Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor, J.D. (Yale Law School, 1979; B.A., Princeton University, 1976), is the 99th Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, nominated by President Barack Obama to fill the seat of the retiring Justice David Souter and taking office August 8, 2009.
Previously, she served as editor of the Yale Law Review, and as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office from 1979–1984. She then litigated international commercial matters in New York City at Pavia & Harcourt, where she served as an associate and then partner, 1984–1992. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992–1998. She served as a judge on t
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P.K. Hallinan
P.K. Hallinan is the author and illustrator of more than 80 children's books, with over 7,500,000 copies sold worldwide. P.K. first began writing and illustrating 35 years ago when his wife asked him to create a picture book as a Christmas gift for their two young sons.
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Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist. She served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 until her retirement from the bench in 2006. The first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, she served as a crucial swing vote in some cases due to her case-by-case approach to jurisprudence and her somewhat moderate political views. However, during her time on the Court, she voted with the conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist more than with any other justice.
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Kwame Alexander
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.
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Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and confere -
Jacqueline Woodson
I used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.
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I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.
I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not “Once upon a time” stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and -
Andrea Wang
Andrea Wang is the award-winning author of Watercress (Caldecott Medal, Newbery Honor, APALA Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, JLG Gold Standard Selection, seven starred reviews), The Nian Monster (APALA Honor), Magic Ramen (Freeman Book Award Honor). Her debut middle grade novel, The Many Meanings of Meilan, was reviewed by the New York Times, has two starred reviews, and is also a JLG Gold Standard Selection. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. She is also the author of seven nonfiction titles for the library and school market. Andrea holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for Young People. She lives in the Denver area with her family.
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Ibtihaj Muhammad
Ibtihaj Muhammad is a fencer and the first Muslim American woman in hijab to compete for the United States in the Olympic Games. She is also the first female Muslim American to medal at the Olympic Games, winning bronze in the women’s saber team event. An activist, speaker, and entrepreneur, Ibtihaj has written a memoir, Proud, and inspired the first hijabi Barbie in her likeness.
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Shirley Abbott
Shirley Jean Abbott Tomkievicz (born November 16, 1934) is magazine editor and writer, most noted for her three volumes of memoirs.
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(from Wikipedia)
Abbott began her career as an editor, writer, and historian in 1959 when she was hired by Horizon magazine as a fact checker. In 1973, she was appointed Horizon’s editor-in-chief, a post she held until the magazine closed three years later. Abbott has written articles for Smithsonian, Lear’s, Gourmet, Harper’s, American Heritage, Southern Living, McCall’s, Glamour, and Boston Review, as well as for newspapers.
(from http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net...) -
Stephen Michael King
Stephen Michael King has illustrated, written, and designed many books for children, including The Duck and the Darklings by Glenda Millard. He lives in Australia.
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Allison Edwards
Allison Edwards is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist who specializes in working with children, adolescents, and their families. She received her undergraduate degree in Education from Northwest Missouri State and a graduate degree in Counseling from Vanderbilt University.
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Before opening a private practice, Allison developed and maintained a play therapy program for at-risk and immigrant children in the public school system. In her current practice, she sees children of all ages, consults with parents, supervises counselors, and writes about childhood anxiety. She also serves as an Affiliate Professor at Vanderbilt University where she enjoys teaching future counselors how to work with kids. -
Derek Munson
Derek Munson works as a writer, speaker, and all-around daydreamer. His current hobbies include playing with his kids, avoiding his household responsibilities, and crashing on his mountain bike. He lives in Bellingham, Washington with his wife Suzanne, their daughter Abby, their son Zack, and Roger the family dog.
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Jacqueline Woodson
I used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.
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I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.
I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not “Once upon a time” stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and -
Margarita Engle
Margarita Engle is a Cuban-American poet, novelist, and journalist whose work has been published in many countries. She lives with her husband in northern California.
