Shandi Mitchell is an author and filmmaker. She graduated from Dalhousie University with a degree in English and Theatre. Her award-winning short films have been featured at festivals across North America. In 2008, she was awarded the Canada Council's Victor Martin-Lynch Staunton Endowment in Media Arts.

Her debut novel Under This Unbroken Sky was simultaneously published by Penguin Canada, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK) and Harper Collins (US) in August 2009. It has sold in nine countries, including translation rights for Chinese, Hebrew, Dutch and Italian. Under This Unbroken Sky won the 2010 Commonwealth regional Prize for First Book (Canada/Caribbean), the Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Award, and the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award.