Laura Swann (Author) Karen Swann won the Writing Magazine Picture Book Prize in 2018. She grew up in the UK where she trained as a physiotherapist in a small town by the sea. Always a writer and a storyteller, she now lives with her family in Nottingham and, when she's not halfway up a climbing wall, she loves to write lyrical rhyming stories at an old Victorian scrub-top table. The Tale of the Whale is her debut picture book. www.karenswann.com Padmacandra (Illustrator) Padmacandra grew up in Scotland, lives in Norfolk and graduated from the Cambridge School of Art. She is a Buddhist, poet and artist and currently works part-time as a carer. www.padmacandra.com