Jenna Lee-Yun
Jenna was a voracious reader as a child and adolescent but found there were never enough books to read. Moreover, there were no books featuring protagonists who looked like her.
Now, Jenna continues to read as much as she can and finds there is never enough time to get ahead of her TBR pile. She is overjoyed to see so much more diversity (including Asian-American protagonists) in children's books than she could have imagined as a young reader!
Jenna resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, son, daughter, and mini-goldendoodle. She loves nothing more than writing middle-grade and young adult novels with a large cup of coffee. Jenna is represented by Emily Forney at BookEnds Literary Agency. THE LAST RHEE WITCH is her debut novel.
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Mary Averling
Mary Averling grew up across England and Canada, never far from the woods. She has degrees from the University of Victoria and Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. Her debut, The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist, a Junior Library Gold Standard Selection, an ALA Rainbow List Pick, and one of BookPage's Top 10 Books of 2024. Since she can't stay away from libraries for very long, she is currently working toward her PhD in Ontario, where she lives surrounded by all the magical, spooky, heartfelt books she can find.
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She is represented by Kelly Sonnack at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. -
Alicia D. Williams
What's there to know about Alicia D? Well, that depends on who you ask.
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If you ask kindergartners, they'd tell you:
1. She likes chunky guacamole.
2. She likes shiny things.
3. She tells good stories.
If you ask her middle schoolers, they'd surely say:
1. She gets us.
2. She makes us laugh with all her jokes.
3. She is Da BOMB.
While all of these may be true, there are a few more points to add . . . Alicia D. is a teacher in Charlotte, NC. She is the proud mother of a brilliant college student. Her love for education stems from conducting school residencies as a Master Teaching Artist of arts-integration. Alicia D infuses her love for drama, movement, and storytelling to inspire students to write. And like other great storytellers, she made the leap -
Rajani LaRocca
Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes award-winning books for young people, including Red, White, and Whole, which won a 2022 Newbery Honor, the Walter Dean Myers Award, Golden Kite Award, and New England Book Award. Her other books include: Midsummer’s Mayhem (2019), Seven Golden Rings (2020), Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers (2021), Much Ado About Baseball (2021), Where Three Oceans Meet (2021), My Little Golden Book About Kamala Harris (2021), The Secret Code Inside You (2021), I'll Go and Come Back (2022), and more. She’s always been an omnivorous reader, and now she is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose an
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Nedda Lewers
Nedda Lewers is a USA Today Bestselling Egyptian American author and former teacher. She writes books that take children on fun adventures and feature characters who are trying to make sense of the big, complicated world and their place in it.
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As a kid, Nedda lived in Queens, NY, where she spent many Sundays at the local library deciding how many books she could possibly carry on the fifteen-minute walk home. Every summer, she visited Cairo, where her parents are from, getting to know her big extended family. Even though it wasn’t easy growing up with one foot in America and the other in Egypt, Nedda cherishes how that experience has given her a rich and expansive perspective from which she draws to write her stories.
She has an MSEd from Ban -
Shana Targosz
Shana Targosz writes about magical girls, budding friendships, ghosts who may or may not be friendly, and fiercely held hope. She is an Oregon Literary Arts Fellow and the 2021 recipient of the Edna L. Holmes Fellowship for Young Readers. Her debut novel is The Underwild: River of Spirits (Aladdin books - March 25, 2025). When not writing or reading through a stack of books, she spends her time playing Zelda with her son, designing solo journaling games, walking her domesticated monster disguised as a Labradoodle, and dreaming up different worlds.
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Brittney Arena
With a background in both brand and visual design, Brittney has always found solace in art. However, after a challenging health journey, she turned to writing, and what began as a coping mechanism evolved into a journey of exploration, allowing her to traverse new worlds from wherever she might be.
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When she’s not penning tales, Brittney spends her time obsessing over k-dramas, playing with her camera, and waging war against ungodly amounts of pet hair. She currently resides in North Carolina with her husband and two pups, and is always ready for the next adventure, whether it be on page or in real life. A Dance of Lies is her debut novel.