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Matt de la Peña
Matt de la Peña is the New York Times best-selling, Newbery-medal-winning author of six young adult novels and four picture books. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific, where he attended school on a full athletic scholarship for basketball. de la Peña currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. He teaches creative writing and visits high schools and colleges throughout the country.
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Visit Matt at: mattdelapena.com -
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 -
Kwame Alexander
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.
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Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and confere -
Yuyi Morales
Yuyi Morales is the illustrator of Kathleen Krull’s Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, whose accolades include a Pura Belpré Award and a Christopher Medal, as well as the Pura Belpré Award-winning Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes. Born and raised in Mexico, she now lives in northern California.
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Meg Medina
Meg Medina served as the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist, and which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award, and which was published in 2023 as a graphic novel illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of picture books No More Señora Mimí / No más Señora Mimí, Evelyn Del Rey
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Kyle Lukoff
Kyle Lukoff writes books for kids and other people.
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Before becoming a full-time writer, Kyle worked at five bookstores, in four libraries, for three schools, as two genders, through one intersection: people, and books. -
Juana Martinez-Neal
Juana Martinez-Neal is the recipient of the 2019 Caldecott Honor for “Alma and How She Got Her Name” (Candlewick Press), the 2018 Pura Belpré Medal for Illustration for "La Princesa and the Pea" (written by Susan M. Elya, Putnam), and the 2020 Sibert Medal for “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story” (written by Kevin Noble Maillard, Roaring Brook Press).
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Juana was named to the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honor list in 2014, and was awarded the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase Grand Prize in 2012. She was born in Lima, the capital of Peru, and now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband, two sons, and daughter. -
Kevin Noble Maillard
Kevin Maillard is Professor of Law at Syracuse University, a contributor to the New York Times and a co-founder of Black Stream Partners LLC. He has written for The Atlantic and has provided on-air commentary to ABC News and MSNBC. He is the debut author of Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a picture book illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, which won the Sibert Medal and the American Indian Youth Literature Honor. An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he is based in Manhattan, NY.
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Isabel Quintero
Isabel Quintero is a writer, poet, teacher, wife, friend, sister, daughter, granddaughter, aunt niece, and a bunch of other things. She lives in the Inland Empire, where she was born and raised by Mexican immigrant parents and Mexican immigrant granddparents; the hospital where she was born in was converted to a Lowe's hardware store. That's how long ago she was born.
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She learned to love reading and the written word from a very young age when her mother used to read to her Amelia Bedelia. That love was fostered by teachers and professors throughout her schooling and she is sure if they hadn't boosted her ego for all those years she would have never dared letting the world see what she had written.
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces is her first young a -
Beth Ferry
Beth Ferry is the author of the picture books Stick and Stone and Land Shark. Her family has cared for myriad pets, including two land sharks, a hedgehog, a blue-tongued skink, and a heap of hamsters, but her absolutely perfect pet is an English bulldog named Winston. She lives in New Jersey.
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Minh Lê
Minh Lê is the author of Drawn Together illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat and Let Me Finish! (named an NPR Best Book of 2016) illustrated by Isabel Roxas (both published by Disney-Hyperion). He is also writing Green Lantern: Legacy, a graphic novel (illustrated by Andie Tong) for the new DC Comics middle grade imprint, DC Zoom. As a member of the kidlit consortium The Niblings, he writes about children's literature at Bottom Shelf Books and for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, The Horn Book, and HuffPost.
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Gaia Cornwall
Gaia Cornwall is an illustrator who loves making patterns for surface design, illustrating for children, and writing picture books. Her images can be seen in magazines, online, in logos, on various products, and even in a couple movies. JABARI JUMPS (Candlewick Press, May 2017,) is her debut picture book. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island. You can see more of her work at www.GaiaCornwall.com
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Jessie Oliveros
Jessie grew up watching Kansas sunsets, and she’ll always have wild sunflowers and gold-tipped cornfields in her heart. She spent her college-life climbing mountains in Utah and striving for higher vistas. After a fulfilling career as a registered nurse, Jessie hung up her stethoscope to grow children and stories. She loves root beer floats, autumn, and running in the rain. These days you can find her in the Texas hill country with her husband and their five kids.
