Here’s my chat with Rhael McGregor about her illustration work on Touching Grass published by HarperCollins Canada.

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Rhael McGregor is is a Winnipeg-based, Métis and Two-Spirit/Queer, award-winning comic artist. Having been in the comics scene since 2018 with the debut comic Tinder, Rhael has since gone on to publish work with companies such as Harper Collins, Iron Circus, and Highwater Press. Rhael’s work mainly revolves around Indigenous and Queer literature in Fantasy or Sci-Fi settings, focusing on representation, the connections between people, character growth, and spreading joy. When not drawing, Rhael is usually enjoying time with friends and family, beading, baking, or playing organization/management games. The newest YA book with art from Rhael is entitled Touching Grass written by Kristy Jackson.

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The story of Touching Grass goes like this: “Tristen would do anything to avoid going outside. The bugs sting, the snakes are poisonous, the heat will kill you if the cold doesn’t, and bodies of water? Forget it. Tristen likes it best indoors, deep in his online world where it’s safe, with his online friends. Something he has a hard time with IRL. But Tristen is in trouble at school again, and the principal is threatening to kick him out of this third school in two years. His mom believes the answer is to get Tristen off the games and in touch with nature and his Dene roots. This means Tristen has to spend a week at a culture camp in the wilderness. It’s his worst nightmare! And at first it is a nightmare—no internet, no phone reception, no Bepsi!—and Tristen has no idea how to do any of the skills the other kids seem to do easily. But soon, with some surprising new friends and a few patient teachers, and a little help from technology, Tristen begins to think he might be able to hack this nature stuff after all.”

You can discover more about Rhael McGregor online at rhaelmcgregor.com and on Instagram at @raysdrawlings

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