Keynote Speakers

Anton Bogomazov
Anton Bogomazov

Anton Bogomazov (he/him) is the adult book buyer at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC. He has been with the store since 2011 and has worked as a floor bookseller, supervisor, inventory manager, and P&P branch store buyer. He is originally from Toronto, Canada. He reads across all genres, but his particular favorites are horror, speculative fiction, and art biographies and essays. His books, dogs, and sky photos can be found on Instagram @genrebending.


Miranda July
Miranda July
All Fours
Riverhead
Miranda July is a writer, filmmaker, and artist. Her debut novel, The First Bad Man, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and her collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Harper’s, and the New Yorker. July lives in Los Angeles.

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin
An Unfinished Love Story
Simon & Schuster
Doris Kearns Goodwin is an acclaimed presidential historian, international keynote speaker, and Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times #1 bestselling author. Her work for President Lyndon Johnson launched her career as a presidential historian, beginning with Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Her most recent book, Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, which she executive produced. Her forthcoming book, An Unfinished Love Story, is both a poignant personal memoir and an illuminating work of history, as well as a rousing reminder of the progress Americans have achieved in the recent past and an example of what we can achieve in the future.

Michele Norris
Michele Norris
Our Hidden Conversations
Simon & Schuster
Michele Norris is one of America’s most trusted voices in journalism, whose honors include Peabody, Emmy, Dupont, and Goldsmith awards. She is a columnist for the Washington Post Opinion Section; host of the Audible Original Podcast, Your Mama’s Kitchen; former cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered; and former reporter for ABC News covering politics, policy, and the dynamics of social change. Norris is also the founding director of The Race Card Project, a Peabody Award–winning narrative archive where people around the world share their reflections on identity—in just six words. Her new book, Our Hidden Conversations, grew out of her work with The Race Card Project and offers a transformative dialogue on race and identity in America.

Philomena Polefrone
Philomena Polefrone

Philomena Polefrone (she/her) is Advocacy Associate Manager at ABA, where she is a point person for free expression advocacy, manages the @ABFEFreeExpression Instagram and Facebook accounts, and led the creation of the "ABA Right to Read Toolkit." She holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where she taught courses in writing, literature, and political philosophy. When she's not reading or advocating for free expression, diverse books, and LGBTQ+ rights, Philomena prefers to be found knitting in Brooklyn flanked by her beloved cats, Starbuck and Boomer.


James Rhee
James Rhee
red helicopter
HarperOne
A high school teacher turned private equity investor and CEO, James Rhee served a 7-year tenure as Chair and CEO of Ashley Stewart. His leadership philosophy — kindness plus a little math — led to red helicopter, his media-education platform. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Rhee teaches at Howard University, as the Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Duke Law School. He has spoken at TED and is the author of red helicopter. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

Danzy Senna
Danzy Senna
Colored Television
Riverhead
Danzy Senna is the author of four previous works of fiction, including the bestselling Caucasia and, most recently, New People, as well as a memoir. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.

William Ury
William Ury
Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict
Harper Business
William Ury, cofounder of Harvard's Program on Negotiation, has served as a mediator in boardroom battles, labor conflicts, and civil wars around the world. He is the coauthor of Getting to Yes, and other books, including Getting Past No and The Power of a Positive No. An avid hiker, he lives with his family in Colorado.

LaDarrion Williams
LaDarrion Williams
Blood at the Root
Random House Children's Books

LaDarrion Williams is a 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. He is currently a resident playwright/co-creator of The Black Creators Collective, where his play UMOJA made its West Coast premiere in January 2022 and produced North Hollywood's first Black playwrights festival at the WACO Theater Center. Blood at the Root is his first novel.


Maysoon Zayid
Maysoon Zayid
Shiny Misfits
Graphix Books
Maysoon Zayid is a comedian, actress, writer, and disability advocate. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and a Princeton Fellow. Maysoon is the co-founder/co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and The Muslim Funny Fest. Maysoon has also appeared alongside Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess With the Zohan and has written for Glamour magazine. She is the author of the bestselling memoir Find Another Dream. To learn more visit www.maysoon.com.

Featured Speakers

Matt Banker
Matt Banker

Matt Banker is the Founder & Lead Strategist of Banker Creative, a "words-first" website design agency. He is a certified StoryBrand Guide and uses the StoryBrand framework to help businesses write websites that are clear with their messaging and position the customer as the hero in the story that the business is telling. His approach to marketing focuses on empathy, authenticity, and clarity while avoiding salesy gimmicks and fads. You can learn more at bankercreative.com


Brenna Connor
Brenna Connor
Brenna Connor, Industry Analyst, Circana Books, has been working with data and analytics for a decade in roles including marketing, research, and insights. Connor is a recognized thought leader on trends in the book industry. Her lifelong passion for books and reading combined with a keen understanding of data analysis enables Brenna to provide actionable insights for publishers and retailers across the book market. She holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Angela Cooper
Angela Cooper

Angela Cooper serves as Communications Director for the ACLU of Kentucky. She works to determine messaging and strategy to promote the ACLU of Kentucky’s brand, litigation, and advocacy work. Angela lives in Old Louisville with her husband and dogs. She is a lifelong lover of books and is passionate about making her beautiful city and state a better place for her adult son to live by protecting civil liberties.


Elnian Gilbert
Elnian Gilbert
Elnian Gilbert is a Keynote Speaker and Trainer for ZingTrain in Ann Arbor, Michigan. With 17+ years of experience at Zingerman's and as the most tenured trainer on the team, she has trained on every content area ZingTrain offers. Her particular areas of expertise are Customer Service, Visioning, Employee Training, Open Book Management, Change Management, and Leadership. Elnian loves sharing practical, down-to-earth business systems using humor and plenty of real-world stories from Zingerman’s and clients alike.

