‍Over the years, Dunbar has worked as a drama critic, journalist, and marketing manager, and has written on topics as diverse as traditional Irish music, court cases, and theater. She lives in Nashville with her husband and daughter.

‍

Ivan Ehlers is an Ecuadorian-American cartoonist and writer with work appearing in The New Yorker, Mad Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Wired, the Boston Globe, Air Mail and many other publications. Brand collaborations include: Exploding Kittens, WeWork, Yale University and Donald Glover (Childish Gambino). In 2021, he was nominated for a National Cartoonist Society award for Advertising/Product Illustration. He is a lifelong resident of the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The embodiment of genius and the pre-eminent scientist of the modern age, his theories and discoveries have profoundly affected the way people view and understand the world and their place in it. Einstein was also known as a philosopher and humanist who was keenly interested in and concerned about the affairs of the world.

His sagacious, wise, and humorous quotations, letters, and articles are widely used throughout popular culture as well as in historical and academic works. Einstein’s name and image are instantly recognizable everywhere in the world.

Michael Emberley is a children’s author and illustrator based in Dublin, Ireland. His numerous works include the iconic nonfiction title It’s Perfectly Normal (Candlewick), the bestselling series You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You (Little Brown), and, more recently, Ms. Brooks’ Story Nook (Knopf). His latest children’s picture book is I Can Make a Train Noise with Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, published by Neal Porter Books.

Lucy Engelman is an author and award-winning illustrator based in the foothills of Pittsburgh, PA. She began her career in editorial and commercial illustration, working with clients such as The New York Times, NPR, Patagonia, West Elm, and Warby Parker. Over the years, she has illustrated more than 50 published adult nonfiction titles and counting. A natural evolution of her work, she is thrilled to now focus on creating work for children—where her heart lives.  Lucy’s work has been described as thoughtful and empathetic. She intends for her books to invite young readers to embrace curiosity free from judgement or haste. She finds endless inspiration in the joyful energy and discoveries of her buzzing toddler.

Valiant Entertainment is a leading character-based entertainment company that owns the largest independent superhero universe in comics. With more than 81 million issues sold and a library of over 2,000 characters including X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong and more, Valiant is one of the most successful publishers in the history of the comic book medium.

Actor and producer Omar Epps was first introduced to audiences as Q in Ernest Dickerson’s cult classic Juice, opposite Tupac Shakur. He has gone on to star in the beloved romance Love & Basketball, as Dr. Eric Foreman on massively popular TV show House, as Jeff Cole in In Too Deep, as Isaac Johnson on Shooter, and as Darnell on This Is Us. He is the author of a memoir, From Fatherless to Fatherhood. Nubia: The Awakening is his first novel.

Emily Ettlinger is a cartoonist, illustrator, and teacher based in almost-DC, Maryland. She holds a BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her debut graphic novel SKELEANOR THE DECOMPOSER (Penguin Workshop, 2023) was described as "a gentle, winning tale” by Kirkus. A Spanish edition was released in 2024, published by Astronave. Emily loves using art to explore both the silly and the serious (with the scales perpetually tipped towards the former). She works both digitally and traditionally with a focus on ink, gouache, and watercolor. She teaches part-time at a local arts center where the children mock her project examples.

America Ferrera is an award-winning actress, producer, director and activist. In 2016 Ferrera co-founded HARNESS, an social justice story telling non-profit, and she speaks throughout the country as an advocate for human and civil rights and was the opening speaker at the monumental Women’s March on Washington in January 2017.

Although Susan loves to write about long-ago and faraway places, she can’t bring those worlds to life without grounding them in the details of this one. To that end, she has explored lava tubes and sea caves; spent the night in a lighthouse; traveled along the Silk Road in Iran; ridden in a glider, on a camel, and on a donkey; and cut up (already dead!) baby chicks and mice for a gyrfalcon’s dinner. Collectively, her books have been translated into seven languages; accolades include the American Library Association’s Notable Books and Best Books for Young Adults, BCCB Blue Ribbon Books, and School Library Journal’s Best Books.

Susan has an M.A. in English from the University of Michigan and taught for many years in the M.F.A. in Writing for Children program at Vermont College. She lives in Bryan, Texas, with her husband, historian R.J.Q. Adams, and their dog, Neville.

‍

Nancy Bo Flood is the author of more than 20 books, reflecting her experiences and the many places she has lived and worked. Her books include novels for young adults, collections of legends from the Pacific, picture books, poetry, and non-fiction topics ranging from world hunger to the role of water in our lives.  Her awards include the Sigurd Olsen Nature Writing Award, inclusion in the White Raven International list of best children’s books, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, Colorado Book Award, several Notable Books for a Global Society recognitions, among others. I WILL DANCE is about Eva, a real girl with severe cerebral palsy, who is determined to dance--not pretend, but real. 

