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.
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
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Anthony Ray Hinton
Anthony Ray Hinton spent nearly thirty years on death row for crimes he didn’t commit. Released in April 2015, Hinton now speaks widely on prison reform and the power of faith and forgiveness. He lives in Alabama.
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Jennifer De Leon
Jennifer De Leon is author of the YA novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (Simon & Schuster, 2020) which was chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection, and the essay collection White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing (UMass Press, 2021), which is a recipient of the Juniper Prize in Creative Nonfiction. She is also the editor of Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), an anthology that won an International Latino Book Award. An Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Framingham State University and faculty member in the Creative Writing & Literature Master Program at Harvard University, she has published prose in over a dozen literary journals including Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Michigan Quar
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Wade Hudson
Wade Hudson is the author of nearly 30 books for children and Young adults. He and his wife Cheryl are the founders of Just Us Books, Inc., a leading publisher of multicultural books for children.
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Kelly McWilliams
Kelly is the mixed-race author of AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2020), MIRROR GIRLS (2022), and YOUR PLANTATION PROM IS NOT OKAY (2023). AGNES was a finalist for the Golden Kite Award. She's also written for Time, Publisher's Weekly, and Bustle, among other outlets. She lives in Seattle with her family.
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Claire Forrest
Claire Forrest is a novelist and essayist who holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University. Where You See Yourself is based on her lived experience as a wheelchair user who has cerebral palsy. As an undergraduate at Grinnell College, she was a consultant for the Disability Services and Admissions offices, working directly to address the concerns of incoming college students with disabilities and their families.
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She lives in Minneapolis, where when she’s not writing, she spends her time swimming and planning where to travel next. Find out more about her on Instagram and Twitter at @claire4est. -
Jolene Perry
Hiker. Occasional Yogi. Equestrian. Couch potato. Music lover. Mediocre guitar player. Sailor. Tailor. Home body. Traveler. Enjoys suffering from being interested in everything. Owner, editor and teaacherr at Waypoint Author Academy. (www.waypointauthors.com)
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Also.
I only rate books I loved. -
Shannon C.F. Rogers
Shannon C.F. Rogers is a multiracial American writer of Filipinx and European descent. Her debut novel, I'D RATHER BURN THAN BLOOM, received the 2024 APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature.
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A former editor on Lunch Ticket, her work has appeared in Bodega Magazine and Newfound Journal as well as on stage with Tricklock Company, Lady Luck Productions, and the UNM Words Afire Festival of New Plays.
Shannon earned her B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and her MFA in Writing For Young People at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has served as an educator, after-school program director, and lost mitten finder at schools in Albuquerque, Chicago, and New York City. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. -
Sophia Thakur
Sophia Thakur has been performing since the age of sixteen and has a wide reach across social media. She has presented two TED Talks and has worked closely with young people, sharing her poems and the creative process. This is her first published collection. She lives in Middlesex, England.
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Zion Clark
Zion Clark is an elite athlete, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. He is currently training for the Tokyo Paralympic games. Zion Clark lives in Los Angeles.
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Don P. Hooper
Don P. Hooper is a writer and filmmaker of Jamaican heritage (and a programmer in a former life). His short story “Got Me a Jet Pack” is part of the New York Times bestselling anthology Black Boy Joy. His directing work has been featured in the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, the New York Television Film Festival (award winner), the New York City Horror Film Festival, the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival (award winner), and more. He does voice-over in video games and documentaries. True True is his 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 -
Sherri L. Smith
Sherri L. Smith is the award-winning author of YA novels LUCY THE GIANT, SPARROW, HOT SOUR SALTY SWEET, FLYGIRL and ORLEANS. In October 2015, she makes her middle grade debut with THE TOYMAKER’S APPRENTICE from G.P. Putnam and Sons for Penguin Random House.
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Sherri has worked in film, animation, comic books and construction. Her books have been listed as Amelia Bloomer, American Library Association Best Books for Young People, and Junior Library Guild Selections. FLYGIRL was the 2009 California Book Awards Gold Medalist.