Rich Palmer
Rich Palmer
Rich Palmer serves as the Community Outreach Coordinator for Mental Health America (MHA). He is a Mental Health First Aid instructor and trained in Trauma Responsive Care. Rich retired from the Ohio Division of State Fire Marshal as Assistant Chief of Prevention. He served 32 years as a firefighter, paramedic, information officer, curriculum designer, and safety educator.

When not advocating for mental health, Rich has a side career as a voice actor and audiobook narrator.

Martin Patrick
Martin Patrick

Martin has over 30 years in HR Management including the last 13 years as a HR Consultant. He has extensive experience in developing compensation and benefit structures, conducting HR Audits and employee investigations, creating employee handbooks, conducting employee and management training, creating job descriptions and working with wage and hour issues. He currently leads a team of 14 highly experienced HR consultants, 4 leave administration specialists and a talent acquisition specialist.


Chasity Rush
Chasity Rush
Chasity Rush, MRC, LICDC-CS, LPCC-S, TRCC is a licensed independent chemical dependency counselor as well as a licensed professional clinical counselor in the State of Ohio with 21 years of experience. She is a certified Crisis Prevention Institute trainer. She has been with Talbert House since 2013 and is the Associate Director of Training. Her experience in direct care includes behavioral health treatment in hospital, residential, and outpatient settings.

Kim Scott
Kim Scott
Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better
St. Martin's Griffin
Kim Scott is the co-founder of an executive education firm and workplace comedy series, The Feedback Loop, based on her perennially bestselling book, Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. Kim was a senior policy advisor at the FCC, managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo, started a diamond cutting factory in Moscow, and was an analyst on the Soviet Companies Fund. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.

Arianna Téllez Léon
Arianna Téllez Léon
As a ZingTrain Trainer, Arianna Téllez Léon enthusiastically shares her first-hand experience of the tools and systems that drive Zingerman's Community of Businesses. Having journeyed from sharing amazing food at Zingerman's Deli to leading on an organizational level, she is passionate about creating cultures that enable people to do their best. Writing Standard Operating Procedures is one of her favorite ways to facilitate communication, reduce stress, invite creativity, and give great service at work.

Laura Trujillo
Laura Trujillo
Laura Trujillo is the managing editor for Life & Entertainment at USA TODAY and a former reporter and editor for the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Arizona Republic and The Oregonian. She is the author of Stepping Back from the Ledge, published by Random House in 2022, about her mother's suicide.

Ellen Vera
Ellen Vera
Ellen is a Co-Director and Co-Founder of Co-op Cincy, a non-profit cooperative business incubator in Cincinnati, Ohio, dedicated to creating an economy that works for all by broadening ownership in our community. At Co-op Cincy, Ellen oversees the Business Legacy Fund program to transition existing businesses to worker ownership, coaches four of Co-op Cincy's co-op businesses, and makes sure the organization has the resources needed to be successful.

Bonnie Wan
Bonnie Wan
The Life Brief: A Playbook for No-Regrets Living
Simon Element

As head of brand strategy for the storied ad agency Goodby and Silverstein, Bonnie Wan has helped the world's most iconic brands align with their essential virtues using a tool called a creative brief. When she found herself on the precipice of her own deep dissatisfaction and doubt, Wan turned that same tool inward. What emerged was The Life Brief, a profound, strategic practice for connecting deeply to the things that create meaning, spark joy, and make life worth living.


AJ Williams
AJ Williams
AJ Williams, a dynamic business owner, consultant and leader, blends a passion for social impact with expertise in equity, diversity, and conflict management. They excel as a trusted advisor, helping organizations create inclusive environments. Beyond work, AJ enjoys the outdoors, design, and fitness. Aspiring to inspire others, they aim to be a figure in self-development, fostering growth and positive change.

KJ Williams
KJ Williams
KJ Williams, CEO of RISEWITHKJ, LLC, is a DEI practitioner committed to growth and success for all. With her expertise in conflict management and resolution, KJ facilitates environments where open, impactful dialogues lead to actionable change. She nurtures individuals and organizations aspiring to transform from the inside out, using her strengths as an ENTJ with a remarkable sense of humor and a deep-seated love for people, particularly those outside of the Circle of Human Concern.

Nicolas Williams
Nicolas Williams

Dr. Nicolas Williams is an Associate Professor of Economics in Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He received his BA from the University of Michigan, and his MA and PhD in Economics from Northwestern University. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Leicester and a visiting professor at Yale University. His research has focused on econometrically investigating job mobility and wage determination, and the employment effects of the minimum wage. Published papers appear in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Labour Economics, Applied Economics, and others.


Appearing Authors

Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib
There's Always This Year
Random House
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. Abdurraqib’s recent book, A Little Devil in America, was the winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burns Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.

Meredith Adamo
Meredith Adamo
Not Like Other Girls
Bloomsbury Children's Books
Meredith Adamo is a YA author based in hot, humid North Carolina, but she's originally from Rochester, New York, which is her favorite place on the planet. She likes to write about girls who can make you laugh and break your heart — ideally on the same page. Her non-writing interests include collecting vintage bakeware, crocheting the ugliest blankets you've ever seen, and grocery shopping. Not Like Other Girls is her debut novel. Connect with Meredith @mere_adamo on Instagram and meredithadamo.com .

Rumaan Alam
Rumaan Alam
Entitlement
Riverhead
Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Leave the World Behind, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, as well as the novels Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.

Katya Apekina
Katya Apekina
Mother Doll
Overlook
Katya Apekina is a novelist, screenwriter, and translator. Her debut novel, The Deeper the Water, the Uglier the Fish, was named a Best Book of 2018 by Kirkus and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. Born in Moscow, she moved to the US when she was three years old and currently lives in Los Angeles. Mother Doll is her second novel.

Alua Arthur
Alua Arthur
Briefly Perfectly Human
Mariner Books

Alua Arthur is a death doula, a recovering attorney and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization. Her TED Talk from April 2023 has received nearly 1.3 million views. She lives in Los Angeles, land of the Chumash and Tongva people.


