Mel Parr is a children’s librarian in Maryland. Mel also blogs at Cotton Candy Book Witch, where they write about queer books and witchcraft.

Paula Chase has wielded inclusion like a light saber against inequality in literature for 13 years. Co-founder of the award-winning blog, The Brown Bookshelf, Chase is an advocate for diversifying fiction featuring Black characters. She’s the author of eight children’s books including her critically acclaimed middle grade debut, So Done.

Andrea Wang is the award-winning author of The Nian Monster (APALA Award) and Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando (Freeman Book Award, JLG Selection). She writes picture books and middle grade novels that explore culture, creative thinking, and identity. Andrea lives in Colorado with her family.

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the author of 8th Grade Superzero, and Sesame Workshop’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She’s the co-author of the NAACP Image Award nominated Two Naomis, and Nerdie winner Naomis Too. Olugbemisola’s the editor of The Hero Next Door, and her nonfiction includes Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow, and Someday Is Now.

Sarah Nicolas is a recovering mechanical engineer, library event planner, and author who lives in Orlando with a 60-lb mutt who thinks he’s a chihuahua. They write YA novels as Sarah Nicolas and romance under the name Aria Kane. Sarah is the current Board Treasurer and Agent Liaison for Pitch Wars.

Anna E. Jordan received the 2013 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery award. Her poems appear in the anthology The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems (Candlewick, 2019). She is a children’s book marketer and publicist with a specialty in book-event management.

Sign Language Interpreter

Angel Cruz is a writer and freelance editor with a deep love for magic realism and Philippine folklore. Her bylines include Book Riot, Women Write About Comics/Ms en Scene, and The Learned Fangirl. She is currently the Assistant Editor, Year 6 for four-time Hugo Award-winner Uncanny Magazine.

As a certified ASL interpreter, I specialize in educational, conference and performing arts interpreting. (Missing doing shows at all Central Florida theme parks and Broadway tours, but loving this opportunity to do Everywhere Book Fest!) Every moment I’m not conveying others’ words, I’m writing my own YA and MG novels.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” and the Theodor Geisel Honor for “Ling and Ting.” Her novel “When the Sea Turned to Silver” was a National Book Award Finalist and her picture book, “A Big Mooncake for Little Star” was awarded the […]