She is represented by Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary Agency. -
Shana Targosz
Shana Targosz writes about magical girls, budding friendships, ghosts who may or may not be friendly, and fiercely held hope. She is an Oregon Literary Arts Fellow and the 2021 recipient of the Edna L. Holmes Fellowship for Young Readers. Her debut novel is The Underwild: River of Spirits (Aladdin books - March 25, 2025). When not writing or reading through a stack of books, she spends her time playing Zelda with her son, designing solo journaling games, walking her domesticated monster disguised as a Labradoodle, and dreaming up different worlds.
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Sarah J. Mendonca
Sarah J. Mendonca is a Portuguese-American author of magical books about misfits finding their own way in the world. Raised on her father’s bedtime stories, Sarah started writing about monsters at age eight and hasn’t stopped since. You can find her haunting dark forests, lurking in bookshops, or buried underneath her enormous tea collection. An Encantadora’s Guide to Monstros and Magic is her debut novel.
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Find her on social media @sarahjmendonca -
Taylor Tracy
Taylor Tracy is the author of the Stonewall Award Honor Book Murray Out of Water. Taylor writes books filled with humor and heart that explore the joys and hopes of queer kids, focusing on mental health, found family, and the importance of a sense of community. She lives in New Jersey with her family, including a fluffle of mischievous rescue bunnies, and loves everything her home state has to offer: the best bagels, pizza, and beaches. When not writing, she can be found down the shore, in the rock gym or next to her growing pile of books to read and love.
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Mary Averling
Mary Averling grew up across England and Canada, never far from the woods. She has degrees from the University of Victoria and Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. Her debut, The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist, a Junior Library Gold Standard Selection, an ALA Rainbow List Pick, and one of BookPage's Top 10 Books of 2024. Since she can't stay away from libraries for very long, she is currently working toward her PhD in Ontario, where she lives surrounded by all the magical, spooky, heartfelt books she can find.
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She is represented by Kelly Sonnack at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. -
Meg Eden Kuyatt
Meg Eden Kuyatt is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee, and teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different” (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal and Instagram at @meden_author.
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Angela Hsieh
Angela Hsieh is a Taiwanese American author and illustrator whose choices are mostly explained by her love of goofy animals. Her life experiences include fireman-carrying a sedated bear cub and catching a belligerent wallaby. She has 1.5 cats.
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She illustrated ANTARCTICA: THE MELTING CONTINENT, a critically acclaimed nonfiction book about real-life scientists and explorers. LU AND REN'S GUIDE TO GEOZOOLOGY is her first graphic novel. -
Shifa Saltagi Safadi
Shifa Saltagi Safadi was born in Syria and immigrated to the US with her parents when she was a young girl. She is a bilingual Arabic/English speaker, and is very familiar with the challenges of learning English and navigating two languages.
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As a mom to four Arab American children and a former English teacher to Middle School students, (and an author!) she now spends her time helping kids develop a love of reading and writing too.
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Ava Reid
Ava Reid is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of gothic fantasies, including A Study in Drowning, Juniper & Thorn, and Lady Macbeth. She lives in California.
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Ann Liang
Ann Liang is the New York Times and Indie bestselling author of the critically acclaimed YA novels This Time It’s Real, If You Could See the Sun, and I Hope This Doesn't Find You. Her books have sold into over twenty foreign territories. Born in Beijing, she grew up traveling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. She now lives in Melbourne, where she can be found making overambitious to do lists and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who’s a good dog.
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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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Scott Reintgen
Scott Reintgen grew up in North Carolina, and took full advantage of the fact that he lived on the same street as fourteen of his cousins. It could be a little crowded, but he threw a few elbows and carved out a space for himself as the family storyteller. He enjoyed the role so much that he decided to spend most of college and graduate school investing in the world of literature. This led to a career teaching English and Creative Writing in the great state of North Carolina, where he currently lives with his wife and family. To his great delight, the demand for stories and storytellers is alive and well. As such, he can often be found at local coffee shops laboring over stories that he hopes his family, and fans, will love.
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Mai K. Nguyen
Mai is a Vietnamese-Japanese American comics creator, illustrator, and ice-cream enthusiast living in Northern California.