Madeline Ashby
Madeline Ashby
Glass Houses
Tor Books
Madeline Ashby is a consulting futurist and novelist based in Toronto. She is the author of the Machine Dynasty series, as well as the Canada Reads Prize novel, Company Town. She has developed science fiction prototypes for Changeist, the Institute for the Future, the Smithsonian Institution, The World Health Organization, the World Bank, the Atlantic Council, and others. Her work has appeared in Boing Boing, Slate, MIT Technology Review, WIRED, the Atlantic, and elsewhere.

Kirsten Bakis
Kirsten Bakis
King Nyx: A Novel
Liveright
Kirsten Bakis teaches at the Yale Writers' Workshop. Her previous novel, Lives of the Monster Dogs, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Bram Stoker Award for best first novel, and was shortlisted for the international Women's Prize for Fiction. She lives in New York's lower Hudson Valley.

Melissa Blair
Melissa Blair
A Vicious Game
Union Square & Co.
Melissa Blair (she/her/kwe) is an Anishinaabe-kwe of mixed ancestry living in Turtle Island and the author of The Halfling Saga. She splits her time between Treaty 9 in Northern Ontario and the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Canada. She has a graduate degree in applied linguistics and discourse studies as well as a BookTok account (@melissas.bookshelf) where she discusses and reviews her favorite books, including Indigenous and queer fiction, sapphic books, LGBTQ+ romance, feminist literature, and non-fiction.

Chandra Blumberg
Chandra Blumberg
Second Tide's the Charm
Canary Street Press
Chandra Blumberg writes funny, heartwarming love stories about characters that feel real and relatable. Born and raised in Michigan, Chandra moved to the Chicago area after majoring in English at Michigan State University. When she’s not writing, she enjoys lifting heavy barbells at the gym, making a mess of the kitchen while baking alongside her four kids, and traveling with her family.

Alexander Boldizar
Alexander Boldizar
The Man Who Saw Seconds
Clash Books
Alexander Boldizar was the first post-independence Slovak citizen to graduate with a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. His writing has won the PEN/Nob Hill prize, a Somerset Award for literary fiction, and other awards. His novel, The Ugly, was a bestseller among small presses in the United States. He has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and is a founding director of a charity that brings circus to youth in at-risk communities. He now lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Zoë Bossiere
Zoë Bossiere
Cactus Country
Abrams Press

Zoë Bossiere (they/she) is a writer, editor, and teacher from Tucson, Arizona. They are the managing editor of Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction and co-editor of the anthologies The Best of Brevity and The Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth from the Margins. Bossiere currently lives in Oregon with her partner and child. Read more at zoebossiere.com.


Kaliane Bradley
Kaliane Bradley
The Ministry of Time
Avid Reader Press
Kaliane Bradley is a British Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories, The Willowherb Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, and Extra Teeth, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize.

Adrienne Maree Brown
Adrienne Maree Brown
Loving Corrections
AK Press

adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. Informed by 25 years of movement facilitation, somatics, Octavia E. Butler scholarship, and her work as a doula, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation. She is the author of Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, We Will Not Cancel Us, Holding Change, Fables and Spells, and the Grievers novels.


Lauren Castillo
Lauren Castillo
Just Like Millie
Candlewick Press
Lauren Castillo has illustrated many books for children, including Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts and Yard Sale by Eve Bunting. Castillo is also the author-illustrator of the Caldecott Honor Book Nana in the City. She lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — the setting of Just Like Millie — with her two rescue dogs, who helped her acclimate to the city when she first moved there.

Sylvie Cathrall
Sylvie Cathrall
A Letter to the Luminous Deep
Orbit
Sylvie Cathrall writes stories of hope and healing with healthy doses of wonder and whimsy. She holds a graduate degree in odd Victorian art and has handled more than a few 19th-century letters (with great care). Sylvie married her former pen pal and lives in the mountains, where she dresses impractically and dreams of the sea.

Essie Chambers
Essie Chambers
Swift River
Simon & Schuster
Essie Chambers earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. A former film and television executive, she was a producer on the documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. Swift River is her debut novel.

Vanessa Chan
Vanessa Chan
The Storm We Made
Marysue Rucci Books

Vanessa Chan was born and raised in Malaysia. Her short stories have been published in Electric Lit, Kenyon Review, Ecotone, and more. She was the 2021 Stanley Elkin scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference and has also received scholar awards to attend the Bread Loaf and Tin House writers’ conferences. The Storm We Made is her first novel.


Myriam Chancy
Myriam Chancy
Village Weavers
Tin House
Myriam J. A. Chancy, award-winning author of What Storm, What Thunder, is a Haitian-Canadian-American writer, the HBA Chair in the Humanities at Scripps College in Claremont, California, and a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Abraham Chang
Abraham Chang
888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers
Flatiron Books
Abraham Yu-Young Chang is an award-winning, published poet with an MFA in creative writing from New York University. He has worked in the publishing industry since 2000 and currently manages Special Sales for Simon & Schuster. He lives in Forest Hills, Queens, with his wife.

Wendy Chen
Wendy Chen
Their Divine Fires
Algonquin Books
Wendy Chen is the author of Their Divine Fires (Algonquin) and Unearthings (Tavern Books). She is the editor of Figure 1 and the associate editor-in-chief of Tupelo Quarterly. Chen is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Most Promising Young Poet Prize and fellowships from MacDowell, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Syracuse University and her PhD in English from the University of Denver.

Elaine Cho
Elaine Cho
Ocean's Godori
Hillman Grad Books
Elaine U. Cho is a writer who lives in Seattle. She has an MFA in flute performance from CalArts and has worked for several arts nonprofits (including ArtsWest and Seattle Music Partners). She’s also a film critic for Mediaversity and former bookseller at Elliott Bay Book Company.

