Kirsten Amann is a freelance writer, lifestyle publicist, and founding member LUPEC Boston (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails). She is the co-author of the LUPEC Boston column in the Weekly Dig and the Massachusetts Beverage Business Journal. Her writing has appeared in DailyCandy, The Second Glass, and Bachelor II Groom.com. She lives in Boston, Masachusetts. {site}

Josh Berk is the author of The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (Knopf 2010) and a second comedy/mystery teen novel coming from Knopf in 2011. He has previously been a journalist, a poet, a playwright, and a guitarist (mostly in bands known for things other than fine guitar-playing). He is a librarian and lives in a cornfield in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with his family. {site}

Josephine Cameron grew up writing and singing in Northern Wisconsin. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame and has recorded four CDs. Josephine currently writes, sings, and teaches in Maine, where it’s warmer than the Northwoods, but sadly lacking in cheese curds. Visit her online at Please Come Flying.{site}

Kurt Cyrus is a poet, writer, and the illustrator of nearly twenty books, many of which he also wrote, among them Tadpole Rex and its soon-to-appear companion, Turtle Rex, Mammoths on the Move and Sixteen Cows (both written by Lisa Wheeler), and M.T. Anderson’s Thrilling Tales series, beginning with Whales on Stilts! He lives near Eugene, Oregon, where he is finishing up several new picture books and a novel for middle-grade readers. {site}

In college, Lisa Davidson confounded her professors by writing term papers on paranormal research and the role of trashy fiction in pop culture. Now she dabbles in the real world (though she still spends too much time wondering about what might be lurking in the shadows). She lives in the Midwest with her husband and two sons, where she scares herself by writing teen fiction with the lights off.

Bree Despain rediscovered her childhood love for writing when she took a semester off college to write and direct plays for at-risk, inner-city teens. With a renewed passion for story, she returned to school and started writing stories for young adults. She currently lives near Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband, two young sons, and her beloved TiVo. Her first novel, The Dark Divine, was published by Egmont USA in December 2009; the sequel, The Last Saint, is coming for 2010.{site}

Quentin Dodd has written software for the Air Force, scouted locations for a film production company, been thrown from a moving vehicle, and written two novels—Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars and The Princess of Neptune. He lives in Indiana, where he indulges his loves of photography, old buildings, trashy movies, roller derby, and minor-league hockey—though rarely at the same time. {site}

Barbara Larmon Failing is a middle grade and picture book author. Her picture book, Lasso Lou and Cowboy McCoy (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2003) has been praised in the New York Times Book Review and was a finalist in Arizona’s School Literacy Project. Barbara lives in Ketchikan, Alaska. {site}

Angie Frazier is a writer, mom, freelance editor, a good cook, and a horrible housekeeper. Angie’s debut teen novel, Everlasting, will be published in 2010 by Scholastic Press. Scholastic will also publish her middle grade novel, Suzanna Snow and the Mystery of the Midnight Tunnel, in 2011. She lives in southern New Hampshire with her husband and their two daughters. {site}