About Ashley Spires

Ashley Spires is a Canadian children's book author and illustrator. She is the creator of the Binky the Space Cat graphic novels series and the 2014 bestseller, The Most Magnificent Thing.

Spires was born and raised in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. She studied photography at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she was inspired to pursue illustration after taking a class on book-making.

After graduation, she earned a contract with Lobster Press, for which she illustrated Peter Kuitenbrouwer's 2004 book, Our Song: The Story of O Canada, the Canadian National Anthem. [2] She later attended a postgraduate illustration program at Ontario's Sheridan College.[2][3]

Spires is the author and illustrator of the Binky the Space Cat graphic novel series, about a cat who believes his house is a space station.[2][4] The first book in the series, Binky the Space Cat, won the 2011 Silver Birch Express Award, presented by the Ontario Library Association.[5] On September 7, 2019, a TV series based on the series, called Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe, premiered on Treehouse TV.