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Vashti Harrison
Vashti Harrison, author and illustrator of the bestselling Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, is an artist, author, and filmmaker with a passion for storytelling. She earned her MFA in film and video from California Institute of the Arts, where she snuck into animation and illustration classes to learn from Disney and DreamWorks legends. There she rekindled a love for drawing and painting. Now she uses her love for both film and illustration to craft beautiful stories for children.
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Ibtihaj Muhammad
Ibtihaj Muhammad is a fencer and the first Muslim American woman in hijab to compete for the United States in the Olympic Games. She is also the first female Muslim American to medal at the Olympic Games, winning bronze in the women’s saber team event. An activist, speaker, and entrepreneur, Ibtihaj has written a memoir, Proud, and inspired the first hijabi Barbie in her likeness.
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Traci Sorell
Best-selling author and Cherokee Nation citizen Traci Sorell writes inclusive, award-winning fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. In 2023, she shares Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series, a Kirkus Reviews starred nonfiction picture book biography illustrated by Arigon Starr, and Mascot, a middle grade fiction novel-in-verse co-authored with Charles Waters. Traci is a two-time Sibert Medal and Orbis Pictus honoree for her nonfiction work. Her first five books have received awards from the American Indian Library Association. Learn more at www.tracisorell.com.
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Jessica Love
Jessica Love is an actor and the author-illustrator of Julián Is a Mermaid. She has a BA in studio art from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a graduate degree from Juilliard. She has appeared in plays both on and off Broadway. Jessica Love lives in Brooklyn.
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Jordan Scott
Jordan Scott is an internationally acclaimed poet and children’s author.
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Scott is also the author of four books of poetry: Silt, Blert, DECOMP, and Night & Ox. Blert, which explores the poetics of stuttering, is the subject of two National Film Board of Canada projects.
Scott was the 2015/16 Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University and has read from his work throughout North America and Europe. In 2018 Scott was the recipient of the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize, given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.
Scott lives on Vancouver Island and teaches at the UBC School of Creative Writing. -
Jessica Reid Sliwerski
Jessica Reid Sliwerski is a literacy specialist, reading enthusiast, and former elementary school teacher. This picture book was inspired by her own breast cancer treatment and recovery. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter.
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John Lechner
Recalling his childhood, John Lechner says, "Our house was always filled with art, music and creativity. We wrote plays, formed poetry clubs, painted murals, planted gardens, kept rabbits, built puppets, and invented games." John went on to study art and creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University, and has been telling stories his whole life.
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John's first picture book was A FROGGY FABLE, the tale of a solitary frog that becomes frustrated by the changing world around him. Birds, otters, and falling trees seem to invade his quiet pond. "This story grew out of my own experiences," the author notes, "and I hope
readers will take away their own personal meaning from the story."
John's picture book THE CLEVER STICK is the story of an ordinary -
Sam D. Kim
Rev. Dr. Sam D. Kim is a Harvard-trained ethicist and the co-founder of 180 Church in downtown Manhattan. He was appointed as a research fellow in Global Health and Social Medicine at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and part of Harvard Catalyst, where he researched inequities related to health, immigration, and social policies. Dr. Kim also holds the Lifelong Learning Fellowship at Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Medicine. An initiative awarded by the John Templeton Foundation and the AAAS aims to bridge the gap between faith and science. Dr. Kim's work has been cited by Harvard, Publishers Weekly, and the Washington Post. His debut book, A Holy Haunting, was the first inaugural grand prize winner in the Spiritual
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Jessie Oliveros
Jessie grew up watching Kansas sunsets, and she’ll always have wild sunflowers and gold-tipped cornfields in her heart. She spent her college-life climbing mountains in Utah and striving for higher vistas. After a fulfilling career as a registered nurse, Jessie hung up her stethoscope to grow children and stories. She loves root beer floats, autumn, and running in the rain. These days you can find her in the Texas hill country with her husband and their five kids.