She loves her family, travel, chocolate chip cookies, reading, and and a really good cup of tea. -
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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Renée Watson
Renée Watson is the author of the children’s picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, June 2010), which was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her middle grade novel, What Momma Left Me debuted as the New Voice for 2010 in middle grade fiction by The Independent Children's Booksellers Association.
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Renée’s one woman show, Roses are Red, Women are Blue, debuted at New York City's Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her poetry and articles have been published in Rethinking Schools, Theatre of the Mind and With Hearts Ablaze.
When Renée is not writing and performing, she is teaching. Renée has worked in public schools and community organizations as an artist in residence for several years, teachin -
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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Dusti Bowling
DUSTI BOWLING grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, where, as her family will tell you, she always had her nose in a book. She released her first middle grade novel in 2017 and hasn't stopped writing since.
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Dusti's books have won the Reading the West Award, the Sakura Medal, a Golden Kite Honor, the William Allen White Children's Book Award, and have been nominated for a Cybil and over fifty state awards. Her books are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections and have been named best books of the year by the Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Bank Street College of Education, A Mighty Girl, Shelf Awareness, and many more.
Dusti currently lives in Eagar, Arizona with her husband, three daughters, and a bunch of farm animals.
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LaDarrion Williams
Hailing from the small town of Helena, Alabama, LaDarrion Williams is a self-taught playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh, and fantastical way. As a playwright, his first play Katrina won first place at the Alabama State Thespian Conference. Black Creek Risin’ was a part of the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. His play, Coco Queens, was invited to participate in the 2019 Sundance Institute’s Playwriting Intensive and will be receiving its World Premiere at Playhouse on the Square in July 2024. His plays also received semi-finalist recognition from the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrit
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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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Mike Curato
MIKE was born and raised in the suburbs of New York City. He has been drawing ever since he could hold a pencil. Mike attended Syracuse University and has a BFA in Illustration. After college, he moved to Seattle, where he eventually began a career as a graphic designer. You can see examples of Mike's design work here. In 2012, Mike finally achieved his lifelong goal of becoming a published author & illustrator of children's books when Henry Holt Books for Young Readers (MacMillan) offered him a 3-book deal featuring his character, Little Elliot. The first book in the series, Little Elliot, Big City, debuted August 26th, 2014. Mike currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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Pamela N. Harris
Born and somewhat raised in Newport News, Virginia, also affectionately known as “Bad News.” A former school counselor by day, she received her bachelor’s in English and a master’s in school counseling at Old Dominion University, her M.F.A in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision at William and Mary. When she isn’t writing, Pam is rewatching Leonardo DiCaprio movies, playing with her kiddos, and pretending to enjoy exercising.
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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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Elise Bryant
Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling, and the forthcoming It’s Elementary. For many years, Elise had the joy of working as a special education teacher, and now she spends her days reading, writing, and eating dessert. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Long Beach, California. You can visit her online at www.elisebryant.com.
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Bolu Babalola
BOLU BABALOLA
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is a British-Nigerian woman with a misleading bachelor's degree in law and a masters degree in American Politics & History from UCL. She feels it is important to state that her thesis was on Beyoncé's "Lemonade" and she was awarded a distinction for it. So essentially she has a masters degree in Beyoncé. A writer of books, scripts, culture pieces and retorts, a lover of love and self-coined "romcomoisseur", Bolu Babalola writes stories of dynamic women with distinct voices who love and are loved audaciously. She is a big believer in women being both "Beauty and the beast". She is not a fan of writing her own bios. -
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 -
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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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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Britney S. Lewis
Britney S. Lewis is the #1 New York Times, Indie, and USA Today Bestselling Author of Blood Moon. She is also the award-winning author of The Dark Place and The Undead Truth of Us. She has a B.A. in corporate communications with an emphasis in business and art.
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When Britney isn’t daydreaming about new stories, she is an urban hiker, exploring the city on foot, looking for iced coffee. She can also be found watching TV shows with her husband and her pup or practicing West Coast Swing. She lives in Kansas City. -
L.S. Stratton
L.S. Stratton is an NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter who has written more than a dozen books under different pen names in just about every genre from thrillers to romance to historical fiction. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat.