Lily Chu
Lily Chu
The Takedown
Sourcebooks Casablanca
Lily Chu loves ordering the second-cheapest wine, wearing perfume all the time, and staying up far too late reading a good book. She writes uplit fiction set in Toronto with strong Asian characters.

Caroline Cleveland
Caroline Cleveland
When Cicadas Cry
Union Square & Co.

Caroline Cleveland is a labor and employment lawyer. A native South Carolinian, Caroline grew up in the Lowcountry and earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1991. When Cicadas Cry is her first novel.


Leah Cohen
Leah Cohen
To & Fro
Bellevue Literary Press
Leah Hager Cohen is the author of seven novels, including To & Fro, and five works of nonfiction, including Train Go Sorry. Among other honors, her books have been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, named a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and selected as best books of the year by the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, the Globe and Mail, and Kirkus Reviews. She lives in Massachusetts.

Donyae Coles
Donyae Coles
Midnight Rooms
Amistad
Donyae Coles is a horror author who has been published in a variety of short fiction venues including Nightmare Magazine and Weird Horror as well as a number of anthologies. She devotes her free time to her other great love, art. Her debut novel, Midnight Rooms, is forthcoming from Amistad. You can find more of her work at donyaecoles.com and follow her on X (Twitter) @okokno.

Betty Corrello
Betty Corrello
Summertime Punchline
Avon Books

Betty Corrello is a writer, comedian, and proud Philadelphian. Despite her hardened exterior, she is biologically 95% marshmallow. Her greatest passion is writing stories where opposites attract, but love is chosen. When she’s not writing, she can be found fretting about niche historical events most have forgotten­­ — or petting her very tiny dog. Summertime Punchline is her first novel.


Caro De Robertis
Caro De Robertis
The Palace of Eros
Atria Books
Caro De Robertis is the award-winning, bestselling author of several books, including The President and the Frog and Cantoras. Their work has been translated into 18 languages and has garnered numerous honors including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and two Stonewall Book Awards. They were the first openly nonbinary person to receive the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. An award-winning literary translator and professor at San Francisco State University, De Robertis lives in Oakland, California, with their children.

Chelsea Devantez
Chelsea Devantez
I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This
Hanover Square Press
Chelsea Devantez is an Emmy-nominated writer, comedian, director, and host of the podcast Glamorous Trash. Before entering an overall television deal with 20th Century Fox, she was Jon Stewart’s Head Writer for Apple TV+'s The Problem with Jon Stewart. Her other television credits include Not Dead Yet, Girls5Eva, and Bless this Mess, among others. Her SXSW award winning short film, Basic, inspired a feature length film and is set to be her directorial debut. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their dog.

Ana Ellickson
Ana Ellickson
The Vanishing Station
Amulet
Ana Ellickson writes about fierce girls, family curses, and everyday magic. The Vanishing Station is her debut novel, inspired by daydreams about jumping portals in the San Francisco subway. Roman the Renegade — her graphic novel script about street art and Filipino monsters — was awarded the 2021 New Visions Honor by Lee & Low Books. She lives in sunny Santa Barbara.

Dana Elmendorf
Dana Elmendorf
In the Hour of Crows
MIRA
Dana Elmendorf was born and raised in small town in Tennessee. She now lives in Southern California with her husband, two boys and two dogs. When she isn’t exercising, she can be found geeking out with Mother Nature. After four years of college and an assortment of jobs, she wrote a contemporary YA novel. This is her adult debut.

Leif Enger
Leif Enger
I Cheerfully Refuse
Grove Atlantic

Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Book Sense Award for Fiction. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller, a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel Virgil Wander was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and named a best book of the year by Library Journal. He lives with his wife in Duluth, Minnesota.


Elle Evans
Elle Evans
Wedding Issues
Zibby Books
A Boston native, Elle Evans spent five years in Nashville soaking up sweet Southern hospitality and even sweeter iced tea. She now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and rescue dog Calypso, the first of many pets named for Greek mythology characters. Elle enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and attempting ambitious cocktail recipes. She writes under a not-so-secret pseudonym to maintain separation from her day job as a doctor.

Lori Foster
Lori Foster
The Love Shack
Canary Street Press
Lori Foster is a NYT, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly bestselling author and a recipient of the prestigious RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award. She lives in Central Ohio, where coffee helps her keep up with her cats and grandkids between writing books. For more about Lori, visit her website at www.lorifoster.com, like her on Facebook or find her on X (Twitter), @lorilfoster.

Madeline Claire Franklin
Madeline Claire Franklin
The Wilderness of Girls
Zando Young Readers

Madeline Claire Franklin is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults (VCFA WCYA). When she is not writing strange fiction for young adults, she is probably attempting to dismantle white supremacy and/or practicing witchcraft. She is a queer, Jewish, invisibly disabled woman living in sin in Buffalo, New York, with her partner, two dogs, three cats, and two Roombas, in a little yellow house called Cluckleberry Farms.


Sarah Gerard
Sarah Gerard
Carrie Carolyn Coco
Zando

Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, a New York Times Critics' Choice; the novella Binary Star, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times first fiction prize; two chapbooks; and the novel True Love. Her short stories, essays, interviews, and criticism have appeared in the New York Times, Granta, The Baffler, Vice, BOMB Magazine, and other journals, as well as anthologies. She lives in Denver.


Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson
Rebellion 1776
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. She’s twice been a National Book Award finalist, for Chains and Speak; Chains also received the 2009 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Laurie was chosen for the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award and received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023, presented to her by the Crown Princess of Sweden.

Zoe Hana Mikuta
Zoe Hana Mikuta
Off With Their Heads
Disney Hyperion
Kwame Mbalia is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and the publisher of Freedom Fire, an imprint of Disney Hyperion devoted to stories about the Black diaspora by Black creators. His debut middle-grade novel, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it was followed by Tristan Strong Destroys the World and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching. Kwame lives with his wife and children outside Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is currently working on the next Jax Freeman adventure. For more information, go to www.KwameMbalia.com.

