P. O’Connell Pearson’s love of history began in high school and took her through college and a happy career in teaching. Now with an MFA from Lesley University, history inspires Patty’s award-winning nonfiction for ages ten and up—Fly Girls, Fighting for the Forest, Conspiracy, and We Are Your Children Too, forthcoming from Simon and Schuster. When she is not reading or writing about unsung heroes in history and government, Patty enjoys talking about history as a volunteer on the National Mall in Washington, DC. She lives in the City of Fairfax, Virginia.

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Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fiction.

Deesha’s debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is forthcoming from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in September 2026.

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Carrie Pomeroy’s essays and stories have appeared in The Laurel Review, The Silent Film Quarterly, Literary Mama, and CALYX, and in the anthologies The Saint Paul Almanac and Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers. She also blogs for Home/School/Life magazine. In 2014, she won a grant from the Jerome Foundation to do research at the Charlie Chaplin Archive in Bologna, Italy, which let her combine her love of poring over old documents with her passion for gelato and pasta. She writes narrative nonfiction for children and young adults and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her husband and two children.

Laurel Randolph has been a food writer for ten years and a cook since she was old enough to properly hold a whisk. She is the bestselling author of The Unofficial Simpsons Cookbook, The Instant Pot® Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: Easy Recipes for Fast & Healthy Meals, The Instant Pot® No-Pressure Cookbook: 100 Low-Street, High Flavor Recipes, and Instant Pot Desserts. She has written for numerous publications including The Spruce Eats, Food 52, Simply Recipes, EatingWell, Paste Magazine, and Serious Eats.

Rinsai Rossetti's debut novel, The Girl with Borrowed Wings (Dial Books for Young Readers 2012), was named one of Kirkus's best books of the year. She was born in Thailand, and has lived in Canada, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates. She currently lives in France, where she is at work on her next novel.

Lupe Ruiz-Flores is the author of the Pura Belpre Award-winning middle grade novel THE PECAN SHELLER (Carolrhoda Books, 2025) and the upcoming PALOMA JOINS THE CIRCUS (Carolrhoda Books, 2026). She is also the author of six bilingual picture books published by Arte Público Press. Her published anthologies include Thank U: Poems of Gratitude by Millbrook Press, Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America by Philomel Books, Latina Authors and Their Muses by Twilight Times Books, and Péinate: Hair Battles Between Latina Mothers & Their Daughters by La Pluma y La Tinta. Lupe has lived in Bangkok,Thailand, and Okinawa, Japan, where she learned how to pattern draft from a Japanese tailor.

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Eileen Ruvane fell into a book at a very young age and has happily never climbed her way out. She’s written professionally on a weird and wonderful range of topics from stock options and whiskey to rhinoceros transport, zombie diets, and rotten teeth. By far her favorite thing to write is stories for children, including young adult mysteries, middle grade adventures, and funny picture books. Her debut YA novel, Tell Me My Future, comes out Summer 2026 with Abrams/Amulet. Eileen and her husband live in the Pocono Mountains, where they raised three amazing kids and co-founded a brewpub and craft distillery.

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Jeff Sampson started writing professionally at the tender age of eighteen, working on packaged series fiction—notably, the series Remnants by the great Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant. Several years later, at twenty-two, he had his first book published as part of the Dragonlance series of fantasy novels. He wrote four more novels for that sequence before striking off with the Deviants series from HarperCollins: Vesper, Havoc, and Ravage, all from Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins Children's Books. As well, under the pen name Christopher Holt, he is the author of the four novels in The Last Dogs series.

Faith Williams Schesventer is a mother, wife, high school ELA teacher, and suburban farmer. She loves spending time in her garden and working on her various kidlit projects. She enjoys writing horror with hope in the YA space and is equally as passionate about writing Black joy picture books, rich in culture and family love. She believes that children’s literature can and should be empowering. She looks forward to debuting her picture book, Cowboy Roots with Macmillan in Spring 2027 and to developing a full library of works for children of all ages to enjoy.

Lindsay Schlegel is a freelance editor with experience at a top literary agency, a major publishing house, and a now-defunct chain bookstore, and the author of Don't Forget to Say Thank You. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and German from Boston College. Lindsay lives in New Jersey with her high school sweetheart and their children. She is currently at work on a novel.

Maryjo Scott is an illustrator, poet and mother of three. She presently lives in the hills of Connecticut with her family, one little brown eyed dog, two geckos, a chinchilla named licorice and a flock of talkative hens.  If she’s not in her garden looking for caterpillars and toads, you can find her in her other favorite place, the library.

