Zoraida Córdova is the acclaimed author of more than two dozen novels and short stories, including the Brooklyn Brujas series,
Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence, and
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. In addition to writing novels, she serves on the board of We Need Diverse Books, and is the co-editor of the bestselling anthology
Vampires Never Get Old, as well as the cohost of the writing podcast, Deadline City. She writes romance novels as Zoey Castile. Zoraida was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and calls New York City home. When she’s not working, she’s roaming the world in search of magical stories.
Natalie C. Parker is an author, editor, and community organizer. She has written several award winning books for teens and young readers and has edited multiple anthologies including the Indie Bestselling anthology Vampires Never Get Old. Her work has been included on the NPR Best Books list, the Indie Next List, and the TAYSHAS Reading List, and in Junior Library Guild selections. In addition to writing, Natalie also runs Madcap Retreats, which has partnered with We Need Diverse Books and Reese's Book Club to host the writers workshops for the Lit Up internship. She grew up in a navy family finding home in coastal cities from Virginia to Japan and currently lives with her wife on the Kansas prairie.
Nafiza Azad is a self-identified island girl. She has hurricanes in her blood and dreams of a time she can exist solely on mangoes and pineapple. Born in Lautoka, Fiji, she currently resides in British Columbia, Canada, where she reads too many books, watches too many K-dramas, and writes stories about girls taking over the world. Nafiza is the coeditor of the young adult anthology Writing in Color and author of The Candle and the Flame, which was nominated for the William C. Morris Award, The Wild Ones, and Road of the Lost.
Holly Black is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of fantasy books, including the Novels of Elfhame, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Spiderwick Chronicles, her adult debut, Book of Night, as well as an Arthurian picture book called Sir Morien. She has been a finalist for an Eisner Award and the Lodestar Award, and the recipient of the Mythopoeic Award, a Nebula, and a Newbery Honor. Her books have been translated into 32 languages worldwide and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. She invites you to visit her online at blackholly.com or on Instagram @blackholly.
Dhonielle Clayton spent most of her childhood under her grandmother's table with a stack of books. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Belles series, Shattered Midnight, co-author of Blackout, and the co-author of The Rumor Game and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is Board Chair of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and President of Cake Creative, an IP story kitchen dedicated to diverse books for all ages. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief. The Marvellerverse series is her middle-grade fantasy debut.
TESSA GRATTON is the author of adult SFF titles The Queens of Innis Lear and Lady Hotspur from Tor Books, as well as the original fairy tales Strange Grace and Night Shine from McElderry Books. Her YA series and short stories have been translated into twenty-two languages. Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides alongside the Kansas prairie with her wife.
Kwame Mbalia is a husband, father, writer, a New York Times bestselling author, and a former pharmaceutical metrologist in that order. His debut middle-grade novel, Tristan Strong Punches A Hole in The Sky was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it—along with the sequels Tristan Strong Destroys The World and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching—is published by Rick Riordan Presents/Disney-Hyperion. He is the co-author of Last Gate of The Emperor with Prince Joel Makonnen, from Scholastic Books, and the editor of the #1 New York Times bestselling anthology Black Boy Joy, published by Delacorte Press. A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheezits.
Ryan La Sala writes about surreal things happening to queer people. He is the author behind the luminous and terrifying bestselling horror novel The Honeys, which is in development to become a major motion picture with Anonymous Content, and the supernatural thriller Beholder. His previous titles include Reverie and Be Dazzled, both of which made the Kids’ Indie Next List. He has been featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR. Ryan is a co-host of the infamous Bad Author Book Club Podcast, and a frequent speaker at events/conferences. When not writing, Ryan does arts & crafts, supervised by his cat, Haunted Little Girl.
Named one of The Root’s 100 Most Influential African-Americans of 2020, L.L. McKinney is a writer, a poet, and an active member of the kidlit community. She’s an advocate for equality and inclusion in publishing, the co-founder of Juneteenth Book Fest, and the creator of the hashtags #PublishingPaidMe and #WhatWOCWritersHear. She’s also a gamer girl and an adamant Hei Hei stan. She is the author of A Blade So Black, A Dream So Dark, and A Crown So Cursed.
Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is the author of The Weight of Feathers, Wild Beauty, Blanca & Roja, Dark and Deepest Red, Lakelore, Venom & Vow (co-authored with Elliott McLemore), and National Book Award longlist selections When the Moon Was Ours, The Mirror Season, and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix. They have received the Michael L. Printz Award, the Stonewall Honor, the Otherwise Award, three Northern California Book Awards, and an Américas Honor.
Kaitlyn Sage Patterson grew up with her nose in a book outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in East Tennessee. She started begging her parents to put her on a horse as soon as she learned to talk. After six long years they finally relented, and Kaitlyn began learning to ride. By the time she was ten she was working off extra lesson time by mucking stalls and helping out around the barn. Kaitlyn never shook the riding bug, and she is currently training her first horse, an off the track thoroughbred named Boon, to compete in dressage and eventing. In addition to Boon, her menagerie of adopted animals includes two black trashcan cats, a one-eyed ragdoll kitten, and a toothless greyhound.
Rory Power grew up in New England, where she lives and works as a story consultant for TV adaptation. She received a Masters in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia, and is the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls, Burn Our Bodies Down, and In a Garden Burning Gold.
Chloe Gong is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and have been featured in the New York Times, PEOPLE, Forbes and more. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and International Relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York City, pretending to be a real adult.
Christine Day is a citizen of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. She wrote I Can Make This Promise, The Sea in Winter, We Still Belong, and She Persisted: Maria Tallchief, a biography in Chelsea Clinton's book series about inspirational women. She has been an American Indian Youth Literature Award honoree, a Charlotte Huck Award honoree, and a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award. Christine lives with her family in the rainy and resplendent Pacific Northwest.
