Frederick Joseph
Frederick Joseph is a Yonkers, NY raised three-time New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. His books include a poetry collection, We Alive, Beloved, two books of nonfiction, Patriarchy Blues, and The Black Friend, a collaboration, Better Than We Found It, a children’s book, The Courage to Dream, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and his recent bestselling, Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly Starred reviewed YA novel, This Thing of Ours.
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T.L. Simpson
T.L. Simpson is an award-winning journalist and novelist living in Arkansas. He is currently the editor of his hometown paper. His fiction draws from his experiences growing up in the Ozarks, covering both sports and crime. Simpson lives in the Arkansas River Valley, between the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains with his wife and four children.
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DeAndra Davis
DeAndra, an autistic and neurodivergent Jamaican-American author, has been reading since she could remember and writing since anyone put a pen in her hand. When she isn't delving into fantasy worlds or scaring herself with thrilling tales, she is playing some role-playing game (probably The Witcher series). A young adult novelist, she enjoys exploring the intersections of different identities as much as she enjoys exploring her own.
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DeAndra graduated with her BA in English Literature from Minot State University and her MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University. She is an Instructor of English at Florida Atlantic University where she regularly teaches creative writing, literature, and composition courses.
She is a married -
Tarik Dobbs
Tarik Dobbs (b. 1997, Dearborn, MI) is a writer, artist, and Poetry Foundation Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.
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Poems by Dobbs have been featured in the anthologies Best New Poets and Best of the Net, as well as in AGNI, American Poetry Review, and Poetry Magazine, among others.
Dobbs is the director of poetry.onl and has served as a guest editor at Mizna and Zoeglossia: A Community for Poets with Disabilities.
Dobbs holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Minnesota and an M.F.A. in art, theory, practice from Northwestern University. Dobbs is assistant professor of English in creative writing (poetry) at Southwest Minnesota State University.
The debut poetry collections by Dobbs, Nazar Boy (June 11, 2 -
Jasminne Mendez
JASMINNE MÉNDEZ is a Macondo and Canto Mundo Fellow, as well as a Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) alumna. She is the author of a multi-genre memoir, Island of Dreams (2013), winner of an International Latino Book Award. She lives and works in Houston, Texas.
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Susan Dennard
Susan Dennard is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the Witchlands series (now in development for TV from the Jim Henson Company), and the Something Strange and Deadly series, in addition to various other fiction published online.
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Before becoming an author, she got to travel the world with her M.Sc. in marine biology. She also runs the popular newsletter for writers, the Misfits and Daydreamers. When not writing or teaching writing, she can be found rolling the dice as a Dungeon Master or mashing buttons on one of her way too many consoles.
You can learn more about Susan on her website, blog, newsletter, Twitter, or Pinterest. -
Angeline Boulley
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She gained attention from the We Need Diverse Books Mentorship Program. Angeline was the former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her agent is Faye Bender at The Book Group. Firekeeper's Daughter has been optioned for a Netflix series by the Obamas' Higher Ground production company.
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Daniel Nayeri
Daniel Nayeri is a writer and editor in New York City. He wrote and produced The Cult of Sincerity, the first feature film to be world-premiered by YouTube. He has had all kinds of jobs around books, including book repairman, literary agent, used bookstore clerk, children's librarian, Official Story-Time Reader Leader, editor, copy-editor, and even carpenter (making bookshelves). He's also a professional pastry chef. He loves Street Fighter 2, hates the word "foodie," and is an award-winning stuntman.
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Daniel and his sister/co-writer Dina were both born in Iran and spent many young adult years in Europe. There they learned several languages between them and tried Frosted Flakes for the first time. -
Ibi Zoboi
Ibi Zoboi's debut novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist. She is also the New York Times Bestselling author of Pride, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, and Punching the Air with co-author and Exonerated Five member, Yusef Salaam. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three children.