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Ashley Jordan
Ashley Jordan (she/her) is a millennial from Atlanta by way of Brooklyn. She attended Spelman College, obtaining a degree in Psychology and a lifelong love and appreciation for women’s stories. While she currently works in public health, she has embraced writing as a hobby since penning her first short story in second grade. When Ashley isn't at the day job or writing, she is either at a Beyoncé concert, rewatching Mad Men, or arguing about basketball with anyone who will listen. In 2023, she became a Reese's Book Club LitUp Fellow.
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Brian G. Buckmire
Brian G. Buckmire is a felony trial attorney, currently with the firm Hamilton Clarke. He is also an ABC News contributor.
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Previously, Buckmire hosted the Law&Crime network show "Law&Crime Daily." He was a homicide defense attorney in a New York City Public Defenders office. -
Ream Shukairy
Ream Shukairy is a Syrian American Muslim born and raised full-time in Orange County, California and part-time over summers in Syria. Whether in California or Syria, she feels at home where her family is and wherever there’s a beach. She has a talent for learning languages and is always on the search for the next place she can travel and flex her words. The daughter of immigrants, there isn’t a stereotype she won’t try her hardest to defy. She can be found reading at the beach, with her sisters watching anime, or playing volleyball really anywhere. She currently resides in Boston for graduate school.
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Christina Hammonds Reed
Christina Hammonds Reed holds an MFA in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her short fiction has previously appeared in the Santa Monica Review. She lives in Hermosa Beach, CA.
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Mariama J. Lockington
Mariama J. Lockington is an adoptee, author, and educator. She has been telling stories and making her own books since the second grade, when she wore shortalls and flower leggings every day to school. Mariama’s middle-grade debut, For Black Girls Like Me, earned five starred reviews and was a Today Show Best Kids’ Book of 2019. Her sophomore middle-grade book, In The Key of Us, is a Stonewall Honor Award book and was featured in the New York Times. Her debut young adult novel, Forever is Now, is the 2024 winner of the Schneider Family Book Award. Mariama holds a Masters in Education from Lesley University and a Masters in Fine Arts in Poetry from San Francisco State University, she calls many places home, but currently lives in Kentucky wi
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Daniel Aleman
Daniel Aleman is the award-winning author of INDIVISIBLE. Born and raised in Mexico City, he currently lives in Toronto. His second novel, BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN, is out now, and his adult debut, I MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE, is coming in late 2024.
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Candice Iloh
Candice Iloh is a first generation Nigerian-American writer, teaching artist, and youth educator. She is a graduate of Howard University and holds an MFA in writing from Lesley University. Her work has earned fellowships from Lambda Literary and VONA among many others. Her debut novel, Every Body Looking, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
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Laila Sabreen
Laila Sabreen is a young adult contemporary writer who was raised in the Washington DC area. She is a recent graduate of Emory University and is currently pursuing her PhD in English Literature.
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Her love of writing began as a love of reading, which started when she used to take weekly trips to her local library. There she fell in love with the Angelina Ballerina series, so much so that she started to write Angelina Ballerina fanfiction at the age of five (though she did not know it was fanfiction at the time). When she isn’t writing, she can be found creating niche playlists, watching reality TV, or working on an academic article about literature and Black girlhood.
Her debut YA contemporary novel, YOU TRULY ASSUMED, released with Inkyard Pre -
Cassie Gustafson
CASSIE GUSTAFSON writes gritty, psychological YA novels that include mystery, suspense, and trauma.
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She holds an MFA in Writing for Young Adults from Hollins University and an MA in English Literature from Cal State Fullerton. A New England transplant, she spends her time globe-trotting with her adventurous husband, Carl, wandering old cemeteries in her quaint coastal town, or—when the wind shifts in the right direction—trying to write with an overly talkative cat named Maui in her lap. Cassie's interests include hunting for sea glass, shooting archery, decorating cupcakes, creating stained glass art, and obsessing over all things Halloween.
CONNECT WITH CASSIE HERE:
>>WEBSITE: https://www.cassiegustafson.com/
>>INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram -
Laura Sibson
Laura Sibson worked for years as a career counselor for undergraduates before getting her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing, counseling, or drinking impossibly strong coffee, you can find her running miles around her home in Philadelphia, walking her dog, or ingesting pop culture (along with great takeout) with her family. She is the author of the young adult novels The Art of Breaking Things and Edie In Between, both from Viking.