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Pat Mora
Pat Mora (born 1942) is a female Mexican-American author and poet. Pat Mora was born in El Paso, Texas. She is married and has 3 grown children.
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Joanna Que
Joanna Que is fascinated by the beauty of nature and how it can be experienced in a multitude of perspectives, both during the day and night.
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Apart from the love for stories and writing, she enjoys making things with her hands and usually makes toys for kids and kids at heart via her handmade brand—Hiraya Tree. -
Larry Dane Brimner
Larry Dane Brimner is the recipient of the 2018 Robert F. Sibert Award for the most distinguished informational book for children for his title Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961. He is known for his well-researched, innovative, and award-winning nonfiction for young readers, and is the author of multiple acclaimed civil rights titles, including Strike!: The Farm Workers' Fight for Their Rights; and Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor.
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Meg Medina
Meg Medina served as the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist, and which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award, and which was published in 2023 as a graphic novel illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of picture books No More Señora Mimí / No más Señora Mimí, Evelyn Del Rey
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Ashley Bryan
Ashley Bryan was an illustrator, children's author, and poet.
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Ashley Bryan (1923–2022) grew up to the sound of his mother singing from morning to night, and he shared the joy of song with children. A beloved illustrator, he was named a Newbery Honoree for his picture book, Freedom Over Me. He also received the Coretta Scott King—Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, was a May Hill Arbuthnot lecturer, a Coretta Scott King Award winner, and the recipient of countless other awards and recognitions. His books include Freedom Over Me; Sail Away; Beautiful Blackbird; Beat the Story-Drum, Pum Pum; Let It Shine; Ashley Bryan’s Book of Puppets; and What a Wonderful World. He lived in Islesford, one of the Cranb -
Shane W. Evans
Shane W. Evans is the illustrator of several children's books, including Homemade Love by bell hooks and Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter by Alan Govenar. He lives in Missouri.
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Shaina Rudolph
Shaina Rudolph is a children's book author. Her books include, All My Stripes and Brilliant Bea. She has been an educator for 15 years. She's originally from New Jersey and has lived in Los Angeles for many years.
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Beth Ferry
Beth Ferry is the author of the picture books Stick and Stone and Land Shark. Her family has cared for myriad pets, including two land sharks, a hedgehog, a blue-tongued skink, and a heap of hamsters, but her absolutely perfect pet is an English bulldog named Winston. She lives in New Jersey.
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George Shannon
George Shannon is a popular storyteller and former children's librarian whose many notable picture books include Tomorrow's Alphabet, Lizard's Guest, and White Is for Blueberry. Tippy-Toe Chick, Go!, illustrated by Laura Dronzek, was named a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book. George Shannon lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
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Jay M. Feinman
Jay M. Feinman is an expert in insurance law, torts, and contract law. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, he’s also written seven books and more than 60 scholarly articles. He is a member of the American Law Institute and other professional organizations and is an advisor to United Policyholders.
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Shane Burcaw
Shane Burcaw grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and graduated from Moravian College with an English degree. He is the author of several award-winning books about disability. He is the President of a nonprofit organization called Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc. and a renowned public speaker who has performed across the country from universities to elementary schools to Fortune 500 companies. On his YouTube channel, Squirmy and Grubs, which has gained 1,000,000+ subscribers and worldwide media attention, he and his wife, Hannah, share a hilarious and authentic examination of what it’s like to be in an interabled relationship. They live in Minneapolis, MN with their fluffy labradoodle, Chloe.
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Antoinette Portis
Antoinette attended the UCLA School of Fine Arts and is a former creative director at Disney. She lives in Southern California.
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Bahram Rahman
Bahram Rahman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and grew up during the civil war and the Taliban regime. He earned a medical degree at Kabul Medical University and a master’s degree in public policy at the University of Erfurt, Germany, while also working as an activist in Afghanistan in the areas of gender equality and youth political participation. Bahram came to Canada as a refugee in 2012, and today he is a senior policy advisor at the Ministry of Health in Ontario. His first picture book, Governor General’s Literary Award finalist The Library Bus, was praised by the New York Times for documenting the barriers to education experienced by girls in war-torn countries and their resilience and ingenuity in overcoming them.
