Hannah V. Sawyerr was recognized as the Youth Poet Laureate of Baltimore in 2016. Her debut novel in verse All the Fighting Parts was a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award, a Walter Dean My…
I have always been a storyteller. Even before I could write my name, I could tell a good tale. And I told them all the time. As a preschooler, I told my neighbors all about my three-legged cat named S…
Cynthia Leitich Smith is a bestselling, acclaimed author of books for all ages, including Here Come the Aunties!, Firefly Season, Jingle Dancer, Indian Shoes, On a Wing and a Tear, Sisters of the Neve…
Mariko Tamaki is a Toronto writer, playwright, activist and performer. She works and performs with fat activists Pretty Porky and Pissed Off and the theatre troupe TOA, whose recent play, A vs. B, was…
Maria was born and raised in the Netherlands, and studied Visual Communications at George Washington University in DC. Maria's historical graphic novel Song of a Blackbird, about a female artist in th…
Ibi Zoboi's debut novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist. She is also the New York Times Bestselling author of Pride, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, and Punching the Air with co-a…
SJ Sindu is a Tamil diaspora author of two novels, Marriage of a Thousand Lies and Blue-Skinned Gods, as well as the hybrid fiction and nonfiction chapbook I Once Met You But You Were Dead. A 2013 Lam…
Nicholas Day is the author of The Mona Lisa Vanishes, illustrated by Brett Helquist, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction; A World Without Summer, i…
Ngozi Ukazu is an American cartoonist and graphic novelist. She is the author of the online graphic novel series Check, Please!. She studied at Yale University and the Savannah College of Art and Desi…
JASMINNE MÉNDEZ is a Macondo and Canto Mundo Fellow, as well as a Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) alumna. She is the author of a multi-genre memoir, Island of Dreams (2013), winner of an Internation…
Tiffany D. Jackson is the New York Times Bestselling author of YA novels including the Coretta Scott King — John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning Monday’s Not Coming, the NAACP Image Award-nominated A…
Hayley Chewins is an award-winning author of middle grade fantasy and a published poet. Her debut novel, THE TURNAWAY GIRLS (Candlewick, 2018), received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Week…
K. Ancrum, is an author of award winning speculative contemporary YA notably THE WICKER KING, DARLING and most recently the critically acclaimed ICARUS. K. is a Chicago native passionate about diversi…
Trungles (Trung Le Nguyen) is a comic book artist and illustrator working out of Minnesota. He received his BA from Hamline University in 2012, Majoring in Studio Art with a concentration in oil paint…
Jihyun Yun is a Korean American author from the the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut collection SOME ARE ALWAYS HUNGRY won the 2019 Prairie Schooner Prize and was published by the University of Nebra…
Leah Johnson (she/her) is an eternal midwesterner and author of award-winning books for children and young adults. Her bestselling debut YA novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, was a Stonewall Honor B…
Born and raised in Arizona, Sonora Reyes writes fiction full of queer and Latine characters in a variety of genres, with current projects in both kidlit and adult categories.
Hailey began her writing career in the sixth grade as a kid reporter for Time for Kids magazine, and has been addicted to storytelling ever since. Born in California and raised in Arizona, she's a Sou…
DeAndra, an autistic and neurodivergent Jamaican-American author, has been reading since she could remember and writing since anyone put a pen in her hand. When she isn't delving into fantasy worlds o…
Arriel Vinson is a Midwesterner who writes about being young, Black, and in search of freedom. Her debut YA novel-in-verse, Under the Neon Lights, is a 2026 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent …
USA Today bestselling author Kelsey B. Toney writes humorous, heartfelt stories about the hope that exists after our most laughably bad decisions. In past lives, Kelsey has been a teacher, recording a…