‍

Douglas Florian has written and illustrated more than 50 books for children. These include BEAST FEAST, winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, INSECTLOPEDIA, a national bestseller, DINOTHESAURUS, which was a Bank Street College “Best Book of the Year,” POETREES, which School Library Journal called “an exquisite collection,” and MAMMALABILIA, winner of the Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. A retrospective of his poetry and children’s book art was held at Poet's House in Manhattan.

‍

JR and Vanessa Ford are nationally recognized advocates for trans youth.

Irena Freitas is an award-winning illustrator. She has an MFA in Illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design, and loves illustrating people, funny situations that happen in daily life, and whimsical stories. Her work has been featured at Bologna Book Fair, Society of Illustrators, Bratislava Biennial of Illustration, Golden Pinwheel, and 3x3 Magazine annuals. She has illustrated picture books published in Brazil, Portugal and the US, including IfYour Babysitter Is a Bruja (Simon & Schuster), Baby's First Love Story (Little Lark), and Thoughts Are Air (Dial Books). Forthcoming titles include A Walk Through El Jardin (Nancy Paulsen Books). When she is not reading and illustrating books, Irena likes to travel and visit new places. She lives in Manaus, Brazil.

Michael and Ava Gardner are the father-daughter team behind the viral Instagram account @daddydressedmebymg.

Federico Gastaldi is a young Italian artist. He studied illustration for children at university and developed a successful career in editorial illustration before a personal experience inspired him to create his debut picture book, HE’S GONE.

‍

Karen Gebbia is a children’s book writer and naturalist based in California. She believes that books help children wonder, think, understand, and feel. Before writing for children, Karen spent two decades writing, publishing, editing, and teaching scholarly writing.

Joelle is a Canadian author-illustrator based in Berlin. She studied fine art and illustration at Emily Carr University and her first picture book was published in 2020. Joelle works in a variety of styles, but especially loves pencils, pastels, and textiles. Her stories are inspired by big personalities, the weirder moments of life and the hilarity of children (including her own). When Joelle is not making books, she’s reading, biking, baking and wishing she had a wiener dog.

Kristen Mai Giang is a Chinese American author who emigrated from Vietnam and grew up in the melting pot of San Gabriel, California. Author of Last Flight, The Rise (and Falls) of Jackie Chan, and Ginger and Chrysanthemum, she also produces award-winning interactive content for leading children’s media companies like Disney, Mattel, PBS Kids Sprout, and others.

Rhiannon Giddens is a Grammy Award- and MacArthur “Genius” grant-winning American artist of folk and traditional music, played on fiddle and banjo, who is rigorously committed to reclaiming Black contributions to the genre.

Chelsea was born with a fire for storytelling in her heart. Chelsea majored in character design and earned a Bachelor's Of Design from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2021. She's been a full time comic creator ever since, writing and illustrating her web comics, Asterion, which ended in 2022, and Sunset Phoenix, which is still ongoing. The two series have garnered millions of views on Webtoon, and Chelsea's animations of the characters have garnered millions more across social media. Chelsea has a passion for mystery, layered women, action sequences, and cute dogs.

An American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor, Goldberg received a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948. He was also a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society.

Margaret Greanais's debut picture book, Maximillian Villainous, was published in August 2018 by Running Press Kids. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children.

Tommy Greenwald, the father of three sports-obsessed sons, has written dozens of books for children. His middle grade novel GAME CHANGER has been placed on over twenty state reading lists and was a YALSA Top Ten Book for Reluctant Readers. Tommy has published both middle grade and chapter books,  including the popular CHARLIE JOE JACKSON series and the CRIME BITERS! series, and is also the co-author of THE RESCUES, written with Charlie Greenwald and illustrated by Shiho Pate.

Among Tommy’s other work is the musical JOHN & JEN, produced off-Broadway in 1995 and revived in 2015. Tommy lives in Connecticut.  

‍

Charlie Greenwald is obsessed with dogs—especially his new rescue, Momo! Aside from children's literature, he has also co-written several plays with Jeremy Vandroff, including THE PAINTED WALL and SURPRISING SIMON, which won the RareWorks Theatre Festival at Emerson College. He lives in New York City with his wife.

‍

A.B. Hamilton is a fantasy writer from south London. A school teacher by trade, he spends his free time crafting rich stories that explore themes of identity and belonging. His favourite authors include Ursula K. Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, and Ted Chiang. He is an advocate for men’s mental health and supports increased inclusivity and representation across all levels of the publishing industry.