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Jason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. After earning a BA in English from The University of Maryland, College Park, Jason Reynolds moved to Brooklyn, New York, where you can often find him walking the four blocks from the train to his apartment talking to himself. Well, not really talking to himself, but just repeating character names and plot lines he thought of on the train, over and over again, because he’s afraid he’ll forget it all before he gets home.
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Heather McGhee
Heather Charisse McGhee is an American political commentator and strategist. She is a former president and currently a distinguished senior fellow of Demos, a non-profit progressive U.S. think tank. McGhee is a regular contributor to NBC News and frequently appears as a guest and panelist on Meet the Press, All In with Chris Hayes, and Real Time with Bill Maher.
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Kate Messner
Kate Messner is an award-winning author, TED 2012 speaker, and former middle school English teacher. Her books for kids include THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z.,SUGAR AND ICE, and EYE OF THE STORM (Walker/Bloomsbury Dec. 2010) the MARTY MCGUIRE series (Scholastic), SEA MONSTER'S FIRST DAY, and OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW (Chronicle, Books). Kate also wrote SPITFIRE and CHAMPLAIN AND THE SILENT ONE, both Lake Champlain historical novels published by North Country Books.
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Kate lives with her family on Lake Champlain, where she loves to read, write, hike, swing on birch trees, and eat chocolate. She also hangs out in various places online.
Visit Kate's website: http://www.katemessner.com
Find Kate on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/KateMessner
...or f -
Lauren Wolk
Lauren Wolk is an award-winning poet and author of the bestselling Newbery Honor–winning Wolf Hollow, described by the New York Times Book Review as "full of grace and stark, brutal beauty." She was born in Baltimore and has since lived in California, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Canada, and Ohio. She now lives with her family on Cape Cod.
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Rocky Callen
Rocky Callen, the daughter of an Ecuadorian immigrant, has long lived a life of service ever since she was a 13-year-old advocating for the undocumented immigrants in her community. She interned at NASA at 12 years old, started lobbying congress at 13, and wrote and produced student radio stories at NPR at 14.
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A behavioral therapist for over ten years, she received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband, daughter, and baby boy. Rocky is currently developing the Bleed Ink Foundation, a creative hub and resource center for writers, and the HoldOn2Hope Project, which unites creatives in suicide prevention and mental health awareness. A Breath Too Late is her debut novel.
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Derrick Barnes
Where I come from, no one dreams of becoming an author.
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I didn’t know any famous African American male authors. I didn’t actually meet one until I attended college. I wanted to be a football player, the next Sean Combs, or a rapper; anything that would instantly provide me with the riches I would need to “move my mama off of the block”. I was raised in a single parent household by my mother, the lovely Miss Catherine Barnes, along with my big brother, Anthony, in Kansas City, MO.
My first attempt at writing a real story was in the fifth grade. I think it was about a group of stray dogs trekking across the country to find a magic bone or something. I can’t remember. But I do remember what it felt like when I finished and read it. It felt power -
April Henry
I write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.
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If you've read one of my books, I would love to hear from you. Hearing from readers makes me eager to keep writing.
When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.
My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written 27 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have been o -
Candace Fleming
I have always been a storyteller. Even before I could write my name, I could tell a good tale. And I told them all the time. As a preschooler, I told my neighbors all about my three-legged cat named Spot. In kindergarten, I told my classmates about the ghost that lived in my attic. And in first grade I told my teacher, Miss Harbart, all about my family's trip to Paris, France.
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I told such a good story that people always thought I was telling the truth. But I wasn't. I didn't have a three-legged cat or a ghost in my attic, and I'd certainly never been to Paris, France. I simply enjoyed telling a good story... and seeing my listener's reaction.
Sure, some people might have said I was a seven-year old fibber. But not my parents. Instead of calli -
Jennifer Niven
JENNIFER NIVEN is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of All the Bright Places, Holding Up the Universe, and Breathless. Her books have been translated in over 75 languages and have won literary awards around the world.
