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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