Kersten Hamilton was born in a trailer in the mountains of southern New Mexico. By their sixth birthday they knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. A writer! This would prove to be difficult, as a wayward fairy (apparently not invited to Kersten’s christening) gifted the child with dyslexia and dysgraphia topped with a dollop of autism spectrum disorder. Unaware of the academic and social trouble ahead, Kersten set off to have an exciting childhood tracking caribou and arctic wolves across in Alaska, catching tiny tree frogs in the swamps and rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, and chasing dust devils and rattlesnakes across the high desert of New Mexico. Kersten escaped electrocution when a typhoon blew power lines down over yet another trailer in a swamp in Washington state, and didn’t drown when a station wagon spun out of control onto thin lake ice in Alaska. Most of the bullets missed, none of the incidents with bears, snakes, wolves, or angry moose were fatal.

Now, Kersten is Mom to several grown children, Grimm to more than several grandchildren, a fearless defender of bugs and other beasties, and a writer! Hooray!

‍

Brooks Hansen is a novelist, screenwriter, and illustrator. He is the author nine books, including novels both for adults and young readers. His first novel, The Chess Garden, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and he won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his novel John the Baptist. His new novel is The Unknown Woman of the Seine (Delphinium Books, 2021).

Tony and Emmy award-winning stage and screen performer, Neil Patrick Harris is best known for his roles as Barney Stinson in the popular CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother and as the iconic and beloved Doogie Howser, M.D. He’s been in many movies, hosted the Tonys, the Emmys, and the Oscars, and performed in several Broadway shows.

Rochelle Hassan is a middle grade and young adult fantasy author. Her work includes The Prince of Nowhere, which will be released in 2022 from HarperCollins, and The Buried and the Bound, due out from Macmillan in 2023.

Ritu Hemnani is a journalist, teacher, and storyteller, who hopes for every child to see themselves in the pages of a book and know that their stories matter. She is also a voice actor and motivational speaker. Ritu recognizes herself as ethnically Indian, a British national, and calls Hong Kong her home, where she lives with her husband and three children. 

Ritu shares the seeds of her writing journey and the inspiration behind her deep dive into her own family history in her 2019 TEDx Talk, “An Inheritance Worth Sharing.” When not writing or teaching, Ritu delights in family game nights, strumming the strings of her guitar, and paddling through Hong Kong waters on her carrot-colored kayak. 

‍

Sir Lenny Henry is a comedian, actor, singer, writer and TV presenter as well as co-founder of the charity Comic Relief.

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."

‍

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.

Based in New York and with an eye for the whimsical and wild. Jon Hubbert is an illustrator with a cartoony style and a wide range of experience. With a background that includes graphic design and animation, his illustration work has been used on numerous platforms such as editorial, narrative, marketing, stories, kids tv, adult cartoons.

Currently working in the children’s broadcast space at Nickelodeon, Jon also illustrates for children’s and adult animated content. His professional career started with Graphic Design, creating everything from book design, posters, merchandise, event collateral, branding, typography, and much more. Inspired by skateboard graphics, and cartoons from the 90s and 2000s, he always likes to bring some fun or humor into his work. His diverse experience can be adapted to fit numerous styles and narratives.

‍

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.

Novelist and poet Floriane Joseph is an English professor. She discovered Victor Hugo at an early age, and the word "writer" nestled in her chest. It never left her. An emerging talent on the literary scene, she reveals the power of emotions and the poetry of existence with a pen as delicate as it is sharp. Her second novel, Les vivants sont des rois, was published by Michel Lafon.

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.

‍

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.

Marianne is an NYC-based Coptic writer and illustrator. She is presently an art director for TV animation where she has worked since 2017 on productions such as Disney Jr.'s "Pupstruction," Jim Henson Company's "Harriet the Spy," and DreamWorks's "Archibald's Next Big Thing." Her art and writing center on queer women and their relationships in intimate and fantastical settings.

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. 

‍

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.

Isis Labeau-Caberia is a French-speaking Caribbean novelist and essayist. She is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris. Her eclectic work focuses on women's history in a (post)colonial context, memory and ancestrality, ecofeminism, the decolonisation of knowledge, decolonial futurisms and commited spirituality. Her first young adult novel, La prophétie des Sœurs-Serpent, was published in 2023 by Éditions Slalom.

Diane Wright Landolf is a freelance editor and former senior editor at Random House Children's Books, where she focused on chapter books and middle-grade novels. Her collection of middle-grade scary stories, BUMP IN THE NIGHT, is upcoming from Clarion in Summer 2026. She's published a picture book, an original early reader, and a chapter book adaptation of The Jungle Book, as well as several readers and 8x8s for licenses including Barbie and Thomas and Friends. Diane loves travel and hiking and frequently both at the same time. She is the mother of two—one grown and one almost grown—and lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, NY. Find out more at dianelandolfeditorial.com.

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.

‍