Carter Higgins has written many books for young readers, including EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A TREEHOUSE, an NPR Best Book of the Year and THIS IS NOT A VALENTINE, a Kids' Indie Next List selection. She is the author and illustrator of CIRCLE UNDER BERRY and SOME OF THESE ARE SNAILS. Carter is a creative storyteller who designs playful experiences around visual literacy and believes the wit of kids' language is the best poetry of all.

Carter is an Emmy-winning visual effects and motion graphics artist and spent a decade as an elementary school librarian. She is also the creator of the popular blog, Design of the Picture Book. She lives in Las Vegas.

Maria Hinojosa’s nearly thirty-year career as a journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WGBH, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring and executive producing the Peabody Award–winning show Latino USA, the longest running national Latinx news program in the country, distributed by PRX. She is also a contributor to the long-running, award-winning news program CBS Sunday Morning and an on-air contributor on MSNBC. She has won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, four Emmys, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club, and the Ruben Salazar Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also been inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010 she founded Futuro Media, an independent nonprofit newsroom and production company with the mission of producing multimedia content from a POC perspective. Through the breadth of her work and as the founding co-anchor of the award-winning podcast In the Thick, Hinojosa has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. Her adult memoir, ONCE I WAS YOU was an NPR Best Book of 2020. In 2022, she adapted ONCE I WAS YOU for young readers, blending her story with perspectives on history in the vein of Jason Reynolds’s Stamped. She lives with her family in Harlem, New York City.

Van Hoang, one of Publishers Weekly Flying Starts for Fall 2020, is the author of several middle grade novels, and her adult debut releases in 2024. Born in Vietnam, she grew up in Southern California, earning her bachelor’s in English at the University of New Mexico and her master’s in Library Information Science at San Jose State University.

Ekua Holmes is an artist and illustrator who received an education in art at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she continues her career as a community coordinator. She has a highly successful career as an exhibiting artist, and her work has not only earned grants through the Boston Foundation but has been featured on Google's own landing page. She is the illustrator of many acclaimed books for children.

Of her own work, Ekua writes "Although much of [it] is set in an urban environment, these portraits of beloved Aunties, sacred gardens, and children at play, sing with lyrics as old as mankind."

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Dr. David Hone is a palaeontologist and zoologist at Queen Mary, University of London, where he is also Director of Biological Scienes Programmes. He has published nearly 100 academic papers on dinosaur biology and behaviour, with a particular interest in Tyrannousaurs. David includes among his writing credits the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs. He has appeared on the Discovery Channel, BBC Radio 5 Live and RTE, acted as consultant for National Geographic documentaries, and written articles for The Guardian, New Scientist, The Times, The Independent, The Telegraph, The New York Times, and many others.

Barry Jackson is a prolific production designer, director of storyboard teams, writer, and children's book author/illustrator. Jackson's screen credits include The Prince of Egypt, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Titan AE, and Ron Howard's The Grinch. He was one of several production designers on the Dreamwork's production, Shrek.

Laurence Jones was born and raised in London. His short stories have been published in literary journals including Storgy, New Zenith Magazine and Collages, as well as the forthcoming Seven Hills Review, Sanctuary and Impermanent Facts anthologies. He has been shortlisted/longlisted for multiple literary prizes including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and TLC’s Pen Factor.

Steven Kellogg is an author and illustrator of picture books—many, many picture books! He's published about 110 books in the 50 years he's been writing and illustrating, many of which he's written himself. He's also illustrated a great many titles by other authors.

He has always loved to draw and the way that pictures can deepen and expand the text of a story—creating what he calls a "beautiful duet." Kellogg started building this connection as a child, "telling stories on paper" to his two younger sisters, making up fanciful stories, and creating quick illustrations one after another to accompany the tales.

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Kristin Kemper is a Missouri native who grew up reading library books and writing and illustrating her own stories. Now residing in Brooklyn, Kristin is a freelance illustrator and author of the webcomic Sylvania, as well as a graphic noveling instructor at Writopia Lab NYC.

Rashin Kheiriyeh was born in Khorramshahr, Iran. She received a PhD in illustration and MFA in graphic design from Alzahra University in Tehran. She has published over eighty books in countries around the world and created illustrations for The New York Times. Rashin was named a 2017 Maurice Sendak Fellow and was the winner of the New Horizon Award at the Bologna Book Fair. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and lives in Washington, DC. 

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Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the NYT Bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. 

She is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability.

Laura Krantz is a founding partner of Foxtopus Ink, where she runs the audio division and oversees the creation and development of shows such as Wild Thing and The Syndicate. Laura has been in audio for well over a decade—she recently served as the interim science editor for PRX, which included editing work on the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor and Air/Space podcasts, and her writing has appeared in Popular Science, Smithsonian Magazine, Outside, High Country News and Newsweek.

