I’m Tanya Lloyd Kyi, the author of more than thirty-five books for children and young adults. I write about science, pop culture, history, and curious combinations of the three. I’m also a lecturer with the UBC School of Creative Writing and a frequent presenter to schools and libraries.

I was born in Vancouver. Soon after, my family moved to a small town and started planting vegetable gardens, then moved even further from civilization and began sewing my clothes from green velour. I’ve made peace with the vegetable gardening, but I don’t want to talk about the green velour.

When I was ten and my sister was seven, my parents opened a restaurant in Creston, B.C. I can roller skate, because in the basement of The Rendezvous was a large expanse of concrete. I can also balance a load of drinks on a tray, manage difficult customers, and translate “2 e s/s, wh” into “two eggs, sunny-side up, white toast.”

I went to the University of Victoria, which I loved. There were rabbits, and gorgeous creative writing classrooms lined with glass, and wise teachers, and fun and wonderful roommates who mostly still speak to me, and pubs, and theatres, and non-fiction writing workshops that I still remember. In my fourth year of school, I got a job at a small publishing house in North Vancouver. There, I fell madly in love with children’s books. And I’ve been writing them ever since!

I now have a grown-up daughter with a thousand projects of her own underway, and a son who’s studying computer science. I’m married to the world’s only Burmese occupational therapist (or so he claims).

My favourite food is cheese. My favourite colour is blue. Even though I’ve written about talking cats, I’m actually a dog person, and my most dedicated writing partner is a small Yorkie-cross named Coby. (His name is short for Cobra Kyi, if you’re a Karate Kid fan). When I’m not writing, I play tennis, read, and bake. And yes, I occasionally garden.