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Kelly Loy Gilbert
Kelly Loy Gilbert is the author of CONVICTION and PICTURE US IN THE LIGHT (Disney-Hyperion, spring 2018). She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Pamela N. Harris
Born and somewhat raised in Newport News, Virginia, also affectionately known as “Bad News.” A former school counselor by day, she received her bachelor’s in English and a master’s in school counseling at Old Dominion University, her M.F.A in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision at William and Mary. When she isn’t writing, Pam is rewatching Leonardo DiCaprio movies, playing with her kiddos, and pretending to enjoy exercising.
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Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker is a publishing professional, creator/host of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, and faculty for Bay Path University's low-res MFA in Nonfiction. Jennifer is the editor of the short story anthology EVERYDAY PEOPLE: THE COLOR OF LIFE (Atria Books, 2018) and the author of the YA novel FORGIVE ME NOT (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023).
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In 2017, she was awarded a NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship & Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant (as well as their award for Artistic Excellence) for Nonfiction Literature. Her writing has appeared in Newtown Literary (for which her short story "The Pursuit of Happiness" was nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize). She was previously a contributing editor to Electric Literature and has written for print and -
Jane Kuo
Jane Kuo is a Chinese and Taiwanese American writer who grew up in Los Angeles. Also, she once borrowed a pencil from Maxine Hong Kingston.
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Jane lives in California with her husband and two kids. Her novels, In the Beautiful Country and Land of Broken Promises are based on the events of her childhood. -
Amelia Brunskill
Amelia Brunskill grew up mostly in Washington state where she picked a lot of blackberries, read a lot of books, and failed to properly appreciate the epic beauty of the mountains and the Pacific ocean.
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She now lives in the Midwest where she eats as much Thai food as possible and hangs out with her dog. -
Alice Tait
Alice Tait is a popular British illustrator whose work has graced book covers for Penguin, magazine spreads for Vogue, chocolate treats for Waitrose and party invites for Chanel.
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Alice also has her brand own gift range, 'Alice Tait London.' It is the number one bestselling London gift range across Britain, and her celebratory 'Royal Heart' Coronation range was sold in Westminster Abbey, The British Museum and Tower Bridge amongst others.
Alice is delighted to be represented by Gill McLay at Bath Literary Agency as an author-illustrator in children's publishing. Alice's third picture book in her popular 'No, Nancy, No!' series due to be published by Walker Books in Spring 2024, in the UK and USA. -
Deborah Crossland
Deborah Crossland (she/her) teaches English and mythology at her local community college and writes myth-based, contemporary novels with a feminist bent for young adults. She is passionate about making education accessible for everyone and makes sure her students pay nothing out of pocket. She lives in Northern California with her husband and her daughter's very spoiled, retired service dog.
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Jamie Jo Hoang
Jamie Jo Hoang is the award author of BLUE SUN, YELLOW SKY. Her driver's license says she lives in Los Angeles, but she tries to escape to foreign lands as often as possible. She is a writer, thinker, explorer, lover of tea, certified advanced diver, and never far from an ocean. She blogs about her life and travels at: www.heyjamie.com. Tweets at: @heyjamie. And posts pretty pictures on Instagram as @heyjamiejo. So far she's visited Peru, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Uruguay, Chile, Bonaire, France, England, Jamaica, Ireland, Scotland, and numerous other cities within America.
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Sunni T. Connor
I'm Sunni T. Connor. Nice to meet you! Who am I? Who knows? I'm still trying to figure that out. What I can tell you, is that I am unique. What makes me different as an author is, not only am I an amazing writer (let me brag), but I had one hell of a story to tell. My passion for writing and my hardcore life is what convinced me to share my deepest secrets with the world. My style of writing is bold, raw and will have you flipping the page before you finish the last sentence. Lately, I crossed over to fiction, and boy will you be thrilled. Check out my latest book, 'Damien's Secret." Enough about me! Tell me about you. Leave me a message
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