David Yaffe was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1973. He has written on numerous subjects (music, film, theater, dance, higher education) for The Nation, New York, Slate, The New York Times, The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, and other publications. He is currently a professor of Humanities at Syracuse University, and is the author of Fascinating Rhythm: Reading Jazz in American Writing and Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown.

Karen Bliss A music journalist since her teens, Karen Bliss is the Canadian correspondent for Billboard. Over the years, her work has been published by Rolling Stone, Pollstar, MSN, NME, Huffington Post, Melody Maker, and more. She has interviewed hundreds of artists, including Eminem, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Page, Shania Twain, Michael Buble, Metallica, Britney Spears and Bryan Adams. In 2013, she was named Music Journalist of the Year at CMW's Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards. She is the co-author of Music From Far And Wide: Celebrating 40 Years of the Juno Awards (Key Porter).

Mia Sheard is a Toronto-based singer, and psychotherapist. She sings primarily with Classic Albums Live, and has released four CDs of her own material. She cites Joni Mitchell as one of her first muses. Her love of all things Joni inspired her to create Songs Are Like Tattoos, a tribute to Mitchell's music, which has entertained sold-out audiences at Hugh's Room for the past nine years.

Joel Schwartz will be accompanying Mia on Oct. 12th. He is a multi-instrumentalist and composer (Amelia Curran, Royal Wood, Great Lake Swimmers). Joel has been a core member of the house band for Songs Are Like Tattoos for the past 5 years.

Joni Mitchell is a cultural touchstone for generations of Canadians. In her heyday she released ten experimental, challenging, and revealing albums; her lyrics captivated people with the beauty of their language and the rawness of their emotions, both deeply personal to Mitchell and universally relatable to her audience.

In this intimate biography, composed of dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, David Yaffe shows us why Mitchell has so enthralled her listeners, her lovers, and her friends. Yaffe has had unprecedented access both to Mitchell and to those who know her, drawing on interviews with childhood friends and the cast of famous characters (Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, and more) with whom she has crossed paths and influenced, as well as insightful analyses of her famous lyrics, their imagery and style, and what they say about the woman herself.