Elliot Kukla (he/they) is a rabbi, author, and activist. He is a regular guest contributor to the New York Times and his activism has been featured by National Geographic, Now This News, Them, NBC, Reuters, and many other publications. In 2006 he was the first openly transgender rabbi to be ordained by a movement in Judaism. In 2019 he was named one of the 50 most influential Jews of the year by The Forward. You can find Elliot at www.elliotkukla.com

Melanie LaBarge has a B.A. in Women’s Studies and an M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research includes performance art and queering memoir by contemporary female/femme/non-binary writers. Her first children’s book, Women Artists A-Z, was published by Dial Books for Young Readers in February 2020.

An Academy Awards-winning actress for her roles in Tootsie and Blue Sky, Lange is also the recipient of two Emmys, 5 Golden Globes, and one Sag Award. She currently stars on the hit FX show American Horror Story.

Francie  Latour  is a prize-winning writer whose work explores issues of race, culture, and identity. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, the Today  show, The Root,  Essence, and the  Boston Globe. Her writing  was also anthologized in The Butterfly’s Way, edited by Edwidge Danticat. Francie is co-founder and co-director of Wee The People, a social justice project for kids. This is her first picture book.

A mother of three, Francie was born in the US to Haitian parents. Francie and her family live in Boston.

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Lyla Lee is the author of the Mindy Kim series as well as the YA novel, I’ll Be The One (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins).

As the steward of her father’s legacy, Shannon Lee serves as the CEO of the Bruce Lee Family Company and the chairperson of the Bruce Lee Foundation. Her mission is to provide access to her father’s philosophy and life through education and entertainment. She is the author of Be Water My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee (Flatiron Books). An in-demand speaker, she has spoken at TED, TEDx, Creative Mornings, among others. Shannon is the co-creator and host of the Bruce Lee Podcast, the executive producer of Cinemax’s Warrior series also based off of a treatment written by Bruce Lee, and is now working on GUARDIAN OF THE SCROLL, aYA duology, with award winning fantasy and science fiction author, Fonda Lee.

Sophia Lee is a Korean American writer and is currently a medical student in Dallas, Texas. Sophia deeply cares about the intersection of storytelling and representation. ELIZA PARK’S RECIPE FOR LOVE AND SUCCESS is her debut YA novel.

Bruce Littlefield, national television personality and author of numerous lifestyle books, including Merry Christmas, America and Airstream Living, has most recently written The Bedtime Book for Dogs, an illustrated read-aloud book for the canine community (Grand Central). He is the co-author of Bravo TV star Fredrik Eklund’s The Sell (Avery).

Violet Lumani was raised in a family of superstitious omen-watchers, absorbing the stories and myths her family brought to America with them. She holds a BA from Barnard College of Columbia University, and an MBA from UCONN and lives in Connecticut with her husband, two kids, and forever-dieting chihuahua named Kiwi. Foretold, part of the Scryer series, is her YA debut.

Patricia MacLachlan, the bestselling author of beloved books for young readers, was best known for her Newbery Medal-winning novel SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL, and its sequels SKYLARK, CALEB’S STORY, and MORE PERFECT THATN THE MOON.

Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Patty graduated from the University of Connecticut and lived with her husband on a mountain top in Williamsburg, Massachusetts where she wrote and welcomed visits by her children and grandchildren.

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Since 2003, Jeff Mack has written and illustrated more than forty picture books, chapter books, early readers, and graphic novels. Some of his books have been awarded Junior Library Guild Selections, New York Public Library Best Books of the Year, Bank Street Books of the Year, and various state awards including the Colorado Bell and three Texas 2x2 awards.

From his home in Western Massachusetts, he travels both nationally and internationally visiting schools and libraries where he shares his passion for creating books with young readers, writers and artists.

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An online magazine for teenage girls, Rookiemag.com received more than one million page views within six days of its debut in 2011. It was founded by eighteen-year-old media entrepreneur, writer, actor, and tastemaker Tavi Gevinson.

Sangu Mandanna is the author of the critically acclaimed Celestial series, a YA SFF trilogy. She’s also the author of the MG Kiki Kallira duology and forthcoming Vanya and the Wild Hunt. She’s also the author of adult fantasies which include The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and A Witch’s Guide to MagicalInnkeeping.

Amanda Marrone has authored four books for teens, Uninvited, Revealers, Devoured, and Slayed and the middle-grade series The Magic Repair Shop Books: The Multiplying Menace, The Shape-Shifter’s Curse and Master of Mirrors.