Iman Hariri-Kia
Iman Hariri-Kia
The Most Famous Girl in the World
Sourcebooks Landmark

Iman Hariri-Kia is a writer, editor, and author born and based in New York City. A recipient of the Annabelle Bonner Medal and a nationally acclaimed journalist, she covers sex, relationships, identity, and adolescence. Her work has appeared in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Cosmo, Nylon, Bustle, and more.


Cristina Henríquez
Cristina Henríquez
The Great Divide
Ecco
Cristina Henríquez is the author of The Book of Unknown Americans, The World in Half, and Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories. She has been longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Real Simple, and elsewhere.

Scott Alexander Howard
Scott Alexander Howard
The Other Valley
Atria Books
Scott Alexander Howard lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, where his work focused on the relationship between memory, emotion, and literature. The Other Valley is his first novel. Connect with him at ScottAlexanderHoward.com.

Justinian Huang
Justinian Huang
The Emperor and the Endless Palace
MIRA
Born to immigrants in Monterey Park, California, Justinian Huang studied English at Pomona College and screenwriting at the University of Oxford. He is now based in Los Angeles with Swagger, a Shanghainese rescue dog he adopted during his five years living in China. The Emperor and the Endless Palace is his debut novel.

Swan Huntley
Swan Huntley
I Want You More
Zibby Books
Swan Huntley is the author of the novels Getting Clean With Stevie Green, The Goddesses, and We Could Be Beautiful. She is also the writer and illustrator of the journal-style mini-tomes The Bad Mood Book and You're Grounded (Summer 2024). Swan earned a MFA at Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, where she was the 2019 recipient of the LeSage-Fullilove Residency. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Antonia Hylton
Antonia Hylton
Madness
Legacy Lit
Antonia Hylton is a Peabody and Emmy-award winning journalist at NBC News reporting on politics and civil rights, and the co-host of the hit podcasts Southlake and Grapevine. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she received prizes for her investigative research on race, mass incarceration, and the history of psychiatry. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Justina Ireland
Justina Ireland
Tales from Cabin 23: The Boo Hag Flex
HarperCollins / Balzer + Bray
Jasmine Warga is the New York Times-bestselling author of Other Words for Home, a Newbery Honor Book and a Walter Honor Book for Younger Readers; The Shape of Thunder; and A Rover’s Story. Her teen books, Here We Are Now and My Heart and Other Black Holes, have been translated into over twenty-five languages. She lives in the Chicago area with her family. You can visit Jasmine online at JasmineWarga.com.

Carolina Ixta
Carolina Ixta
Shut Up, This is Serious
Quill Tree Books
Carolina Ixta is a writer from Oakland, California. A daughter of Mexican immigrants, she received her BA in Creative Writing and Spanish Language and Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and obtained her Master’s degree in Education at the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently an elementary school teacher whose pedagogy centers critical race theory at the primary education level.

Timothy Janovsky
Timothy Janovsky
You Had Me at Happy Hour
Afterglow Books by Harlequin
Timothy Janovsky is a queer, multidisciplinary storyteller based in Washington, DC. When he's not daydreaming about young Hugh Grant, he's telling jokes, playing characters and writing books. He's the author of Afterglow's The (Fake) Dating Game and the forthcoming You Had Me at Happy Hour, as well as several romantic comedies for Sourcebooks Casablanca and an upcoming holiday romance with St. Martin's Press.

Nashae Jones
Nashae Jones
Courtesy of Cupid
Aladdin
Nashae Jones is a freelance writer and an educator. Her fiction and nonfiction pieces have appeared in publications such as HuffPost, McSweeney’s, Yahoo! Voices, and October Hill Magazine, among others. She lives in Virginia with her husband, two kids, two cats, and one dog. She is passionate about diversity initiatives, especially in children’s literature.

Marjan Kamali
Marjan Kamali
The Lion Women of Tehran
Gallery Books
Marjan Kamali, born in Turkey to Iranian parents, spent her childhood in Kenya, Germany, Turkey, Iran, and the United States. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley, Columbia University, and New York University. She is the 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Award. She is the author of The Lion Women of Tehran, The Stationery Shop, and Together Tea. Marjan lives with her husband in the Boston area. They have two children.

Tony Keith, Jr.
Tony Keith, Jr.
How the Boogeyman Became a Poet
HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books
Tony Keith, Jr. is a Black American gay poet, spoken word artist, and hip-hop educational leader from Washington, DC. He is author of the YA memoir in verse How the Boogeyman Became a Poet.

Yulin Kuang
Yulin Kuang
How To End a Love Story
Avon Books
Yulin Kuang is a screenwriter and director whose credits include The CW’s I Ship It and Hulu’s Dollface. She was once fired from a Hallmark film for being "too hip for Hallmark." She is adapting Emily Henry’s People We Meet On Vacation and Beach Read to film. She lives in Pasadena with her husband Zack and their orange cat, Eloise.

Scott Kurtz
Scott Kurtz
Table Titans Club
Holiday House
Scott Kurtz is an Eisner and Harvey award-winning cartoonist who helped pioneer webcomics with his daily feature, PvP. Since then, Scott has gone on to produce podcasts, animated series, live roleplaying events, and much more. Scott can be found hiding from coronavirus in the Pacific Northwest but occasionally leaves his studio to enjoy the dog park or visit his family.

Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner
Creation Lake
Scribner
Rachel Kushner is the acclaimed author of the novels The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers, and Telex from Cuba, as well as the essay collection, The Hard Crowd, and the short story collection, The Strange Case of Rachel K. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was twice for the National Book Award in Fiction. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Megan Lally
Megan Lally
That's Not My Name
Sourcebooks Fire
Megan Lally is a professional book coach who loves writing all things creepy and twisted. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. That’s Not My Name is her debut.