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An Emmy-award winning screenwriter, she co-wrote the script for the All the Bright Places movie— currently streaming on Netflix and starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith. She is also the author of several narrative nonfiction titles and the Velva Jean historical fiction series.
Her latest YA novel, When We Were Monsters, was published September 2, and she has an adult novel-- Meet the Newmans-- releasing January 6, 2026.
Jennifer divides her time between coastal Georgia and Los Angeles with her hus -
Suja Sukumar
Suja Sukumar is an award winning author of YA suspense novels. Her debut When Mimi Went Missing won the Anthony award for Best YA/Children's novel and the Pencraft seasonal award for Best YA. Teen Vogue called it "a heartstopping debut". It has been featured in Crime Reads, Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, among others.
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She is a member of SCBWI, Crime Writers of Color, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers.
She is also a primary care physician in suburban Detroit, where she lives with her family. -
Langston Hughes
Through poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include Weary Blues (1926) and The Ways of White Folks (1934).
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People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto... -
Brittany K. Barnett
Brittany K. Barnett is a best-selling author, attorney, and entrepreneur who thrives at the intersection of freedom, hope, and justice. She is dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system and has won freedom for numerous people serving fundamental death sentences for federal drug offenses – including seven clients who received executive clemency from President Barack Obama. Brittany founded the following nonprofits to carry out her life's work: Buried Alive Project, Girls Embracing Mothers, and Manifest Freedom. She has earned many honors, including being named one of America’s most Outstanding Young Lawyers by the American Bar Association.
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Wendelin Van Draanen
Wendelin Van Draanen has written more than thirty novels for young readers and teens. She is the author of the 18-book Edgar-winning Sammy Keyes series, and wrote Flipped which was named a Top 100 Children’s Novel for the 21st Century by SLJ, and became a Warner Brothers feature film with Rob Reiner directing. Her novel The Running Dream was awarded ALA’s Schneider Family Award for its portrayal of the disability experience.
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Van Draanen's latest book, Hope in the Mail, is part memoir, part writing guided, designed to encourage aspiring writers to pursue their dream.
Van Draanen is also the author of two short chapter-book series. The Gecko & Sticky books, are fun read-alouds, perfect for reluctant readers, and the Shredderman books—featuring -
Alison Stine
Alison Stine grew up in rural Ohio and now lives in Colorado. Her first novel Road Out of Winter won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. Recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Geographic, she has published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and elsewhere.
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Libba Bray
What is it about writing an author bio that gives me that deer-in-headlights feeling? It's not exactly like I'm going to say "I was born in Alabama…" and somebody's going to jump up and snarl, "Oh yeah? Prove it!" At least I hope not.
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I think what gets me feeling itchy is all that emphasis on the facts of a life, while all the juicy, relevant, human oddity stuff gets left on the cutting room floor. I could tell you the facts–I lived in Texas for most of my life; I live in New York City with my husband and six-year-old son now; I have freckles and a lopsided smile; I'm allergic to penicillin.
But that doesn't really give you much insight into me. That doesn't tell you that I stuck a bead up my nose while watching TV when I was four and thought -
Hannah V. Sawyerr
Hannah V. Sawyerr was recognized as the Youth Poet Laureate of Baltimore in 2016. Her debut novel in verse All the Fighting Parts was a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, a Rise Feminist Book Project Top Ten Title, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, and an ABA Indies Introduce/Indie Next Pick. Her spoken word has been featured on the BBC’s World Have Your Say program as well as the National Education Association’s “Do You Hear Us?” campaign. Her written word has been included in Essence, xoNecole, and gal-dem.
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Sawyerr holds a BA in English from Morgan State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Her sophomore novel in verse Truth Is (Abrams/Amulet) is slated for release on -
Mikayla Bridge
Mikayla Bridge is a young adult fantasy author living in Melbourne, Australia. She grew up on a small-town farm and completed a BA with honours in political science and international relations. She loves writing books that feel like a triple espresso: high-energy, heart-racing, and might ruin your sleep schedule.
