Dawn Baker has been a visual artist and children’s writer since 1992 and an avid gardener since 1988. A graduate of Memorial University with a Bachelor of Education and a certificate in library studies, she served on the board of directors of The Rooms from 2006 until 2019. In 2015, Dawn served as a juror for the Governor General’s Literary Awards and toured Ontario as part of TD Canadian Children’s Book Week. In 2021–2022, she served as a junior visual art adjudicator for the 2022 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards. In 2023, Dawn was a juror for the Saskatchewan Book Awards in the Fiction category and served again in 2024 in the Children’s Illustrated Book category. My Island Garden: Ornamental Gardening in Atlantic Canada is the fifteenth book that Dawn has illustrated and/or written with Flanker Press.
In 2003, Dawn’s garden won in the Beautiful Beds and Borders category of national publication Canadian Gardener’s Garden of the Year contest.