Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio is a community worker, speaker, tour guide in Toronto's Little Manila, and founder of Filipino Talks-- a program that builds bridges between Canadian educators and Filipino newcomer families. After working with over 1200 Filipino youth in Canadian high schools, she was inspired to write her debut novel. Reuniting with Strangers (Douglas & McIntyre) was longlisted for Canada Reads 2024, named one of CBC's Best Books of 2023, won the silver medal for multicultural fiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards and the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. Her stories have been published in Geist, Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books), Changing the Face of Canadian Literature (Guernica Editions), TAYO Literary Magazine, and more. Born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario, she is now based in Toronto.