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You can find her on instagram at @mikayla_bridge. -
Roselyn Clarke
Roselyn Clarke writes YA thrillers and adult fantasy about the things that haunt us—relationships, mistakes, monsters. Her debut YA novel, NOW SHE'S DEAD, was published with Sourcebooks Fire in summer 2025.
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She studied psychology and lives in the D.C. area, where she works in communications. When she’s not writing, she’s buying plants that may or may not survive and daydreaming about future travels.
You can connect with her on Instagram and TikTok @roselynclarkebooks for bookish content and life updates. If you want a behind-the-curtain look at her writing process or craft advice, you can sign up for her newsletter on her website, roselynclarke.com -
Xan Kaur
Xan Kaur is a Punjabi-American author who grew up in rural Georgia, where there were more gnats than people. Her debut novel is When Devils Sing, an instant New York Times and national Indie bestseller. When not writing, you can find her behind a camera or swimming in the nearest ocean.
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Please refer to author site for content warnings. -
DeAndra Davis
DeAndra, an autistic and neurodivergent Jamaican-American author, has been reading since she could remember and writing since anyone put a pen in her hand. When she isn't delving into fantasy worlds or scaring herself with thrilling tales, she is playing some role-playing game (probably The Witcher series). A young adult novelist, she enjoys exploring the intersections of different identities as much as she enjoys exploring her own.
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DeAndra graduated with her BA in English Literature from Minot State University and her MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University. She is an Instructor of English at Florida Atlantic University where she regularly teaches creative writing, literature, and composition courses.
She is a married -
Josh Galarza
Josh Galarza writes fiction and creative nonfiction and is a multidisciplinary visual artist specializing in printmaking, book arts, and sculpture. His debut novel, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky, was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University, a BFA in art from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a BA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno. He lives in Northern Nevada and is the three-time reigning world champion of extreme trampoline air-drumming, a sport he invented himself.
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Jackie Khalilieh
JACKIE KHALILIEH is a Palestinian-Canadian writer with a love of nineties pop culture, Dad jokes, and warm and fuzzy romance. Like many autistic females, she received her diagnosis as an adult. She is passionate about positive representation within her writing. She currently resides just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband and two daughters, complaining nightly about having to cook dinner. Something More is her debut YA novel.
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Please note: As an author, I use Goodreads mostly to keep track of the books I want to read.
I don't check/accept friend requests from readers/people on Goodreads who I don't know, as I feel that may blur the lines. I hope you understand. Thank-you!
If you do want to interact, I'm active on Instagram and TikTok @j -
Ebony LaDelle
Ebony is the author of Love Radio—which was People magazine’s best book of the summer, a 2023 Audie Award Finalist, a 2023 Michigan Notable Book, Apple Books’ best book of 2022, an Amazon's Editor Pick and was featured on the Today Show. A Baldwin Fellow, she’s also the author of the forthcoming YA romance This Could Be Forever and editor for the anthology You’ve Got a Place Here, Too. Prior to being an author, Ebony was a brand marketing director in book publishing and worked at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, among others. You can visit her online at www.ebonyladelle.com and follow her on social at @ebonyladelle.
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Mia P. Manansala
Mia P. Manansala is a book coach and the author of ARSENIC AND ADOBO (Berkley 2021), the first in the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series.
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She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.
She is the winner of the 2018 Hugh Holton Award, the 2018 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, the 2017 William F. Deeck - Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, and the 2016 Mystery Writers of America/Helen McCloy Scholarship. She's also a 2017 Pitch Wars alum and 2018-2020 mentor.
A lover of all things geeky, Mia spends her days procrastibaking, playing JRPGs and dating sims, reading cozy mysteries, and dreaming of becoming best buds with Wonder Woman -
Angeline Boulley
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She gained attention from the We Need Diverse Books Mentorship Program. Angeline was the former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her agent is Faye Bender at The Book Group. Firekeeper's Daughter has been optioned for a Netflix series by the Obamas' Higher Ground production company.