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Helena Ku Rhee
Helena Ku Rhee is a children’s book author & essayist based in Los Angeles. Her picture books include SORA'S SEASHELLS (illustrated by Stella Lim & Ji-Hyuk Kim), ROSA'S SONG (illustrated by Pascal Campion) and its companion book THE PAPER KINGDOM (also illustrated by Pascal Campion), which landed on many Best of 2020 lists, including NPR, BookPage, Parents Magazine, Kirkus, the Los Angeles Public Library, Amazon, and more.
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Helena also wrote THE TURTLE SHIP (illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage) as well as essays for publications such as the Los Angeles Times and Salon.
Listen to her 6-minute interview on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/815250...
Helena wrote the popular article for Salon, "Making sense of a senseless world: how children's b -
Karamo Brown
Karamo Brown is an American television host, reality television personality, psychotherapist, and activist. Brown began his career in 2004 on the MTV reality show The Real World: Philadelphia. He currently stars as the culture expert in the Netflix series Queer Eye.
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Maddox Lyons
Maddox Lyons is a transgender teen who lives in California with his parents, sister, and two dogs. After he came out in elementary school, Maddox and his family went in search of books for and about kids like him. There were very few, so he set out to write one. I'm Not a Girl is based on his true gender identity journey.
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Maddox is a speaker and advocate for gay and gender diverse youth. He's been ambassador for TransFamily Support Services for several years. Maddox loves learning Spanish, figure skating, writing and reading.
He is represented by Kate McKean of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. -
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Cynthia Leitich Smith is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author and anthologist of more than 20 books for young readers. She was named a 2025 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Candidate, the NSK Neustadt Laureate, Texas Literary Hall of Fame inductee, and winner of the Southern Miss Medallion for Outstanding Contributions in Children’s Literature. Cynthia has also been named to deliver the 2026 ALSC Children’s Literature Lecture. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and served as the Katherine Paterson Inaugural Chair for the children’s-YA writing MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Texas.
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Heather Dean Brewer
Heather Dean Brewer is a writer, artist, and art director who designs books for kids and adults and loves to ride her bike in the woods. About this book she says, "I've often felt quiet and small and that no one could hear me. But when I joined others in the Women's March and saw my friend Mari lifted above the crowd and heard her voice echo down the streets of New York City, I learned that even the smallest voice has the power to change the world. She lives in Michigan with her family.
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Traci Sorell
Best-selling author and Cherokee Nation citizen Traci Sorell writes inclusive, award-winning fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. In 2023, she shares Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series, a Kirkus Reviews starred nonfiction picture book biography illustrated by Arigon Starr, and Mascot, a middle grade fiction novel-in-verse co-authored with Charles Waters. Traci is a two-time Sibert Medal and Orbis Pictus honoree for her nonfiction work. Her first five books have received awards from the American Indian Library Association. Learn more at www.tracisorell.com.
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Ana Cristina Herreros
A philologist and folklore specialist, Ana Cristina Herreros combines her work as an editor with her day job as a professional storyteller (under the name Ana Griott) and has performed in libraries, theaters, prisons, cafés, schools, and parks since 1992. With Ediciones Siruela, she has written Cuentos populares del Mediterráneo (Popular Tales of the Mediterranean), Libro de Monstruos españoles (Book of Spanish Monsters), which was named Best Book of 2011 by the Ministry of Culture, and other books about folktales. She also runs her own publishing house, Libros de las Malas Compañías, where she has published, among other works, a series of tales from Africa.
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Howard Zehr
Howard Zehr is an American criminologist, prolific writer and editor, speaker, educator, and photojournalist; widely considered to be a pioneer of the modern concept of restorative justice.