Erik Larson
Erik Larson
The Demon of Unrest
Crown

Erik Larson is the author of six national bestsellers: The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm, which have collectively sold more than 10 million copies. His books have been published in nearly 20 countries.


Chris La Tray
Chris La Tray
Becoming Little Shell
Milkweed Editions
Chris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, a descendent of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Chris writes the weekly newsletter “An Irritable Métis” and lives near Frenchtown, Montana. He is the Montana Poet Laureate for 2023–2025.

Margaret Lee
Margaret Lee
Starry Field
Melville House

Margaret Juhae Lee is former literary editor of The Nation magazine. She has been the recipient of a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University, and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation. She was a Tin House scholar, and has been awarded residencies at the Mesa Refuge, Anderson Center, and Mineral School. In 2020, she was named "Person of the Year" by the Sangcheol Cultural Welfare Foundation in Kongju, South Korea, for her work in honoring her grandfather, Patriot Lee Chul Ha.


Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
The Collapsing Frontier
PM Press

Jonathan Lethem is the author of Brooklyn Crime Novel and twelve other novels. His stories and essays have been collected in six volumes, and his writing has been translated into over thirty languages. He lives in Los Angeles and Maine.


Amy Lin
Amy Lin
Here After
Zibby Books
Amy Lin is a writer and educator who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her work has been published in Ploughshares and she has been awarded residencies from Yaddo and Casa Comala. Here After is her first book.

Darcie Little Badger
Darcie Little Badger
Sheine Lende
Levine Querido
Darcie Little Badger is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting. She is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. Her Locus-Award-winning debut, Elatsoe, was a National Indie Bestseller and called one of the Best 100 Fantasy Novels of All Time by TIME. Her second novel, A Snake Falls to Earth was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and received a Newbery Award Honor.

Claire Lombardo
Claire Lombardo
Same As It Ever Was
Doubleday
Claire Lombardo is the author of The Most Fun We Ever Had. She lives in Iowa City, where she has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and works part-time as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books.

Loren Long
Loren Long
The Yellow Bus
Macmillan / Roaring Brook Press
Loren Long is the author and illustrator of the New York Times-bestselling Otis picture book series, now an animated television series on Apple+. He’s also the illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Of Thee I Sing by Barack Obama, Love by Matt de la Peña, and Change Sings by Presidential Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman. He lives near Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife and rescue dog, Charlie.

Loretta Lopez
Loretta Lopez
City Girls
Seven Stories Press / Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Loretta Lopez is a Mexican-American therapist living in New York City with clinical specialties including childhood trauma, serious mental illness, and patients with refugee and immigrant statuses. She holds a MA from Columbia University’s School of Social Work and a BA with Honors in the Written Arts from Bard College. Her writing has been recognized by the Gold Portfolio Award from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and the Turkey Land Cove writers grant.

Paul Lynch
Paul Lynch
Prophet Song
Atlantic Monthly Press
Paul Lynch is the author of the novels Red Sky in Morning, The Black Snow, Grace, and Beyond the Sea. Grace won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018 and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 2018. The Black Snow won France’s Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and was a finalist for the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize). His website is paullynchwriter.com.

Zito Madu
Zito Madu
The Minotaur at Calle Lanza
Belt Publishing
Zito Madu was born in Nigeria and moved to the United States in 1998. He grew up in Detroit and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. His writing has been published in many publications, including Plough Quarterly, Victory Journal, GQ Magazine, the New Republic, and The Nation.

Kekla Magoon
Kekla Magoon
The Secret Library
Candlewick Press
Kekla Magoon is the renowned author of numerous fiction and nonfiction titles for young readers, including X: A Novel, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Revolution in Our Time, and The Season of Styx Malone. She has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award, an NAACP Image Award, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and four Coretta Scott King Honors, among others. Kekla Magoon lives in Montpelier, Vermont, and teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Jahmal Mayfield
Jahmal Mayfield
Smoke Kings
Melville House
Jahmal Mayfield was born in Virginia but currently resides in New Jersey. In addition to writing crime fiction, he serves as the director of a nonprofit program that provides employment support to people with disabilities. Smoke Kings was inspired by Kimberly Jones' passionate viral video, How Can We Win?

Casey McQuiston
Casey McQuiston
The Pairing
St. Martin's Griffin
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author of romantic comedies, including One Last Stop, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and Red, White & Royal Blue, whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Bon Appétit. Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Casey now lives in New York City with a poodle mix named Pepper.

Jean Meltzer
Jean Meltzer
Magical Meet Cute
MIRA Books
Jean Meltzer studied dramatic writing at NYU Tisch and has earned numerous awards for her work in television, including a daytime Emmy. She spent five years in rabbinical school before her chronic illness forced her to withdraw, and her father told her she should write a book ― just not a Jewish one because no one reads those.

Claire Messud
Claire Messud
This Strange Eventful History : A Novel
W.W. Norton
Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lydia Millet
Lydia Millet
We Loved It All: A Memory of Life
W.W. Norton
Lydia Millet is the author of A Children's Bible, a finalist for the National Book Award and a NYT Top 10 book of 2020. She has won awards from PEN Center USA and the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been shortlisted for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Prize. Her story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She has a Master's degree in environmental economics and lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Allie Millington
Allie Millington
Olivetti
Feiwel and Friends
Allie Millington first wrote Olivetti on her own antique typewriter, who turned out to have an awful lot to say. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and their fluffy dog. You can find her on Instagram: @alliemillington or online at www.alliemillingtonbooks.com.

Juli Min
Juli Min
Shanghailanders
Spiegel & Grau
Juli Min is the Editor in Chief and Fiction Editor of the Shanghai Literary Review. She was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in New Jersey. Min attended Phillips Academy Andover and Harvard University, where she studied Russian and comparative literature. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson College.