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Jasmine Warga
Jasmine Warga is a writer from Cincinnati, Ohio who currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. She is the internationally bestselling author of My Heart and Other Black Holes and Here We Are Now. Her books have been published in over twenty-five countries and optioned for film. Her debut middle grade novel, Other Words For Home, will be published in Spring 2019. Jasmine lives in an apartment filled with books with her husband, two tiny daughters, large dog, and mischievous cat.
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**I am only on Goodreads when one of my publishers sets up a Q&A for me, so the best way to contact me is through my website: www.jasminewarga.com or on twitter: @jasminewarga. Thank you so much for reading my books!** -
Elizabeth Lim
Elizabeth Lim grew up on a hearty staple of fairy tales, myths, and songs. Her passion for storytelling began around age 10, when she started writing fanfics for Sailor Moon, Sweet Valley, and Star Wars, and posted them online to discover, "Wow, people actually read my stuff. And that's kinda cool!" But after one of her teachers told her she had "too much voice" in her essays, Elizabeth took a break from creative writing to focus on not flunking English.
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Over the years, Elizabeth became a film and video game composer, and even went so far as to get a doctorate in music composition. But she always missed writing, and turned to penning stories when she needed a breather from grad school. One day, she decided to write and finish a novel -- for -
Sangu Mandanna
Sangu Mandanna was four years old when an elephant chased her down a forest road and she decided to write her first story about it. Seventeen years and many, many manuscripts later, she signed her first book deal. Sangu now lives in Norwich, a city in the east of England, with her husband and kids.
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Christopher Lincoln
Christopher Lincoln is the author of the Billy Bones series. He graduated from the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University and spent nearly a decade working as an animator. He credits animation for teaching him how to write, because an animator must learn how to inhabit a character's body and move him in a world of his own.
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His work is influenced by creatives and authors such as Charles Dickens, J.M. Barrie, Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling and Tim Burton. -
Jeff Strand
Bram Stoker Award-winning author of a bunch of demented books, including PRESSURE, DWELLER, CLOWNS VS. SPIDERS, AUTUMN BLEEDS INTO WINTER, MY PRETTIES, the official novelization of ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES, and lots of others!
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Tracey Baptiste
From Thompson-Gale: "Something About the Author"
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I have always loved books. My favorite, was an oversized complete Grimm's Fairy Tales with beautiful illustrations, which I lost when my family moved to the United States. I was fascinated by the stories of the tailor who went up against a giant, and clever Hans, who wasn't so clever as well as the more traditional princess stories. When I was about thirteen, after spending a summer in the library reading Paul Zindel and Judy Blume among other authors, I announced to my best friend that I was going to be a writer. I didn't decide what I wanted to write until I read "The Friends" by Rosa Guy. I had recently moved to Brooklyn, NY, and the book spoke to my situation precisely. It remains one of m -
Graci Kim
Graci Kim is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of the Gifted Clans series: The Last Fallen Star, The Last Fallen Moon, and The Last Fallen Realm. Featured in TIME Magazine for Kids, and dubbed a “sparkling yarn” by Entertainment Weekly, the Korean mythology-inspired trilogy is being translated into multiple languages.
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The Last Fallen Star was named a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Children’s Book, an Amazon Best Book, an Indigo Best Book, a Barnes & Noble Young Reader Pick, and a Whitcoulls’ Kids Top 50. In 2022, Graci was awarded the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent.
The first book in her new series, Dreamslinger (think X-Men meets Pokémon, set in a Korean magic school) will be published in April -
Anne Ursu
Anne Ursu is the author of several fantasies for young readers, including THE REAL BOY, which was longlisted for the National Book Award, and BREADCRUMBS, which was named as one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, Amazon, and School Library Journal. She is also the recipient of a McKnight Fellowship. She teaches at the Hamline University's Masters of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and lives in Minneapolis. Her next book, THE LOST GIRL, will be out in February 2018.
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José Pablo Iriarte
José Pablo Iriarte is a Cuban-American writer and teacher who lives in Central Florida. Their fiction can be found in in magazines such as Uncanny, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and others, and has been reprinted in numerous Year's Best anthologies. José's novelette, "The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births," was a Nebula Award Finalist for 2018. Learn more at www.labyrinthrat.com, or follow José on Twitter @labyrinthrat.
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