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Widely known as “the grandfather of restorative justice,” Zehr began as a practitioner and theorist in restorative justice in the late 1970s at the foundational stage of the field. He has led hundreds of events in more than 25 countries and 35 states, including trainings and consultations on restorative justice, victim-offender conferencing, judicial reform, and other criminal justice matters. His impact has been especially significant in the United States, Brazil, Japan, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Britain, the Ukraine, and New Zealand, a country that has -
Grace Byers
Grace Byers is an actor and activist who stars in Fox’s hit series Empire. As a multiracial young girl and a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Grace was bullied throughout her childhood. This book was born out of her desire to empower young girls against the effects of bullying. In her spare time, she volunteers with the nonprofit antibullying organization Saving Our Daughters. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor Trai Byers. I Am Enough is her first book.
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Carole Boston Weatherford
Carole Boston Weatherford is a children's book author and poet who mines the past for family stories, traditions, and struggles. A number of CAROLE's books tell the stories of African-American historical figures such as Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens, and Billie Holiday. Other books recount historical events such as the Greensboro Sit-ins and the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. CAROLE's books have received a wide variety of awards, including a Caldecott Honour for “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People To Freedom”.
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Rania al-Abdullah
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah (Arabic: الملكة رانيا العبد الله Rānyā al-‘abdu l-Lāh; born Rania al Yassin) is the current Queen consort of Jordan as the wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan.
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As a global figure, and considered by some to be one of the world’s most powerful women, Queen Rania has focused her energy, at home and abroad, on a variety of causes, notably education.
In Jordan, her work focuses on the caliber and quality of education for Jordanian children, while abroad she advocates for global education and for world leaders to fulfill their commitments towards the second Millennium Development Goals, Universal Primary Education. -
Kevin Noble Maillard
Kevin Maillard is Professor of Law at Syracuse University, a contributor to the New York Times and a co-founder of Black Stream Partners LLC. He has written for The Atlantic and has provided on-air commentary to ABC News and MSNBC. He is the debut author of Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a picture book illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, which won the Sibert Medal and the American Indian Youth Literature Honor. An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he is based in Manhattan, NY.
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Nico Tortorella
Nico Tortorella is an actor, television personality, and author of the poetry collection all of it is you. Nico stars in the hit series Younger and is an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community. They live in New York.
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Rose Robbins
Hello, I'm Rose Robbins, and I'm a words addict. I love words, whether they are in a book, a newspaper, a text message, or scrawled on a bathroom wall. Sometimes when I am at a friend's home, I see something with words on it, like a letter or something personal, and I can't help reading it. It's not because I am a snoop, I swear! It's just that I really can't resist words on a page or screen. They MUST be read!
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Happily, I have settled on a way to safely satisfy my constant craving for words - I write them myself. I still love reading things at other people's houses, but now if I wake in the night jonesing for some words, I can just create some to get myself through another day. -
Ward Farnsworth
Ward Farnsworth is Dean and John Jeffers Research Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He formerly was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the Boston University Law School. He has served as a law clerk to Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and to Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and worked as a Legal Adviser to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in the Hague. He received his J.D. with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, and his B.A. from Wesleyan University.
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Farnsworth is the author of books on law, philosophy, rhetoric, and chess. He also has published scholarly articles on the economic analysis of law, constitutional -
Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Tomiko Brown-Nagin is Professor of Law and Professor of History at Harvard University. She earned a doctorate in history from Duke, a law degree from Yale, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a B.A. in history, summa cum laude, from Furman University. An expert on constitutional law, social and legal history, education law, and inequality, Brown-Nagin has published widely in these areas.
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Lynda Lopez
Lynda Lopez is a journalist and anchor at WCBS NewsRadio 880 in New York.
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Jordan Scott
Jordan Scott is an internationally acclaimed poet and children’s author.
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Scott is also the author of four books of poetry: Silt, Blert, DECOMP, and Night & Ox. Blert, which explores the poetics of stuttering, is the subject of two National Film Board of Canada projects.