Sy Montgomery
Sy Montgomery
Secrets of the Octopus
National Geographic
The author of 31 books for adults and children, topped by the best-selling Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery specializes in animals and conservation. Her titles have earned numerous awards and accolades; Soul of an Octopus was a National Book Award finalist. She holds three honorary doctorates and is often featured in TV and podcast interviews. Her most recent book is Travels in Turtle Time. Now she returns to her special love: the octopus. Montgomery lives in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Amy Neff
Amy Neff
The Days I Loved You Most
Park Row Books
Amy Neff is a lover of love stories, a mom, and a writer who grew up in Connecticut. After years spent living first in Boston and then Atlanta, she felt called back to her New England roots to raise her own children near the seaside town where her family has spent summers since the early 1900s, the setting that inspired The Days I Loved You Most. She currently lives in Connecticut once more with her husband, two sons, and their rescue dog, Bo.

Colleen Oakes
Colleen Oakes
The Second Favorite Daughters Club 1: Sister Sabotage
Pixel+Ink
Colleen Oakes is the bestselling author of books for both teens and adults, including the acclaimed Queen of Hearts series, the Wendy Darling series, The Black Coats, and the upcoming Eleven Houses. Her work has been featured in HuffPost, Entertainment Weekly, the Denver Post and more. The Second Favorite Daughters Club is her first middle grade novel.

Shirlene Obuobi
Shirlene Obuobi
Between Friends and Lovers
Avon
Shirlene Obuobi is a Ghanaian-American physician, cartoonist, and author who grew up in Chicago; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and The Woodlands, Texas. She appeared on GMA to promote her debut novel On Rotation. When she’s not working in the hospital, she can be found drawing comics, writing on her phone, and obsessing over her husband, three cats, and dog. She currently lives in Chicago, where she is completing her cardiology fellowship.

Tim O'Leary
Tim O'Leary
The Corona Verses
Rare Bird Books

Born in Billings, Montana, Tim O'Leary is the author of Warriors, Workers, Whiners, & Weasels; Dick Cheney Shot Me in the Face, Men Behaving Badly, and, forthcoming, The Corona Verses, to be released in 2024. He graduated from the University of Montana and received his MFA from Pacific University. Tim and his wife Michelle and their yellow lab Pinchot split their time between the Columbia Gorge in Washington state, and Santa Ynez, California.


Molly Knox Ostertag
Molly Knox Ostertag
The Deep Dark
Graphix
Molly Knox Ostertag is the acclaimed ABA Indie and New York Times-bestselling graphic novel author-illustrator of The Girl from the Sea and the Witch Boy trilogy: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch, as well as a writer for animation. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Molly was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30: Media list in 2020. She's married to fellow writer and artist ND Stevenson, and they live in Los Angeles with two cats and a very cuddly dog. You can find her online at mollyostertag.com.

Joanna Pearson
Joanna Pearson
Bright and Tender Dark
Bloomsbury
Joanna Pearson is the author of two short story collections and a book of poetry. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and many other publications. She is the winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and has been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and the Virginia Literary Award. She lives in North Carolina, where she works as a psychiatrist. Bright and Tender Dark is her debut novel.

Ryan Penske
Ryan Penske
The Dreamers
Rare Bird Books

Ryan Elizabeth Penske is a mix of a Midwest and Southern California upbringing, where she discovered her love for snowy Halloweens in Michigan and the everlasting California sun, but most importantly her love for reading in her early teens. Now, after writing her debut YA novel The Dreamers, she looks forward to completing her MA in English Literature. Between moments of writing and her academic pursuits, Ryan spends her days with her best buddy Indy, her Australian Shepherd.


Helen Phillips
Helen Phillips
Hum
Marysue Rucci Books
Helen Phillips is the author of five books, including the novel The Need, a National Book Award nominee and a NYT Notable Book of 2019. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, and the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction. Her work received the John Gardner Fiction Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award. An associate professor at Brooklyn College, she lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Andie Powers
Andie Powers
I Am Bold
Gibbs Smith Books
Andie Powers is a writer for children, and sometimes, their grown-ups. Her debut picture book, I Am Quiet, won the Goodreads 2022 Choice Award for Best Children's or Middle Grade Book and was a Kids' Indie Next Pick. Her follow-up is I Am Bold: For Every Kid Who’s Told They're Just Too Much (April 2024). Andie lives and works in Seattle with her husband and two daughters.

Holly Ringland
Holly Ringland
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding
House of Anansi Press
Holly Ringland is the author of the international bestseller The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, which has been adapted into a seven-part TV series starring Sigourney Weaver. After living between Australia and the UK for ten years, Holly has been based in the Yugambeh region of southeast Queensland since 2020, where she wrote The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding in her “office,” a vintage caravan named Frenchie.

Sara Daniele Rivera
Sara Daniele Rivera
The Blue Mimes
Graywolf Press
Sara Daniele Rivera is a Cuban-/Peruvian-American artist, writer, translator, and educator. Her writing has appeared in The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Solstice Magazine, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Erica Ivy Rodgers
Erica Ivy Rodgers
Lady of Steel and Straw
Peachtree Teen / Peachtree

Erica Ivy Rodgers lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband, two children, and one very lovable, frenetic pit bull mix. When she isn’t writing or driving kids around, you can usually find her starting another DIY home project in the woods, rock climbing, or beneath an ever-growing pile of bookish quilting fabric.


Rainbow Rowell
Rainbow Rowell
Slow Dance
William Morrow

Rainbow Rowell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor & Park and the Simon Snow Trilogy, as well as several other award-winning novels, short stories, and comics. Rainbow lives in Omaha, Nebraska, just like most of her characters.


