Once upon a time...

I grew up on an old farm in Maple, Ontario with Black Aberdeen Angus cattle, and loved taking long walks across the fields and through the woods. I also spent hours in the loft of our old barn, dreaming and scheming. One day, I found a mysterious black medallion and a gold ring in an old chest in the corner of the barn. For years, I kept them hidden.

And long, long, long after the barn tumbled down . . .

And when the time came to write The MiddleGate Books, I remembered the black medallion and the gold ring.

Rae St. Clair Bridgman is an award-winning Winnipeg author and illustrator of children’s books, including several picture books and the mythical MiddleGate Books. University professor, anthropologist, urban planner, mother of six, grandmother to nine ... she has a knack for finding the magical and extraordinary in the ordinary, in between the cracks of reality. Favourite things to do in her spare time: watching ants, chasing crayfish, reading the dictionary, playing tuba, watching clouds, and inventing toys. She writes from Winnipeg, which is located on the original lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Favourite sayings - "Often, secrets do not remain secrets for long." “Things that disappear by themselves can come back by themselves.” “Problems multiply like flies.” “The story certainly changes depending on the storyteller.”

Rae co-directs the Winnipeg design studio BridgmanCollaborative Architecture and is a professor of city planning in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. She earned her B.A. (Latin) and Bachelor of Music at the University of Toronto, as well as a Master's (interdisciplinary studies) and PhD (anthropology) at York University.

Member of . . .

• The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC)
• Canadian Authors Association (CAA)
• SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators)
• CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers)
• SFWA  (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association)
• SF Canada (Canada's National Association of Speculative Fiction Professionals)
• Manitoba Writers' Guild
• IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association)
• The Lewis Carroll Society of North America