News and Updates

Karuna Riazi

Karuna Riazi drinks a lot of tea and wears a lot of hats, including student in the Hamline University MFAC program, educator and diversity advocate. She is the author of The Gauntlet (Salaam Reads, 2017), its companion The Battle (2019) and Ghostwriter: The Jungle Book (Sesame Workshop/Sourcebooks Wonderland, 2019).

Gail D. Villanueva

Gail D. Villanueva is a Filipino web designer/developer and author of A POTFUL OF MAGIC (2021) and MY FATE ACCORDING TO THE BUTTERFLY (2019), a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. She lives in the Philippines with her husband and their spoiled pets.

Cat Scully

Best known for her world maps in the Brooklyn Brujas trilogy by Zoraida Cordova, Cat Scully is the writer and illustrator of YA horror comic-novel JENNIFER STRANGE, releasing July 21, 2020 from Haverhill House Publishing. When she’s not writing or drawing, she works in video game development for the Deep End Games on their next […]

Kim Bongiorno

Best known for earning accolades for her humorous social media presence for over a decade, Kim is an author and freelance writer whose longer work has been published in a dozen books and thousands of articles both online and in print. She’s currently working on her first middle grade novel.

Jenn Reese

JENN REESE (she/her) writes speculative fiction for readers of all ages. Her middle grade books include A Game of Fox & Squirrels (Henry Holt, April 2020) and Above World (Candlewick), a finalist for the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Elayna Mae Darcy

Elayna Mae Darcy is a queer writer and filmmaker from Philadelphia. A passionate, hardcore Hufflepuff, she has spent the last decade working as a social media manager and professional fangirl, where she has spoken on fandom panels across the country. She is the author of the poetry collection UNRAVELING LIGHT.

Judy I. Lin

Judy was born in Taiwan and moved to Canada when she was eight years old. She grew up with her nose in a book and loved to escape to imaginary worlds. She now divides her time between working as an occupational therapist and creating imaginary worlds of her own. She lives on the Canadian prairies […]

Ellen Oh

Anti-social curmudgeonly author, former college instructor, recovering attorney, addicted to diet coke. Can be bribed with donuts. Krispy Kreme only.

Alaina Lavoie

Alaina Lavoie is the communications manager at We Need Diverse Books and teaches in the MFA and MA programs at Emerson College. She lives in Boston with her wife and two literary cats.

Sarah R. Baughman

Sarah R. Baughman is the middle grade author of THE LIGHT IN THE LAKE (2019) and THE WILD PATH (2020), both published by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers. A former middle and high school English teacher, Sarah currently works as a curriculum developer and is represented by Katie Grimm.