Robin McKinley is an American author acclaimed for fantasy novels and inventive retellings of classic fairy tales, often featuring resilient heroines and richly imagined worlds. She gained early promi…
Amy Ehrlich is the author of more than thirty books for young readers and is also a winner of The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award for her novel Joyride, which was also chosen Booklist Choice Best Book o…
Rafe Martin is an award-winning author and storyteller, as well as a lay Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani koan line. He is founding teacher of Endless Path Zendo, Rochester, NY.
With over thirty three million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew…
John Steptoe was an award-winning author and illustrator of children's books from New York City. He began working on his first children's book, Stevie, while still a teenager and achieved great succes…
Carole Boston Weatherford is a children's book author and poet who mines the past for family stories, traditions, and struggles. A number of CAROLE's books tell the stories of African-American histori…
Nancy Loewen grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, surrounded by library books and cats. She's published more than 140 books for children. FOUR TO THE POLE (co-authored with polar explorer Ann …
Charlotte Craft studied comparative literature at Columbia University in New York. After graduating, she traveled to Japan, where she worked as an interpreter and photographer. She now lives in Scotla…
JERRY CRAFT is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid is the only book in history to win the John Newbery Medal for the most outstan…
Meg Medina served as the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her most recent middle-grade novel and first fantasy, Graciela in the Abyss, was a 2026 ALSC Notable Children’s Bo…
Gayle E. Pitman, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Sacramento City College. Her writing, research, and teaching focuses on issues of gender and sexual orientation. She lives in Northern California…
Kevin Maillard is Professor of Law at Syracuse University, a contributor to the New York Times and a co-founder of Black Stream Partners LLC. He has written for The Atlantic and has provided on-air co…
Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of the bestselling Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, is an artist, author, and filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. She earned her MFA in film …
Matthew A. Cherry is an American film director, writer, producer, and former American football player. He wrote and directed two independent films, The Last Fall, and 9 Rides, and is currently an exec…
Flavia Z. Drago was born and raised in Mexico City. As a child, she wanted to be a mermaid. When that didn’t happen, she began her career as a graphic designer and a children’s book illustrator. She l…
Shawn Harris is an artist and musician who began his career by doing record and poster art for his band, the Matches, in 2003. Since then he has created art for musicians such as Adele, Snoop Dogg, an…