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Bonghyun Shin is an illustrator based in Seattle, where she lives with her husband, two lovely children and a dog. She was born and raised in South Korea and has a Master of Art in architecture and interior design from Hongik University of South Korea. She loves to use various skills that combine bold lines, vibrant colors, and rough textures to create her unique style. These help to enhance and create a greater depth of meaning behind the feel of her pieces. She enjoys making adorable characters and pays particular attention to displaying their emotions. Her focus on facial expressions and illustrious settings will immerse her readers into her world. When she is not drawing, she is walking, cooking, reading, and playing with her dog Bella.

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Sarah Shotland is the author ofthe novel Junkette (2014 White Gorilla Press), and thenonfiction project Abolition is Everything. Herwriting for the stage has been performed in theaters nationally andinternationally. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Ploughshares,North American Review, The Iowa Review, CreativeNonfiction, Baltimore Review and elsewhere. She isthe recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of theArts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Heinz Endowments, PittsburghFoundation, and more. She is the recipient of a 2025 Madeleine L'Engle ResearchFellowship from Smith College, where she is using the special collectionsarchives to weave archival research into her fiction. She is currently theProgram Director for Madwomen in the Attic, and Chair of the Department of theHumanities at Carlow University. 

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Avery Silverberg is a born and raised Los Angeleno. When she’s not writing, she spends most of her time obsessing over YA strong female protagonists on Bookstagram (you can follow her @a.very.fast.reader). Avery graduated from Chapman University in 2019 with a BFA in Creative Writing and now works as Social Media Manager at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons (she/her) produces award-winning cultural work in documentary filmmaking, writing, public speaking. She is the editor of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology, love WITH accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press). Her lived experiences as a survivor of childhood and adult sexual violence, a Black feminist lesbian, and a long-term Buddhist practitioner inform the creation of her work. Aishah is the producer/director of the 2006 groundbreaking, Ford Foundation-funded film, NO! The Rape Documentary.  Presently, she is both a 2020 Soros Media Fellow and training to become a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher.  Aishah revels in sharing sacred time with her partner Sheila at home or anywhere an adventure will take them. 

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Angie Smibert is the author of the middle grade trilogy, Ghosts of Ordinary Objects, which includes Bone's Gift, Lingering Echoes, and The Truce (Boyds Mills Press). She's also written several YA science fiction novels, including Memento Nora, numerous short stories, and over 30 science/technology books for kids. Angie teaches writing for Southern New Hampshire University's MFA program as well as for Indiana University and Virginia Western Community College. Before this, she was a science writer and web developer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. She lives in Virginia with a goofy dog (named after a telescope) and three bickering cats (named after Tennessee Williams characters), and puts her vast store of useless knowledge to work at the weekly pub quiz.

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Linda Joan Smith is a former magazine editor and the author of several garden books. As a kid, her passions were making and eating cherry pie, fly-fishing with her dad, and getting lost in the pages of a book. As a grown up, those same loves abide. Her debut middle-grade novel, The Peach Thief, will be published in 2025 (Candlewick). Along with writing middle-grade and YA historical fiction, she can also be found cooking and eating Thai food, painting, and savoring adventures with her husband and daughter. She lives and works on California’s Monterey Peninsula.

Ruth Spiro is the author of over twenty-five Baby Loves Science board books (Charlesbridge), as well as the picture books One Small Spark, A Tikkun Olam Story (Dial), Love Grows (Harper), a new series How to Explain Science to a Grown-up (Charlesbridge), and more. Growing Together (Harper) is forthcoming in 2025. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two daughters.

Jolie Stekly is a writer, teacher, speaker, and writing coach. She is an instructor for the University of Washington’s Certificate in Writing program, and she also teaches privately. She is incredibly proud of the full shelf of books written by her students and clients. Jolie has been an active member of the SCBWI for over 20 years, volunteering in many roles, including serving as the regional advisor for the Western Washington region. She frequently writes and speaks for the SCBWI, and she presents the new attendees’ orientation at national SCBWI conferences. She was honored as SCBWI Member of the Year in 2009. Her short story Ghosts Around These Parts represents Washington State in THE HAUNTED STATES OF AMERICA anthology (Godwin Books/Macmillan, 2024). The story is set where she lives in the Pacific Northwest, at the edge of the Salish Sea, where she loves to both paddle and plunge.

Mag Takac is a freelance children's book illustrator and author, working primarily on picture books and board books. When not busy with drawing, she takes care of her garden (someone has to water the weeds and plant new nettles), bakes allegedly amazing croissants (eaten even when they're burnt) and plays music (it's a good thing to have a bunch of deaf deer for neighbors), while her grumpy cats, noisy dogs, tiny humans, and loving husband keep her company.

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