Susan Muaddi Darraj won an American Book Award for her short story collection, A Curious Land; the book also won an Arab American Book Award and the AWP Grace Paley Prize. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including a USA Ford Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant, a Maryland Individual Artists Award, and […]

Melanie Conklin grew up in North Carolina and worked as a product designer for ten years before she began her writing career. Her debut middle grade novel, Counting Thyme, is a Bank Street Best Children’s Book, winner of the International Literacy Association Teacher’s Choice Award, and nominated to four state reading lists. Her second novel […]

Mae Respicio writes heartwarming middle grade fiction. Her novel, THE HOUSE THAT LOU BUILT (out now), won an APALA Honor Award, was an NPR Best Book, and named to many state reading and “best of” lists. Her upcoming books are ANY DAY WITH YOU (out May 5, 2020!) and EVERYTHING STARTS WITH NOTHING (2021). Find […]

Kat Cho used to hide books under the bathroom sink and then sneak in there to read after bedtime. Her parents pretended not to know. This helped when she decided to write a dinosaur time-travel novel at the tender age of nine. Sadly, that book was not published. She currently lives and works in NYC […]

I.W. Gregorio is a practicing surgeon by day, masked avenging YA writer by night. Her novels include Lambda Literary Award finalist None of the Above, and This Is My Brain in Love, which has received three starred reviews so far. She is proud to be a board member of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, and […]

Christina Soontornvat is a storyteller, engineer, and STEM educator. She is the author of the fantasy middle grade series, The Changelings, and the early chapter book series, Diary of an Ice Princess. Her newest books include the middle grade fantasy, A Wish in the Dark, and All Thirteen, a nonfiction account of the Thai Cave […]