Dao
Julie C. Dao is the critically acclaimed author of many books. Her novels have earned starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, and won recognition from the Junior Library Guild, YALSA, and the American Library Association. A proud Vietnamese-American who was born in upstate New York, she now lives in New England. […]
Ortega
Mirelle Ortega is an award-winning Mexican artist and writer for kidlit and animation based in Los Angeles, California. She is the author-illustrator of RIVER OF MARIPOSAS and MAGIC: ONCE UPON A FARAWAY LAND, for which she received a 2023 Pura Belpré Award Honor for illustration and an International Latino Book Awards medal. She’s a prolific […]
Meade
Lily Meade writes real world issues through an extraordinary lens. She comes from a background of extreme poverty, something she prides herself on being transparent and vulnerably honest about. She has been homeless twice and still lives in housing insecurity. She believe stories have power and strives to live by the motto of a life […]
Hoang
Jamie Jo Hoang is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees. She grew up in Orange County, CA—not the rich part—and worked as a docuseries producer before shifting to writing full-time. Her debut young adult novel, MY FATHER, THE PANDA KILLER, was chosen as one of the best books of the year by the Amazon Editor’s and […]
Siqueira
Ana Siqueira is a Spanish-language elementary teacher trained in Global education and PBS Media Innovator. She published a book in Spanish for the educational market and books in Portuguese in Brazil, where she is from. She’s an award-winning children’s book author based in Tampa, Florida. Her books include Bella’s Recipe for Success (Beaming Books 2021), […]
May
Angela May is the co-author of The Islanders, a New York Times bestselling series created with Mary Alice Monroe. All three books in their middle grade series are rooted in the magic of nature. Angela graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in broadcast journalism and worked more than a decade in […]
Iloh
Candice Iloh (they/them) is the award-winning author of young adult novels, Every Body Looking, Break This House, and Salt the Water. A 2020 National Book Award Finalist and 2021 Printz Honoree, Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian-American writer whose books center home. In 2018, they were awarded a Critical Breaks residency with Hi-ARTS to develop and […]
Carver
Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. is an advocate, a Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and the author of a bestselling collection of narrative poetry about his childhood growing up queer in Appalachia, Gay Poems for Red States (University Press of Kentucky), which was named a Book Riot Best Book of 2023, a Top Ten Best […]
Neri
G. Neri is the Michael L. Printz and Coretta Scott King award-winning author of such books as the bestselling Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty and Ghetto Cowboy, which was made into the movie, Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba. His books have been translated into multiple languages in over 25 countries. They include […]
Sriram
Meera draws from her life straddling the East and West to tell stories. She grew up in India and moved to the United States at the turn of the millenium. An electrical engineer in the past, she now writes for children and advocates for diversifying bookshelves. Meera felt compelled to tell her stories when she […]
