Qilavaq-Savard

Pauloosie loves his pet rock, Miki Rock. Pauloosie’s Anaana, his mother, tells him a bedtime story about what Miki Rock sees, hears, and feels in his Arctic home. As part of the land, Miki Rock sees char and beluga, listens to chirps and howls, and feels the snow and sun.

Through lyrical text and ethereal landscape illustrations by Pelin Turgut, readers are taken on an Arctic journey from the point of view of a most unlikely object--a child’s pet rock.

Ashley Qilavaq-Savard is an Inuk writer, artist, and emerging filmmaker born and raised in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She is the author of Where the Sea Kuniks the Land, which is about decolonizing narratives, healing from intergenerational trauma, and love of the land and culture. She has published two short stories relating to her Inuit culture, ＂My Very First Ulu＂ with Nipiit magazine and ＂Miki and the Aqsarniit＂ with Chirp magazine. Since attending the Vancouver Film School, Ashley has led acting and storytelling workshops for children and youth with the Qaggiavuut Performing Arts Society and the Labrador Creative Arts Festival. Ashley also creates sealskin and beaded jewellery, and is a dedicated student of Inuktitut.

Pelin Turgut is an illustrator, born and raised in Turkey. She completed her undergraduate studies at Yeditepe University of Fine Arts, Faculty of Graphic Design. Since 2018, she has illustrated many children’s books. In fact, she wants to be a children’s book one day, when she grows up. Pelin loves what she does and she continues to work in her studio in Bodrum to make her dreams come true.