Thushanthi Ponweera

Thushanthi Ponweera is an author and poet from Sri Lanka. Before daring to follow her dream of being published, she was a marketing specialist and entrepreneur. Her writing reflects the frustration she feels at the inequality and injustice she sees around her and the deep love she has for her island home. Her debut middle-grade novel in verse I Am Kavi was published in 2023 and her debut picture book My Best Friend's Bangles will be out June 2024. Thushanthi also has another picture book Crossing The Finish Line, scheduled for publication in 2025.

After having lived all her life in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thushanthi recently moved to Doha, Qatar where she lives with her husband and two children.

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Cynthia Rylant

An author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children and young adults as well as an author and author/illustrator of picture books for children, Cynthia Rylant is recognized as a gifted writer who has contributed memorably to several genres of juvenile literature. A prolific author who often bases her works on her own background, especially on her childhood in the West Virginia mountains, she is the creator of contemporary novels and historical fiction for young adults, middle-grade fiction and fantasy, lyrical prose poems, beginning readers, collections of short stories, volumes of poetry and verse, books of prayers and blessings, two autobiographies, and a biography of three well-known children's writers; several volumes of the autho
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Lesléa Newman

Lesléa Newman (born 1955, Brooklyn, NY) is the author of over 50 books including Heather Has Two Mommies, A Letter To Harvey Milk, Writing From The Heart, In Every Laugh a Tear, The Femme Mystique, Still Life with Buddy, Fat Chance and Out of the Closet and Nothing to Wear.
She has received many literary awards including Poetry Fellowships from the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, and two Pushcart Prize Nominations.
Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award finalists.
Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children's book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and
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Lissette Norman

afro-dominican. poet. author of the picture books: MY FEET ARE LAUGHING, PLATANOS GO WITH EVERYTHING and ABUELA'S LIBRARY.. Co-author of the picture books: UNTIL SOMEONE LISTENS (with Estela Juarez) and ON THE LINE: My Story of Becoming the First African American Rockette (with Jennifer Jones) and THE GIRL WHO SINGS TO BEES (with Chiquis Rivera).
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Anita Yasuda

Author of UP, UP, EVER UP: JUNKO TABEI'S PIONEERING EVEREST CLIMB, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu (Clarion, 2024)- a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection, DIWALI: A FESTIVAL OF LIGHT, illustrated by Darshika Varma (Penguin Random House, 2024), and BOLLYWOOD BEAT, illustrated by Devika Oza (Kids Can Press, 2026), as well as many other children's books. Represented by Lori Steel of SteelWorks Literary.
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Jing Jing Tsong

Jing Jing Tsong is a mom, musician, and surfer whose grown-up job is drawing pictures. Her technique, which layers color and texture, is influenced by her experiences working in traditional stone lithography and monoprints. Her debut picture book, A Bucket of Blessings, written by Kabir and Surishtha Sehgal, was a New York Times bestseller.Jing Jing's graphic novel for middle-grade readers, Fake Chinese Sounds arrives on bookshelves in April of 2024.

Jing Jing and her husband Mike Austin (also a designer turned illustrator) live on an island in Washington state. Visit her at JingJingTsong.com.
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Tonya Duncan Ellis

Tonya Duncan Ellis is author of THEY BUILT ME FOR FREEDOM (HarperCollins, Balzer + Bray, 2024) and the SOPHIE WASHINGTON children’s chapter series. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Authors Guild, and the Brown Bookshelf’s Highlights Foundation-sponsored Amplify Black Stories storyteller cohort. Tonya has spoken and taught at writing conferences at the Highlights Foundation and for SCBWI in New York City and for SCBWI Houston and Austin, TX chapters. A former journalist and freelance magazine writer, she lives in Houston, Texas.

www.tonyaduncanellis.com
Facebook: @tonyaellisbooks
Instagram: @tonyaellisbooks
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Jolene Gutiérrez

Jolene Gutiérrez grew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado, surrounded by animals, plants, and history. Now, she lives with her family and a variety of animals in a suburb of Denver, Colorado. She is an award-winning neurodivergent teacher librarian and has been working with neurodivergent learners at Denver Academy since 1995. She’s a wife of 25+ years and mama to two young adults, three dogs, two cats, and an ever-rotating variety of other rescue animals. Jolene is an active member of SCBWI and The Authors Guild, part of the KidLitCollective and Picture Book Gold groups, and a co-creator of #KidlitZombieWeek. Jolene is represented by agent Kaitlyn Sanchez of Bradford Literary. She’s a contributor to If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of
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Kenneth Kraegel

Kenneth Kraegel is a self-taught illustrator and writer. He was a CJ Picture Book Award Finalist and is a recipient of a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Tomie dePaola Honor Award. Kenneth Kraegel lives with his wife and son in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he enjoys hiking, kayaking, and gardening.
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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.

