Leslie Staub is a children’s book author and illustrator from New Orleans. An accomplished artist, her work has been exhibited nationwide. She loves animals and forests and drawing and reading and writing and making up stories. She didn't always love reading and writing because she has dyslexia.

Leslie works from her studio in the country with her dog, rabbit, and all the wild creatures who live in the woods.

Caren Stelson is the author of works for children and young adults. Caren has had a long career in education, as a teacher, writer-in-residence, and freelance writer. After receiving her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Hamline University in 2009, Caren decided it was time to write the stories that needed her attention. Accolades for her books include a Robert Sibert Honor Award, placement on the longlist for the National Book Award, and the Jane Addams Book Award.

Caren and her husband Kim have two grown children. They split their time between home in Minneapolis and the small town of Lanesboro.

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Isaiah Stephens is a freelance illustrator and animator located in Lowell, MA. He studied Media Arts and Animation at the New England Institute of Art, and has illustrated book jackets for the Italian translation of The Hunger Games, the novel The Devil Came East, and others.

Kara Storti knew she wanted to be a writer when she decided to skip her junior prom to attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Middlebury, Vermont. In the years following she spent most of her free time writing short stories, novellas, and poems, and composing pop songs. In 2006 she graduated from the University of Southern Maine with an MFA in Creative Writing, where she fell in love with writing novels for young adults. Kara has been a singer, songwriter, pianist, and flautist since she was a child and has performed throughout the world. She grew up in upstate New York and now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

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Melanie Sumrow received her undergraduate degree in Religious Studies and has maintained a long-term interest in studying social issues. She also holds a Juris Doctorate and has practiced both criminal and civil law for over sixteen years, with many of the criminal cases involving teenagers.

Ellen Surrey is a Los Angeles based illustrator whose colorful work blends her love of mid-century design and vintage children’s books. Reminiscent of the classic Little Golden Book series, Ellen’s work generates feelings of nostalgia while also being contemporary.

Ellen’s work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times. She is the illustrator of several children’s books including THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU AN ARTIST and DOLLY!

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Kon Tan was raised in The Bronx, and from an early age he was obsessed with dinosaurs, monster movies, and superheroes. Unfortunately, one day he grew up, but he was lucky to find work as a teacher, bookseller, and animator. He is afraid of the ocean but proud to have conquered his fear of heights and riding a bike. He promises himself he will eventually learn how to swim. You can see more of his art on his website www.KonsComics.com or follow him on Instagram @KonsComics.

Ellen Tarlow writes stories for very young children. Her published children’s books include, most recently, LOOKING FOR SMILE and BECOMING BLUE. She has been a classroom teacher and for many years worked as an editor of early childhood classroom materials. In that job she got to write hundreds of stories for young children. Now that she is working less, she is excited to work on her own stories. After spending her whole adult life in New York City, Ellen just moved to the Hudson Valley with her husband David, a painter. 

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Sophie Tavert-Macian has been bringing her eclectic universe to cinema for twenty years, in a dozen films that play with formats (haiku, short and long), techniques (live action or animation), and genres. Her animated short 'Traces' was nominated for the 2021 Césars and Oscars. The adaptation of this film into an illustrated children's book was published by Delachaux et Niestlé in 2022. Her first novel, the sports-oriented and contemporary Gamba, was published in 2024 by Belfond.

Sarah Stewart Taylor is a fiction writer and journalist who lives with her family on a farm in Vermont; her published mysteries include the Maggie d’Arcy series, starting with The Mountains Wild, the Sweeney St. George mystery series (the first book in the series, O’ Artful Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel), The Expeditioners series of adventure novels for middle grade readers, and Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean, a graphic novel for younger readers, which was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Leah Tinari is a widely exhibited New York based artist. Since graduating from RISD in 1998, Tinari has documented her life and friends through painting the capture the energy and exuberance of her surroundings.

Phuc Tran is a tattoo artist and co-owner of Tsunami Tattoo in Portland, Maine, where he also teaches Latin at Waynflete School. He has taught Latin, Greek, German, and Sanskrit at independent schools in New York and Maine and is a former instructor at Brooklyn College's Summer Latin Institute. See his TEDx talk on “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” here. His first book, Sigh, Gone, is the winner of the 2021 Maine Literary Award & 2020 New England Book Award.

Jing Jing Tsong is a New York Times bestselling children's picture book illustrator.

Jing Jing's images are a digital collage of color, traditional printmaking techniques

and pattern. When not growing kale or surfing, Jing Jing spends her time translating

the world through her words and pictures.

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Dana VanderLugt is a writer and teacher who believes firmly in the power of stories to change hearts and minds. In addition to her writing for middle grade readers, Dana’s work has been published in Longridge Review, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith, the Michigan Reading Journal, and The Reformed Journal, where she is also a frequent contributor on its daily blog.

A former middle school English teacher, Dana now works as an instructional coach and has an MFA in Creative Writing from The Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. She lives in Michigan with her husband, three sons, and a spoiled golden retriever.

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Allison Varnes taught English in special education for eight years, and once had to convince administrators that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was not an actual endorsement of witchcraft. She is currently a Ph.D. student in English Education at The University of Tennessee, where she also supervises beginning English teachers during their internship year.

Illustrator Eric Velasquez was born in Spanish Harlem and he grew up in Harlem. Eric graduated from the High School of Art and Design and earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts. He also completed a year of studies with Harvey Dinnerstein at the Art Student’s League.

Eric is the illustrator of over 30 acclaimed picture books and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature for Children. He lives and works in New York. He teaches book illustration at FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology) in NYC.

