Ibi Zoboi was born in Haiti, and holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Book Review, and The Rumpus, among others. She is the author of American Street, a US National Book Award finalist. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and three children.

Tracey Baptiste is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction for children including The Jumbie series, and The Totally Gross History of Ancient Egypt. She is also a contributor to the adult horror anthology Sycorax's Daughters. Ms. Baptiste volunteers with We Need Diverse Books, The Brown Bookshelf, and I Too Arts Collective. She teaches in Lesley University’s Creative Writing MFA program, and runs the editorial company Fairy Godauthor.

Dhonielle Clayton is the co-author of the Tiny Pretty Things series. She grew up in the Washington, DC, suburbs on the Maryland side and spent most of her time under her grandmother's table with a stack of books.

A former teacher and middle school librarian, Dhonielle is cofounder of CAKE Literary-a creative development company whipping up decidedly diverse books for a wide array of readers-and COO of the non-profit, We Need Diverse Books.

She's got a serious travel bug and loves spending time outside of the USA but makes her home in New York City, where she can most likely be found hunting for the best slice of pizza.

Brandy Colbert was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. Her debut novel, Pointe, won the 2014 Cybils Award for young adult fiction and was named a best book of 2014 by Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, Book Riot, and more.

She was chosen as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for spring 2014. She is also the author of Little & Lion, which was a Junior Library Guild and a Book of the Month Club selection, and Finding Yvonne. Brandy lives in Los Angeles and works as a copy editor.

Lamar Giles writes novels and short stories for teens and adults. He is the author of the Edgar Award nominees Fake ID and Endangered, as well as the YA novel Overturned.

He is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books, and he resides in Virginia with his wife.

Leah Henderson writes for young readers of all ages, and her books have been named a Children's Africana Book Awards Notable and a Bank Street Best Book.

Leah holds an MFA in writing and is on the faculty of Spalding University's graduate writing program. She resides in Washington, D.C.

Justina Ireland is the New York Times bestselling author of Promise of Shadows, Vengeance Bound and the Devil's Pass series. An active figure in the YA community, she has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and started a database for sensitivity readers at Writing in the Margins.

Varian Johnson is the author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Parker Inheritance, which won both Coretta Scott King Author Honor and Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor awards; The Great Greene Heist, an ALA Notable Children's Book and Kirkus Reviews Best Book; and the graphic novel Twins, illustrated by Shannon Wright, an NPR Best Book. Originally from Florence, South Carolina, he received an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is honored to now be a member of the faculty. Varian currently lives outside of Austin, Texas with his family.