Ted Kooser, the United States Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems Delights&Shadows. He is the author of twelve full-length volumes of poetry and several books of nonfiction, and his work has appeared in many periodicals. Bag in the Wind, illustrated by Barry Root, was his first picture book. Ted Kooser lives in Garland, Nebraska.

Jon Klassen is the author-illustrator of I Want My Hat Back. The first picture book he illustrated, Cats’ Night Out by Caroline Stutson, won the Governor General’s Award for illustration in his native Canada. Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.

Ted Kooser lives in rural Nebraska with his wife, Kathleen, and three dogs. He is one of America’s most noted poets, having served two terms as U. S. Poet Laureate and, during the second term, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Delights&Shadows. He is a retired life insurance executive who now teaches part-time at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Of his many awards and distinctions, Ted Kooser says his greatest honor is the recently opened Ted Kooser Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has published twelve collections of poetry and three nonfiction books, all from University of Nebraska Press Two of the latter are books on writing, The Poetry Home Repair Manual and Writing Brave and Free. He has also written a memoir, Lights on a Ground of Darkness. . Bag in the Wind from Candlewick is his first children’s book, with which he is delighted. “It’s wonderful,” Ted said, “to be writing for young people. I am reinventing myself at age seventy.”

Jon Klassen is the creator of the #1 New York Times bestseller I Want My Hat Back, which was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year. He returned with another hat and another thief in This Is Not My Hat, which won the Caldecott Medal became a New York Times bestseller.

He is also the illustrator of House Held Up By Trees, a picture book written by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Ted Kooser, as well as Cats’ Night Out by Caroline Stutson, which won the Governor General’s Award; Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett; and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood.

Jon Klassen has worked as an illustrator for feature animated films, music videos, and editorial pieces. His animation projects include design work for DreamWorks Feature Animation as well as LAIKA Studios on their feature film Coraline. Other work includes designs for a BBC spot used in the coverage of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, which won a 2010 BAFTA award. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.