Jewell Parker Rhodes has always loved reading and writing stories. Born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh, she was a voracious reader as…
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…
Daniel Nayeri is a writer and editor in New York City. He wrote and produced The Cult of Sincerity, the first feature film to be world-premiered by YouTube. He has had all kinds of jobs around books, …
Daniel Miyares is a critically acclaimed picture book author and illustrator. Some of his books include Float, Night Out, Pardon Me!, Night Walk to the Sea, written by Deborah Wiles, and Hope at Sea. …
Idris Goodwin is an multi award-winning writer and storyteller whose work spans stage, screen, audio, and page. From his widely produced breakbeat plays and historical dramas such as How We Got On, Hy…
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…
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…
Guojing (Jing Guo) is an illustrator and concept artist. Previously she worked in the game and animation industry. She is now a professional illustrator. Her wordless picture book, ‘The Only Child’, a…
Tara is a cartoonist currently residing in the New Jersey wilderness. When she's not drawing comics, she's teaching them. She drinks way too much tea and coffee, and on any given day there's a 90% cha…
Originally from California, Karina came to New York City for college and has stuck around for nearly twenty years. She has had a varied career teaching and implementing literacy programs in family hom…
REX OGLE is an award-winning author and the writer of nearly a hundred children’s books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch, which won th…
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…
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.
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 …
Bex Glendining (she/they) is a biracial queer, UK based illustrator, comic artist and colourist. Their debut graphic novel ‘On Starlit Shores’ is scheduled for a 2025 release with Abrams Books.