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Rona Wang is currently a math major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For her short stories, she has been named a HerCampus 22 Under 22 and nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology. She is originally from Portland, Oregon, and as a second-generation Chinese American she loves to write stories that reflect the Asian American experience. You Had Me at Hello World is her debut YA novel.

The Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock serves as the Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta. He also has served at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church of Birmingham, the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City, and Baltimore’s Douglas Memorial Community Church. The Rev. Dr. Warnock holds degrees from Morehouse College and Union Theological Seminary, and is the author of The Divided Mind of the Black Church. In January 2021, Dr. Warnock became Georgia's first Black senator.

Jesse Joshua Watson is an illustrator and fine artist. His passions are reflected in his artwork, dwelling often on social justice as well as environmental beauty and conservation. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington, with his wife and their sons. He has traveled extensively developing a deep passion for sharing the beauty of the world's cultures. In addition to writing and illustrating books, exhibiting fine art, and teaching art to kids, Jesse plays soccer religiously, music occasionally, and surfs the chilly waters of the Northwest as often as he can.

Books are herds of words and images trapped in the amber of space/time for eternity. When Richard writes or illustrates, he goes fishing in the Outer Hebrides of the cosmos to net the odd new flying fish, or spear floating mixed metaphors and chimerical memories with a fondue fork to line them up like little cheese soldiers awaiting orders from headquarters. Those cockroaches who scatter are rounded up and oxymoronically trained into wild mustangs. Richard lives in Washington state.

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Carole Boston Weatherford is an accomplished poet, writer, artist, musician, and social critic whose bibliography spans over thirty books. Her work in children's literature  has earned her widespread acclaim and awards.

Carole's picture books have been described as poetic, intimate, and ultimately educational reads. Often focused on the growth of the civil rights movement and the state of African-American culture in the United States, her works provide genuine insights into our cultural memory through their powerful storytelling.

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Jeffery Boston Weatherford is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and a performance poet. He has lectured, performed, and led art and writing workshops in the US, the Middle East, and West Africa. Jeffery was a Romare Bearden Scholar at Howard University, where he earned an MFA in painting and studied under members of the Black Arts Movement collective AfriCobra. A North Carolina native and resident, Jeffery has exhibited his art in North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

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Tony Weaver, Jr. is founder and CEO of Weird Enough Productions, a new media production company dedicated to creating positive media images of black men and other minority groups, and the creator of the educational webcomic The UnCommons, whose curriculum is used by over 40,000 students per month. Tony has been the recipient of the Leadership Prize and the Black Excellence Award, participated in the NBCUniversal Fellowship Program and the Peace First Fellowship, is a TEDx speaker, and was one of Forbes’ 2018 “30 Under 30” honorees—the first comic book writer to ever make the list.

Molly Webster, a graduate of NYU’s Science Writing Program and an award-winning journalist, is a Senior Correspondent at WNYC’s Radiolab. She is an accomplished writer having contributed to Scientific American, National Geographic Adventure, and Wired. Most recently she presented a TED Talk about her research on sex chromosomes.

Maya Wei-Haas is an award-winning reporter at National Geographic. She writes about all things science and has a particular affection for rocks and reactions. Maya pursued a bachelor's in geology at Smith College and then won an NSF fellowship to support her Ph.D. work in Earth Science at the Ohio State University. She's traveled the world in the name of science, scooping ice melt from the top of Antarctic glaciers and hauling up sediments from Svalbard lakes. She made the jump to journalism with the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship. Now she's working to bring these types of adventures—and the science that surrounds us—to all. In 2019, she was honored with AGU's David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for her story about the discovery of a submarine volcano's birth. In addition to National Geographic, her work has appeared at Smithsonian.com and EOS. She's working on a forthcoming children's book about the amazing things that rocks can reveal with Phaidon Press.

Sujin Witherspoon is a Korean-American author, artist, and lover of words she can’t pronounce. Shegravitates toward stories that will either plague her nightmares or make her stomach hurt from laughter—noin between. Having earned her degree in English from the University of Washington, she spends her timewriting, thinking about writing, or thinking about how she should be writing.

Sean Fay Wolfe is a seventeen-year-old Eagle Scout and writing prodigy. He is the author of the Minecraft fan fiction series The Elementia Chronicles (HarperCollins).

Annie Won is a New York based Freelance Author-Illustrator who loves Mochi (she’s my kitty not a rice cake), picture books, and anything sweet with strong coffee! 

She is the illustrator of books for children, and she also teaches at FIT, Pratt and Queens College as an Art Professor.

Raised in a Korean American household by his grandmother, Brian honed his artistic skills at the Art Center College of Design, where he earned a BFA in illustration. His awards include the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators and the Crystal Kite from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Currently residing in Southern California, Brian continues to craft stories and illustrations for young readers.

Kelvin Wong was featured on Love on the Spectrum, Netflix’s hit docuseries that follows autistic people on their search for love, where he met Jodi Rodgers, the relationship specialist who consulted with the show’s participants about the potential romantic partners they were meeting. A talented illustrator,  Kelvin collaborated with Jodi Rodgers on the graphic novel, LET’S MEET.

Jenna Yoon is a debut author and has spent equal amounts of time living in Korea and the U.S. She holds a BA in Art History from Wellesley College, and a MA in Korean Art History from Ewha Woman’s University. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is her middle grade debut.

Born and raised in California, Helen Yoon graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BS in chemistry and from Art Center College of Design with a BFA in illustration. Helen is an author-illustrator and creative consultant and the creator of acclaimed picture books. She writes and draws for a living. 

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Katie Zhao is the author of the middle grade book The Dragon Warrior and the young adult novel How We Fall Apart (Bloomsbury).