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
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Erin Entrada Kelly

Author of books for young people.
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Samuel Teer

Samuel Teer was born to a deaf maintenance worker and an immigrant that spoke English as a distant second language. Obviously he became a writer. He was raised outside of St. Louis, MO. He currently lives outside of Denver, CO with his wife Andrea (an educator) and their two dogs Roxie and Olive.
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Bea Jackson

Brittany Jackson (also known as Bea) loves telling stories through her art, from dynamic and diverse character design, to delightfully fun and energetic children’s book illustrations.

She attended the College for Creative Studies and is the Grand Prize Winner of the L Ron Hubbard’s Illustrator of the Future Award of 2007.

With over 15 years of experience as a freelance illustrator, Brittany works in a variety of art styles.

In addition to her work as a children’s book illustrator, character and concept artist, Brittany’s work has been featured on the covers of books, comics, and in various magazines and articles.
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Robin Ha

Born in Seoul, Korea, Robin Ha grew up reading and drawing comics. At fourteen she moved to the United States. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in illustration, she moved to New York City and started a career in the fashion industry. Her work has been published in independent comics anthologies including Secret Identities and The Strumpet, as well as in the pages of Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal Magazine. Her blog Banchan in 2 Pages features Korean recipe comics. She currently resides in Falls Church, Virginia.
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Charles Waters

I was born in Philadelphia and raised in the suburbs of Philly in a town called Yeadon.

Fun fact: Will Smith grew up 15 minutes from me in one direction and Tina Fey grew up 15 minutes from me in another.

After graduating from Fairleigh Dickinson University, I joined several theater touring companies, including, Poetry Alive! where I first experienced the power of poetry.

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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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John Schu

John Schu is the creator of the popular blog Mr. Schu Reads (mrschureads.blogspot.com), was the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and a former classroom teacher and school librarian. He has visited schools all over the world and has met with over 130,000 students, teachers, and administrators as he advocates for the people and things he cares about most: kids, books, schools, and the libraries — and librarians — that connect them. This Is a School is his picture book debut. John Schu lives in Naperville, Illinois. You can find him at JohnSchu.com and on social media at @MrSchuReads.
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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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Joanna Ho

Joanna Ho Bradshaw is the author of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners (HarperCollins, Jan 2021), Playing at the Border: A Story of Yo-Yo Ma (HarperCollins, Fall 2021), and One Day (Winter 2023). She is a writer and educator with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism and equity work. She holds a BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s from the Principal Leadership Institute at Berkeley. She has been an English teacher, a dean, the designer of an alternative-to-prison program, and a professional development mastermind. She is currently the vice principal of a high school in the Bay Area, where she survives on homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her kids. Keep your eyes open for m
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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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Devin Elle Kurtz

Devin Elle Kurtz lives in San Diego, California, with her dog, Kira, and her thirty-three houseplants. She’s been painting in Photoshop since the age of two when her artist mom first offered her a tablet pen. She was the lead background painter on the TV show “Disenchantment” at Rough Draft Studios from 2019-2021. The Bakery Dragon is her first picture book as an author-illustrator.
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Cherry Mo

Cherry Mo grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States at the age of ten. HOME IN A LUNCHBOX is her debut picture book and was inspired by her first days of school in America. Cherry writes and illustrates stories that she hopes bring young readers a sense of comfort and belonging.

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Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

July/August 2024 Kids' Indie Next List Pick

"In an exceptional debut, Mo deploys digital illustrations that expertly use selective coloring to depict an experience of finding common ground." — Starred review from Publisher's Weekly

"Inspired by Mo's move from Hong Kong to the United States at the age of 10, this remarkable story about finding comfort in a new home by bringing along fam
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Karol Hernández

A humble genius who knows when to lead and when to follow.

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Karol resides in West Palm Beach with her husband, three kids, and two dogs. She holds a Bachelor’s in Marketing from Florida Atlantic University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Nov
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Rebecca J. Chaney

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Rebecca has previously worked as a bookseller, publishing assistant, schools science program coordinator, and platypus monitor, among other things. Science is her jam!
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Rebecca J. Chaney

Rebecca J. Chaney is an author of middle grade adventure books full of mystery, science, and laugh-out-loud moments.

Her debut novel "Stu and the Sketchy Time Stops" was the first children's book to be shortlisted for the Newcastle Writers Festival Fresh Ink Emerging Writers Prize. Rebecca was also awarded Runner Up for the Writing NSW Fellowship, and Honorable Mentions in the Kids' Choice Kidlit Writing Contest and Just Write for Kids' Pitch it! competition for this novel.

Rebecca has previously worked as a bookseller, publishing assistant, schools science program coordinator, and platypus monitor, among other things. Science is her jam!
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