Armand Garnet Ruffo was born in Chapleau, northern Ontario, and is a band member of the Chapleau (Fox Lake) Cree First Nation. A recipient of a Honourary Life Membership Award from the League of Canadian Poets, he is recognized as a major contributor to both contemporary Indigenous literature and Indigenous literary scholarship in Canada. His publications include Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing Into Thunderbird (2014) and Treaty # (2019), both finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards. In 2020, he was awarded the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize in recognition of his work. Ruffo teaches at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.