Replacement’s PantoLand/PantoTown (2019-23), Gateway Academy (2022-23), and at his alma mater, The School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University (2007-13), where he received a BFA in Theatre Performance.

Selected performances:

  • Heavy and Light,Presentation House Theatre, North Vancouver, BC, 2023.
  • Learning and Forgetting, Presentation House Theatre, North Vancouver, BC, 2023.
  • Where the Wild Things Are, Presentation House Theatre, North Vancouver, BC, 2022.
  • Pop! Pop! Presentation House Theatre, North Vancouver, BC, 2022-2023.
  • The House at Pooh Corner, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Vancouver, BC, 2020.
  • The Velveteen Rabbit, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Vancouver, BC, 2018.
  • On My Walk, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Vancouver, BC, 2016.