Scott was the 2015/16 Ellen and Warren Tallman Writer-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University and has read from his work throughout North America and Europe. In 2018 Scott was the recipient of the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize, given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.
Scott lives on Vancouver Island and teaches at the UBC School of Creative Writing. -
Jessica Kensky
Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes are a married couple who were both injured during the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Jessica’s service dog, Rescue, joined their family in 2014. Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Emily Tetri
Emily Tetri is a Design and Color Supervisor, Background Painter and Visual Development Artist.
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Yuval Zommer
Yuval Zommer graduated from London’s Royal College of Art and has worked as creative director for many of the U.K.’s top advertising agencies. This is his debut picture book, inspired by the animals he came across on a trip to the zoo.
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Cory Booker
Cory Anthony Booker is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from New Jersey, in office since 2013. Previously he served as mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013.
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Steve Jenkins
Steve was born in 1952 in Hickory, North Carolina. His father, who would become a physics professor and astronomer (and recently his co-author on a book about the Solar System), was in the military and, later, working on science degrees at several different universities. We moved often. Steve lived in North Carolina, Panama, Virginia, Kansas, and Colorado. Wherever he lived, he kept a menagerie of lizards, turtles, spiders, and other animals, collected rocks and fossils, and blew things up in his small chemistry lab.
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Because he moved often, Steve didn't have a large group of friends, and he spent a lot of time with books. His parents read to him until he could read himself, and he became an obsessive reader.
His interest in science led me to -
Samantha R. Vamos
Samantha R. Vamos is the author of "Alphabet Boats" (2018), "Alphabet Trains" (2015), "Alphabet Trucks" (2013, illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke), "The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred" (illustrated by Rafael López) – 2012 Pura Belpré Illustration Honor – its companion book, "The Piñata That The Farm Maiden Hung" (2019, illustrated by Sebastià Serra), and "Before You Were Here, Mi Amor" (2009, illustrated by Santiago Cohen). Samantha previously worked as an attorney, practicing in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, IL. Samantha was born in the Midwest, grew up on the East Coast, and lived in the Pacific Northwest before moving to the Bay Area with her husband, son, and their rescue pup. Visit Samantha online at www.samanthavamos.com.
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Marcus Ewert
Marcus Ewert's first book 10,000 Dresses, illustrated by Rex Ray, was published by Seven Stories Press in September 2008. He is the co-creator of the animated series "Piki & Poko: Adventures in StarLand" and is currently writing "Mummy Cat", another children's book, coming out from Clarion Book in July 2015. He lives in San Francisco.
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Megan Madison
Megan Pamela Ruth Madison (she, her) is an early childhood educator, scholar, and activist based in New York City. She began her career working as an assistant in a Waldorf elementary school. After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, Megan then went on to become a teacher in a Head Start preschool classroom. Now, as a doctoral candidate at Brandeis University, she works part-time facilitating workshops for teachers and families on race, gender and sexuality. Megan is currently working on a board book series with co-author Jessica Ralli for Rise x Penguin Workshop on race, gender, consent and body positivity. Megan recently completed a term on the governing board of the National Association for the Education of
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Raúl the Third
Raúl The Third is an award-winning illustrator, author, and artist living in Boston. His work centers around the contemporary Mexican-American experience and his memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
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Rachel L. Swarns
Rachel L. Swarns is an author, news correspondent and investigative reporter. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University. She is also a contributing writer to The New York Times, where she writes about race and history.
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Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (J.D., Yale Law School, 1974; A.B. English literature, College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts), 1971) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, having served since 1991; since the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Thomas has been the senior-most Associate Justice on the Court. Justice Thomas is the second African American to serve on the nation's highest court, after Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom he succeeded.