Claudia Guadalupe Martínez’s debut novel, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, received the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, the Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award, and an Americas Award Commendation.  Her sophomore novel Pig Park won the Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book and the NACCS Tejas Foco Young Adult Fiction Award. Her debut picture book, Not A Bean, illustrated by Laura González received multiple starred reviews and was named a Best Book of the Year by Bank Street College of Education. She also authored The Movie Novel for DreamWorks’ animated film, Spirit Untamed.   Claudia grew up in sunny El Paso, Texas, where she learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns with her father. She now lives and writes in Chicago.

Lina Maslo is an author, illustrator, and designer. Her debut, FREE AS A BIRD: THE STORY OF MALALA, was a Library Guild Selection, as well as a CCBC Choice and the winner of the Living the Dream Book Award. She is also the author and illustrator of THROUGH THE WARDROBE: HOW C. S. LEWIS CREATED NARNIA and THREADS: ZLATA’S UKRAINIAN SHIRT. 

Lina has a Degree in Art from New College of Florida and currently resides in South Carolina with her husband and children. 

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Byron McCray is a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, and author hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Greatly influenced by a strong passion for music and the rich, diverse history of black culture, his mixed media paintings have been recognized by the Fort Greene Association, Art Students League of New York, and various publications. Local artists and organizations such as the Movement Theatre Company and the National Black Theatre have commissioned Byron, as well as major recording labels including Universal Music Group and Motown Records.

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Robyn McGrath has spent her career working with children as a dance and yoga instructor, reading teacher, school counselor, and now children’s author. Whether she’s writing fiction or nonfiction, Robyn believes that books help us navigate life experiences while fostering an understanding of self and others. When Robyn is not writing she works as a Play Therapist, helping children and parents regulate BIG emotions. Robyn lives in Austin, TX with her husband, two children, a Labrador retriever, and a friendly cat they found camping. 

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An actress best known for her roles on The Wonder Years and The West Wing, McKellar is also an internationally recognized mathematician and advocate for math education. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Mathematics from UCLA.

Jodi Meadows wants to be a ferret when she grows up and she has no self-control when it comes to yarn, ink, or outer space. Still, she manages to write books. She is the coauthor of  New York Times bestsellers MY LADY JANE, MY PLAIN JANE, and other books in the Lady Janies series. She lives in rural Virginia. Her Substack can be found at https://jodimeadows.substack.com/

Aaron Meshon is an illustrator and award-winning children’s book writer, map maker, muralist and cartoonist. Aaron has had the honor of having his work published in print and licensed for products around the world. When not working on his next book or illustration assignments, Aaron enjoys teaching at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Aaron and his wife and child and French Bulldog currently live in Great Barrington, MA. Aaron’s love of  traveling to their second home in Japan continues to influence his work, and hopefully will lead to his dream of operating a repurposed sweet potato truck in rural Japan to sell products and T-Shirts.

Rhett Miller is a critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter known for fronting the popular alternative country band Old 97’s and as a solo artist who has released six albums. Miller has authored short stories, essays and articles that have appeared in a range of publications including Rolling Stone, Bookforum, Sports Illustrated, McSweeny’s, The Atlantic, and Salon. His first book, No More Poems!, was published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers.

^{Born and raised in Aurora, Illinois, Wendell Minor has created over sixty award-winning children’s books. He is also the cover artist and designer for books by David McCullough and Pat Conroy. Among the many authors he has collaborated with are Jean Craighead George, Charlotte Zolotow, Robert Burleigh, Mary Higgins Clark, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and his wife Florence Minor.} 

^{Wendell has twice spoken and signed his books at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.  His work has been exhibited widely throughout the country in various venues including the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, Art Institute of Chicago, New Britain Museum of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport, Boston Public Library, and Chautauqua Institution’s Center for the Visual Arts. He has received Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from the University of Connecticut and Aurora University in Illinois. Wendell lives and works with his wife Florence, and their cat Cinder,  in Washington, Connecticut.}  

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Malcolm Mitchell is a star rookie for Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots and founder of "Malcolm Reads"—a charitable organization focuses on building readers in disadvantaged homes.

Bronx native, Afro-Latina, and illustrator on Monique Fields’ debut picture book Honeysmoke: A Story About Finding Your Color, Yesenia is a freelance toy designer and illustrator. Her work has been featured on various media outlets such as SyFy and NBC News. Her author-illustrator debut, Stella’s Stellar Hair, is set to release in January 2021.

Serena Molloy is a secondary school teacher living in Galway, West Ireland. She takes inspiration for her writing from her colourful classroom experience and her own children, who educate her daily. Serena particularly enjoys writing for young adults.