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Lakita Wilson
Lakita Wilson is the author of several novels and nonfiction projects for children and young adults, including What is Black Lives Matter? and Who is Colin Kaepernick? part of the New York Times bestselling Who HQ Now series, the middle grade novel Be Real, Macy Weaver, and the young adult novel Last Chance Dance.
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A 2017 recipient of SCBWI's Emerging Voices Award, Lakita received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Lakita lives in Prince George's County, Maryland.. She can be found online at lakitawilson.com -
Tiffany D. Jackson
Tiffany D. Jackson is the New York Times Bestselling author of YA novels including the Coretta Scott King — John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning Monday’s Not Coming, the NAACP Image Award-nominated Allegedly, Let Me Hear A Rhyme, and her 2020 title GROWN. She received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University, her master of arts in media studies from the New School, and has over a decade in TV/Film experience. The Brooklyn native is a lover of naps, cookie dough, and beaches, currently residing in the borough she loves, most likely multitasking.
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Danez Smith
Danez Smith is the author of [insert] boy (2014, YesYes Books), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Their 2nd collection will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017. Their work has published & featured widely including in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, & Ploughshares. They are a 2014 Ruth Lilly - Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. They are a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, placing 2nd in 2014. They edit for The Offing & are a founding member of 2 collectives, Dark Noise and Sad Boy Supper Club. They live in the midwest most of the time.
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Danez -
Jasminne Mendez
JASMINNE MÉNDEZ is a Macondo and Canto Mundo Fellow, as well as a Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) alumna. She is the author of a multi-genre memoir, Island of Dreams (2013), winner of an International Latino Book Award. She lives and works in Houston, Texas.
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Mia McKenzie
Mia McKenzie is the award-winning author of The Summer We Got Free and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous Media, an independent media and education project that centers queer Black women and girls. She lives with her parenting partner and two children in the Happy Valley of Western Massachusetts.
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Rex Ogle
Holy moly! I am so humbled and honored for y'all to read my books. Big hugs to all of ya.
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Also, check out graphic novels under my pen name REY TERCIERO.
Bio:
REX OGLE is an award-winning author and the writer of nearly a hundred children’s books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch, which won the ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction.
Born and raised (mostly) in Texas, he moved to New York City after college to intern at Marvel Comics before moving over to DC Comics, Scholastic, and Little Brown Young Readers. As an editor, he championed over a dozen NY Times Bestsellers and worked on (and often wrote) major brands such as X-Men, Justice League, Star Wars, LEGO, Power Rangers, Transformers, Minecraft, Assassin -
Ibi Zoboi
Ibi Zoboi's debut novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist. She is also the New York Times Bestselling author of Pride, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, and Punching the Air with co-author and Exonerated Five member, Yusef Salaam. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three children.
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Robert Jones Jr.
Robert Jones, Jr. (formerly known on social media as “Son of Baldwin”) is a Brooklyn, New York-based writer and public speaker. He is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel, The Prophets, which won the 2022 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. His writings have been featured in The New York Times, Essence, Variety, and The Paris Review, as well as in the critically acclaimed anthologies Four Hundred Souls and The 1619 Project. The Prophets was named one of “The 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature” by The New York Times. Subscribe to Robert's newsletter, Witness, at https://robertjonesjr.substack.com.
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Jackie Khalilieh
JACKIE KHALILIEH is a Palestinian-Canadian writer with a love of nineties pop culture, Dad jokes, and warm and fuzzy romance. Like many autistic females, she received her diagnosis as an adult. She is passionate about positive representation within her writing. She currently resides just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband and two daughters, complaining nightly about having to cook dinner. Something More is her debut YA novel.
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Please note: As an author, I use Goodreads mostly to keep track of the books I want to read.
I don't check/accept friend requests from readers/people on Goodreads who I don't know, as I feel that may blur the lines. I hope you understand. Thank-you!
