Jody Jensen Shaffer is an award-winning poet and the author of more than 90 books of fiction and nonfiction for children, including Creep, Leap, Crunch! A Food Chain Story, The Last Day Julian was My ...

Tara Dairman (she/they) writes middle-grade novels and picture books about kids with strong passions and big questions about the world. Tara’s books include The Girl from Earth’s End, the All Four Sta...

Michael Wang is an author, designer, and avid plant enthusiast. His career began in graphic design, where he worked for many years before co-founding a design studio specializing in creating and curat...

Costantia Manoli is the award winning author of Tomatoes in My Lunchbox, a Bookstagang Future Classic Picture Book 2022, a Kirkus Most Empowering Picture Book 2022 and an Ezra Jack Keats Writer’s Awar...

Margaret Finnegan’s latest middle grade novel is Spelling It Out (Atheneum Books for Young Readers). If she is not writing kid lit or teaching her students at Cal State LA, she is most likely walking ...

Ha Dinh is a reading intervention specialist, former primary school teacher, mom, and author. She had been dreaming of writing children’s books since she first came to America as a kindergartener, but...

Chelsea Tornetto is an educator turned children’s book author (she taught 7th grade world geography for 17 years prior to writing for kids.) Chelsea has enjoyed writing rhyming poetry since she was a ...

Katie Mazeika is an award-winning author and illustrator who can’t imagine a better job than making books. She loves creating characters that make an impression and specializes in telling stories base...

Natasha Tripplett lives in Northern California, where she writes from a tree house perched in a sycamore tree. Natasha is a Jamaican Jewish American author who is passionate about cultural representat...

ALT: a boy and a girl are playing connecting game

Lisa Rogers became inspired to write for children during her career as an elementary school librarian. Her picture books have received multiple starred reviews and awards, including the Golden Kite Ho...

Lisa Anchin is an illustrator, author, and designer. She is the author-illustrator of the picture book The Little Green Girl, which won a Crystal Kite Award, and the illustrator of a number of other b...

ALT: a dachshund laying on a window sill looking out

Keila V. Dawson is an award-winning children’s author. She is a co-editor and contributor to No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change, No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans...

Gina Soldano is a professional ghostwriter, author, and grant writer. She’s active in the kidlit world as a Connect Co-leader for Rocky Mountain SCBWI. Her picture book, Nia’s Rescue Box (illustrated ...

Tina’s Athaide's journey began in Uganda, with stops in London and Canada, before settling in Southern California. A lifelong booklover, she never saw someone like her—a samosa-loving, salwar kameez-w...

Traveler and writer Kimberley Lovato has never met a journey she didn’t love and has written about the wonders of seeing and being in the world for more than 20 years. Her articles and essays have app...

Stephanie Wildman is the author of five children’s books, Ghost Writer (2024, co-authored with Cecilia Pópulus-Eudave and illustrated by Estefanía Razo; in Spanish as Escritor Fantasma); Breath by Bre...