A former writer and producer at NBC News and The Today Show, Montalbano is the author of the middle-grade novel Breakaway. She is a longtime soccer player and coach, and her writing has been featured on the New York Times’s Motherlode blog and elsewhere

Oscar-winning actress, Moore won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild award for her portrayal of Sarah Palin in the HBO film Game Change. Her Freckleface Strawberry books are the basis for an Off Broadway show that opened in 2010. Her book Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully was a New York Times Bestseller.

Maria Ingrande Mora is the Content Director at Big Sea, a web design and digital marketing firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was previously the Parenting Editor at the digital media company SheKnows, where she contributed over 300 articles on topics covering feminism and health. As a queer woman and the parent of a neurodiverse child, she’s passionate about representation and inclusivity in kidlit. Maria is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Andrea Mosqueda is a Chicana writer, born and raised in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.

Luma Mufleh, immigrant, Muslim, gay, entrepreneur, mother, introvert, leader, and speaker, is best known as "Coach" by the students and families for whom she founded the first network of middle and high schools for refugee kids in the United States. She writes from her own experiences of both struggle and privilege, with a combination of humor, humility, and inspiration.

Cole Nagamatsu's fiction has appeared online and in print at Tin House, cream city review, West Branch, Bartleby Snopes, PodCastle, Gingerbread House Literary Magazine, Timber Journal, and other publications. She is the editor-in-chief of Psychopomp Magazine and is a visiting assistant professor of Creative Writing at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

Catherine Newman is a beloved and widely read parenting blogger and author of Waiting for Birdy (Penguin) and Field Guide to Catastrophic Happiness (Little, Brown). Her work has been published in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Real Simple, O Magazine, and Whole Living.

Maya Soetoro-Ng is the Director of Community Outreach and Global Learning for the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. She holds a Masters degree in Secondary Education from NYU and a PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of Hawaii. Her first picture book, The New York Times bestselling Ladder to the Moon (Candlewick), was inspired by her young daughter Suhaila’s questions about her grandmother Ann Dunham, the mother of Maya and of our forty-fourth president, Barack Obama. Maya is an advocate for community service and peace education. Her debut young adult novel is being published by Candlewick.

Emma Otheguy is the author of the picture books Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad, illustrated by Beatriz Vidal, which received five starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and the New York Public Library, and was the recipient of the International Literacy Association’s Children’s and Young Adult Book Award in Intermediate Nonfiction, and A Sled for Gabo, illustrated by Ana Ramirez Gonzalez, which was an NCTE Charlotte Huck Recommended Book and a Best Book of the Year by the Chicago and New York Public Libraries and Parents Latina magazine. Her middle-grade novels include Silver Meadows Summer, which was called “a magnificent contribution to the diversity of the new American literature for young readers” by Pura Belpré-winning author Ruth Behar; Secrets of the Silver Lion: A Carmen Sandiego Novel; and Sofía Acosta Makes a Scene. Emma also co-authored The Madre de Aguas of Cuba: Unicorn Rescue Society middle grade fantasy with Newbery Honor-winner Adam Gidwitz.

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Shawn Peters has spent more than two decades writing professionally for television and advertising.

Maya Prasad is the YA author of Fall Winter Spring Summer (Disney, 2022) & a story in the anthology Foreshadow (Algonquin YR, 2020)

Elvis Presley is one of the most influential pop culture figures of the 20th century. Often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", Elvis’ commanding voice and charismatic stage presence unleashed a musical and cultural revolution that changed the world forever. Over the course of his career, Elvis was nominated for 14 Grammy Awards (3 wins), sold over 1 billion records world-wide, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation by the United States Jaycees. In addition to his musical accolades, Elvis starred in 33 films and made numerous television appearances. Today Elvis continues to inspire musicians, fashion designers, and social influencers and captivate audiences around the world.

Nicki Pau Preto is the author of YA fantasy trilogy Crown of Feathers and the forthcoming YA duology, Bonesmith. Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents is her MG debut.

Nick Pyenson is a paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution where he studies the evolution and ecology of whales. Along with his scientific collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. He has received the highest research awards from the Smithsonian for his work, including the Secretary’s Research Prize and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Barack Obama’s Administration. Pyenson is also a member of the Young Scientists community at the World Economic Forum, and the father of two young kids.

Suhasini Raj is an award winning journalist, who has worked for over a decade as an investigative journalist with Indian and international news outlets. She joined The New York Times in 2014 and has reported extensively on stories ranging from the rise of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to how the country has reeled under the effects of Covid 19 to climate change, amongst others. Prior to her time at The New York Times, Ms. Raj worked undercover on a story that exposed a bribe-taking scheme involving eleven members of India’s Parliament. As a result of her reporting, the politicians were expelled from their positions. Ms. Raj is originally from Lucknow, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where she also attended university. She is married with one son, and enjoys classical music — and a good story!