Zoë Schlanger
Zoë Schlanger
The Light Eaters
Harper
Zoë Schlanger is currently a staff reporter at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Time, The Nation, and on NPR among other major outlets, and is cited in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022 anthology. A recipient of a 2017 National Association of Science Writers' reporting award, she is often a guest speaker in schools and universities. Zoë graduated with a BA from New York University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Connie Schultz
Connie Schultz
Lola and the Troll
Penguin Young Readers

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and Professor of Practice in Journalism at Denison University. Her favorite job title is Grandma. She is the author of a collection of essays, Life Happens, and a political memoir, ...and His Lovely Wife. Her first novel, The Daughters of Erietown, was a New York Times bestseller in 2020. Schultz lives in Cleveland with her husband, Sherrod Brown, and their two rescue dogs, Franklin and Walter, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Lola's pup, Tank.


A. F. Steadman
A. F. Steadman
Skandar and the Phantom Rider
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
A. F. Steadman grew up in the Kent countryside, getting lost in fantasy worlds and scribbling stories in notebooks. Before focusing on writing, she worked in law, until she realized that there wasn’t nearly enough magic involved. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Skandar series.

Jamie Sumner
Jamie Sumner
Deep Water
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Jamie Sumner is the author of Roll with It, Time to Roll, Tune It Out, One Kid’s Trash, The Summer of June, Maid for It, and Deep Water. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. She is the mother of a son with cerebral palsy and has written extensively about parenting a child with special needs.

Joselyn Takacs
Joselyn Takacs
Pearce Oysters
Zibby Books
Joselyn Takacs earned her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California and MFA in Fiction from Johns Hopkins University. She lived in New Orleans during the 2010 BP Oil Spill and received a grant to record the oral histories of Louisiana oyster farmers in the wake of the environmental disaster. Her fiction has appeared in Tin House online, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. She has taught writing at the University of Southern California and John Hopkins University.

Dave Tarnowski
Dave Tarnowski
Disappointing Affirmations: Unfollow your dreams!
Chronicle Books
Dave Tarnowski is the author of about a dozen unfinished novels who turned to memes when he finally gave up on his dreams of being a writer of anything longer than a few sentences. He lives in New York City with his neuroses. Follow him on Instagram at @disppointingaffirmations.

Jonathan Todd
Jonathan Todd
Timid
Graphix
Jonathan Todd is a cofounder of the Boston Kids Comics Fest and former second grade teacher. He was a Jacqueline Woodson Fellow in the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing program at Lasell University. Before writing and drawing graphic novels for kids, he studied journalism and illustration at Syracuse University and English and History at Emory University. His cartoons have appeared in theBoston Globe, The Nation, and elsewhere. He lives near Boston with his wife, two children, and irresistible lemon beagle named Cariño.

Phuc Tran
Phuc Tran
Cranky
HarperCollins

Phuc Tran is an award-winning writer, tattooer, and Latin teacher (for which he has won no awards). Cranky is his first children’s book. His memoir Sigh, Gone received the New England Book Award, the Maine Literary Award, and was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Audible, and others. “Phuc” is pronounced like “Luke” but with an F.


Stuart Turton
Stuart Turton
The Last Murder at the End of the World
Sourcebooks Landmark
Stuart Turton is the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water. His books have won numerous awards, and been translated into thirty-seven languages, selling over a million copies.

Simon Van Booy
Simon Van Booy
Sipsworth
Godine
Simon Van Booy is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books for adults and children, most recently The Presence of Absence and Night Came with Many Stars from Godine. His novels and short stories have been translated into many languages. Raised in rural North Wales, Simon currently lives between London and New York, where he is also a book editor and a volunteer EMT. In early 2020, he rescued his first mouse.

Renée Watson
Renée Watson
skin & bones
Little, Brown and Company
Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author. Her novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include the Ryan Hart series; Some Places More Than Others; This Side of Home; What Momma Left Me; Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz; Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan; and Love Is a Revolution; as well as acclaimed picture books: Maya’s Song, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem's Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée splits her time between Portland, Oregon, and New York City.

Bill Weir
Bill Weir
Life As We Know It (Can Be)
Chronicle Prism

Bill Weir is an award-winning anchor, writer, and producer, and CNN's first Chief Climate Correspondent. He is the host of CNN's original series "The Wonder List with Bill Weir", now streaming on Discovery+. In his network career, Weir reported from all 50 states and more than 100 countries, covering breaking news, and uncovering global trends, earning an Emmy Award for his CNN Special Report: "Eating Planet Earth: The Future of Your Food". This is his first book.


Tia Williams
Tia Williams
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
Grand Central Publishing
Tia Williams had a 15-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, Lucky, Teen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty-blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling debut novel The Accidental Diva and penned two young adult novels, It Chicks and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel The Perfect Find is a Netflix movie starring Gabrielle Union. Her novel, Seven Days in June, was a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick.

Jacqueline Winspear
Jacqueline Winspear
The Comfort of Ghosts
Soho Crime
Jacqueline Winspear is the author of eighteen novels in the award-winning, New York Times, national and international bestselling series featuring psychologist-investigator Maisie Dobbs. She has been a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Edgar Award.

Aliah Wright
Aliah Wright
Now You Owe Me
Red Hen Press
Aliah Wright lives with her family near Philadelphia, where she’s hard at work on her next novel.

Ray Xu
Ray Xu
Alterations
Union Square Kids
Ray Xu is a Toronto-based story artist for television and feature films. His recent work includes the 2021 Netflix animated hit The Mitchells vs. The Machines; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem; and more. He invites you to visit him online at raymond-xu.com. Alterations is his debut graphic novel.

Paul Yamazaki
Paul Yamazaki
Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale
Ode Books

Paul Yamazaki has been the principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers, the legendary San Francisco bookstore and publisher founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter Martin, for more than 50 years. A champion for national and global literature, writers, publishers, and independent bookstores, Yamazaki was the recipient of the National Book Foundation's 2023 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. He has mentored generations of booksellers across America.