Erin Silver is a freelance writer and an award-winning children’s author of more than 30 books, many of which have been translated into other languages, including French, Spanish and Korean. Her books for children include Proud to Play: Canadian LGBTQ+ Athletes Who Made History, Rush Hour: Navigating Our Global Traffic Jam (Blueberry Award winner), Sitting Shiva (Ontario Library Association Best Pick, Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor, Vine Award finalist, TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award finalist), Good Food, Bad Waste: Let’s Eat for the Planet (Finalist, 2024 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books), Mighty Scared: The Amazing Ways Animals Defend Themselves (nominated for the Richard Allen Chase Memorial Award, shortlisted for the 2025-26 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award), In It To Win It: Sports and the Climate Crisis (ALA best sustainability themed book 2024 and Green Earth Book Award for Children's Non-Fiction 2025), All Consuming: Shop Smarter for the Planet (Green Earth Book Award Honor, nominated for the Sharon Fitzhenry Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction, shortlisted for the 2025-26 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award) and Plant Attack!: The Fascinating Ways Flora Defends Itself (Forest of Reading Silver Birch Express Award Nominee). Several additional nonfiction titles about athletes and pop stars, high tech, plants, animals, holidays, and climate change are also now available. Erin is a sought-after speaker at schools, libraries and conferences. Her journalism work has appeared in a range of major magazines and newspapers including Owl magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. She also writes for The Royal Gazette (Bermuda), Costco Connections magazine and TanenbaumCHAT’s Chatter magazine. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction and a postgraduate journalism degree. Erin is represented by Amy Tompkins at the Transatlantic Agency. For more information, visit her at ErinSilver.ca.
In this presentation, perfect for families and children in grades 1 to five, we'll talk about how kids around the world helped others during the pandemic. At a time when even adults were scared, kids took action. This interactive virtual presentation focuses on my picture book, What Kids Did, and talks to kids about how they can make a difference, even if they're small. The presentation includes a discussion, a reading and a Q and A. It also includes a slide show with photos that describes how I wrote the book and found the kids in it. There are also free downloadable activities on my website for children. I've delivered this presentation to audiences of 20 to 500 and have had wonderful feedback.
This presentation focuses on my book Proud to Play. I've presented this workshop to a range of audiences, including classrooms and adults. It focuses on the concept of homophobia in professional sports;. We look at how the experience of athletes varied over time and from sport to sport. We also look at where we are today and what else we can all do going forward to make sports a more welcoming place for everyone. After all, if you can play, you can play. A slide show featuring athletes individual stories, followed by a Q and A and a reading is one option. I also offer this as a panel presentation that includes athletes from the book who can share their personal experiences to help audiences understand what it's like to be discriminated against in sport.
This interactive workshop about writing nonfiction is perfect for students in grades 5 to 7 who are learning how to write, organize and present nonfiction work. I've developed a slideshow presentation to discuss the differences between fiction and nonfiction, elements of nonfiction, the process of writing and organizing a work of nonfiction, and how to make nonfiction writing sound more like fiction.
