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…
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…
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…
Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. After earning a BA in English from The University of Maryland, College Park, Jason Reynolds moved t…
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, …
Renée Watson is the author of the children’s picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, June 2010), which was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her middle grade novel…
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…
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…
Corey R. Tabor grew up in Wyoming, where he once spent the night in a cave by an underground waterfall. He now lives with his wife in Seattle, where he draws and reads and explores. Please visit him a…
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…
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…
ADIB KHORRAM is the author of DARIUS THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY, which earned the William C. Morris Debut Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Ho…
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…
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…
Frederick Joseph is a Yonkers, NY raised three-time New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. His books include a poetry collection, We Alive, Beloved, two books of nonfiction, Patriarchy Blues…
Samantha Markum is the USA Today bestselling author of Love, Off the Record, You Wouldn't Dare, and This May End Badly. She was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where she got her great literary…
Lauren Emmons (they/them) is an illustrator and author of children’s books. They grew up in Minnesota exploring forests and learning important skills like turning the top of an acorn into a loud whist…
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…
Rebecca Danzenbaker believes in trusting your gut and chasing your dreams. That probably explains her massive career jumps – from teaching elementary school music, to managing a team of 25 at Congress…
Victoria Zeller is a trans writer born and raised in Buffalo, New York, where she still proudly resides. A former football player and lifelong fan, her initial focus was sports journalism before she m…
