Marla Lesage is a New Brunswick author/illustrator who loves to tell stories—both real and imagined—through pictures and words.

She has created several picture books as both author and illustrator, including We Wear Masks (winner of the 2020 Alice Kitts Memorial Award), and the graphic novel AWOL (winner of the 2024 Hackmatack Readers’ Choice Award). She also illustrates picture books written by others.

When not creating, Marla can often be found exploring the forest or near the water, filling sketchbooks, taming the clutter, or dreaming up projects that involve pens, paint, or power tools. A maker at heart, she is endlessly curious and never bored for long—always chasing rainbows and shiny new ideas.

Marla enjoys connecting with students and inspiring them to create their own works of art.

Wondering how to pronounce my last name? Listen to it here. Yes, it is a French-Canadian name! I’m anglophone but my husband is from a bilingual family & grew up in Montreal. Yes, I do speak French – at an intermediate level!

Publications:

• Freda the Fry written by Patsy Dingwell (Acorn, 2025)
• The Sea That Sings to Me written by Kara Griffin (Acorn, 2023)
• The Lonely Little Lighthouse written by Lana Shupe (Nimbus, 2022)
• AWOL (Orca, 2022)
• We Wear Masks: (Orca, 2020)
• Snorkel (poem) in Highlights Magazine (July 2020 issue)
• Broken Crayons written by Patsy Dingwell (Acorn, 2020)
• Pirate, Year Round (Acorn Press, 2019)
• Cactus Comics (self-published mini-comic, 2018)
• A Song for Dedi in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas in Canada (2014)
• Cover Art & accompanying short article for Skipping Stones literary magazine 2015 Spring Issue

Please feel free to contact me via email: MarlaLesage @ yahoo.com or via the form below.

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