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Thomas grew up in Georgia, and graduated from college and law school in New England. In 1974, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri (primarily handling tax matters), and subsequently practiced law there in the private sector. In 1979, he became a legislat -
Cindy Chupack
Cindy is the author of The Between Boyfriends Book - A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays, a New York Times bestseller that has been translated into nine languages. In addition, she has written humorous essays about dating and relationships for O, The Oprah Magazine (where she had her own column called “Live Your Best Love Life”), Glamour (where she had a column called “Dating Dictionary”), Harper’s Bazaar, Allure, People, Self, Real Simple, Entertainment Weekly, Slate and the New York Times. Her new comic memoir, The Longest Date - Life as a Wife, was released by Viking in January 2014 and is currently out in paperback.
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Cindy Chupack has won three Golden Globes and two Emmys for her work as a writer/producer of ABC’s Modern Family and -
Lilly Ledbetter
Lilly McDaniel Ledbetter was an American activist who was the plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. regarding employment discrimination. Two years after the Supreme Court decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not allow employers to be sued for pay discrimination more than 180 days after an employee's first paycheck, the United States Congress passed a fair pay act in her name to remedy this issue, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Subsequently, she become a women's equality activist, public speaker, and author. In 2011, Ledbetter was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
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Akhil Reed Amar
Akhil Reed Amar is currently Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. He received his B.A, summa cum laude, in 1980 from Yale College, and his J.D. in 1984 from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of The Yale Law Journal. After clerking for Judge Stephen Breyer, he joined the Yale faculty in 1985. In 1994 he received the Paul Bator award from the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law by Suffolk University. In 1995 the National Law Journal named him as one of 40 “Rising Stars in the Law,” and in 1997 The American Lawyer placed him on their “Public Sector 45" list. H
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William H. Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States. Considered a conservative, Rehnquist favored a federalism under which the states meaningfully exercised governmental power. Under this view of federalism, the Supreme Court of the United States, for the first time since the 1930s, struck down an Act of Congress as exceeding federal power under the Commerce Clause.
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Rehnquist presided as Chief Justice for nearly 19 years, making him the fourth-longest-serving Chief Justice after John Marshall, Roger Taney, and Melville Fuller, and the longest-serving Chief Justice who had previously serve -
Brenda J. Child
Brenda J. Child is Northrop Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies
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at the University of Minnesota, and former Chair of the Department of American Indian
Studies. She is the author of several books in American Indian history including
Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (1998), which won the North American Indian Prose Award; Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (2012); Indian Subjects: Hemispheric Perspectives on the History of Indigenous Education (with Brian Klopotek, 2014). Her 2014 book My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation won the American Indian Book Award and the Best Book in Midwestern History Award.
She is a member -
Arianna Davis
By day, Arianna is the Editorial Director of Digital for the TODAY show. She is also the author of "What Would Frida Do? A Guide to Living Boldly," inspired by the life of the iconic artist Frida Kahlo. She is currently working on her first novel.
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Nancy Roe Pimm
Nancy Roe Pimm had volunteered as a docent for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in the 1980s. After taking an animal handling class, the zoo entrusted her with a vanful of critters to take to local school assemblies. Her favorite passengers were Minnie and Max, the opossums. Another docent duty was to lead zoo tours. While giving the tours, Nancy discovered her fascination with gorillas, especially Colo and her family. In 2007, Nancys book, The Heart of the BeastEight Great Gorilla Stories was published, and in 2011, Colos StoryThe Life of One Grand Gorilla.
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Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Nancy now resides in Plain City, Ohio, along with her husband, Ed, who has retired from a career in racecar driving. Nancy has drawn from her experi -
Karen Ehrhardt
Karen Ehrhardt doesn’t play an instrument and can’t sing a lick. But she’s probably listening to music right now at her home in the California redwoods, with her husband, their bouncing baby boy, and their dog.
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Karen does assemblies for Preschool, and Kindergarten through 6th grade. Karen does writing workshops with students in grades 3-6. Karen is available to travel to schools throughout California and the U.S. Please contact Connecting Authors for specific dates (866-528-9269 - www.connectingauthors.com).
Karen's most recent mention in Publisher's Weekly :
"Jazzed About Reading - Every student at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Oakland, Calif...received an early holiday present a few weeks ago: a signed copy of This Jazz Man