If you do want to interact, I'm active on Instagram and TikTok @j -
Erica Chenoweth
Erica Chenoweth, Ph.D. is Professor & Associate Dean for Research at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
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Gwendolyn Womack
Gwendolyn Womack is the USA Today and Los Angeles Times bestselling author of The Fortune Teller, The Time Collector, The Memory Painter, and her YA debut The Premonitions Club. Up next is The Last Labyrinth, a scifi romantic adventure coming 3/24/26 with 47North.
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Gwendolyn went to college in Fairbanks, Alaska to study theatre and received an MFA in Directing for theatre and film from California Institute of the Arts. She lives in Houston, Texas with her family, is an adjunct faculty member at HCC, collects and photographs kaleidoscopes, and can usually be found either immersed in a book or dreaming up a new story. Visit her at www.gwendolynwomack.com. -
Lakita Wilson
Lakita Wilson is the author of several novels and nonfiction projects for children and young adults, including What is Black Lives Matter? and Who is Colin Kaepernick? part of the New York Times bestselling Who HQ Now series, the middle grade novel Be Real, Macy Weaver, and the young adult novel Last Chance Dance.
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A 2017 recipient of SCBWI's Emerging Voices Award, Lakita received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Lakita lives in Prince George's County, Maryland.. She can be found online at lakitawilson.com -
Crystal Marie Fleming
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Crystal Marie Fleming, PhD, is a writer and sociologist who researches racism in the United States and abroad. She earned degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University and is associate professor of sociology and Africana studies at Stony Brook University. Fleming writes about race, sexuality, and politics for publications including The Root, Black Agenda Report, Vox, and Everyday Feminism, and she has tens of thousands of followers on social media. She is the author of Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France.
Photo credit: Nicole Mondestin Photography -
Hailey Alcaraz
Hailey began her writing career in the sixth grade as a kid reporter for Time for Kids magazine, and has been addicted to storytelling ever since. Born in California and raised in Arizona, she's a Southwest girl through and through who loves stories about fellow multicultural girls finding their way in the world.
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She currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband, two daughters and precocious German Shepherd. Connect with her online at haileyalcaraz.comand @alcarazbooks on both TikTok and Instagram. -
Roselyn Clarke
Roselyn Clarke writes YA thrillers and adult fantasy about the things that haunt us—relationships, mistakes, monsters. Her debut YA novel, NOW SHE'S DEAD, was published with Sourcebooks Fire in summer 2025.
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She studied psychology and lives in the D.C. area, where she works in communications. When she’s not writing, she’s buying plants that may or may not survive and daydreaming about future travels.
You can connect with her on Instagram and TikTok @roselynclarkebooks for bookish content and life updates. If you want a behind-the-curtain look at her writing process or craft advice, you can sign up for her newsletter on her website, roselynclarke.com -
Jermaine Fowler
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Jermaine
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Fowler is a storyteller and self-proclaimed
intellectual adventurer who spent his
youth seeking knowledge on the endless
shelves of the free public library. Between
his research and lecturing he is host of the
top-rated history podcast The Humanity
Archive, praised as a must-listen in Vanity
Fair. Challenging dominant perspectives,
Fowler goes outside the textbooks to find
stories that are recognizably human. He
connects current issues with the heroic
struggles of those who’ve come before us,
brings hidden history to light, and makes it
powerfully relevant. -
Kim Smejkal
Kim Smejkal writes dark fantasy for young adults and not-so-young adults, always with a touch of magic. Her debut novel, INK IN THE BLOOD, released from HMH in early 2020, and the sequel, CURSE OF THE DIVINE, released in 2021.
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When she’s not writing, she’s homeschooling her kids, tutoring other people’s kids, and voraciously hoarding any precious alone time. Though she grew up on the Canadian prairies, she now lives with her family on beautiful, muse-satiating Vancouver Island. She is represented by Daniel Lazar of Writers House.