Pirjo Raits is an award-winning, editor, journalist, and freelance writer, whose work has appeared in various publications and magazines. She has won numerous national and provincial newspaper awards for her stories and photographs. Raits was editor of the Sooke News Mirror for ten years, before retiring in 2015. Her bestselling book, Out of the Woods: Woodworkers along the Salish Sea was published in 2018, and Out of the Fire: Metalworkers along the Salish Sea is coming out in 2022.