Saundra Mitchell is the author of over twenty books for tweens and teens. Her work includes two anthologies for teens, Defy the Dark and All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages. For twenty years, she was the head screenwriter and an executive producer with Dreaming Tree Films on their various teen filmmaking programs and earned Academy Award eligibility ten times during her tenure. In her free time, she enjoys fandom, studying history, crochet, and spending time with her wife and her daughters.

Fox Benwell is a perpetual student of the world, a writer, adventurer, and wannabe-knight, who holds degrees in international education and writing for young people, and believes in the power of both to change the world.

When he’s not writing or teaching, he sings barbershop with The Great Western Chorus; music is pretty good at changing the world, too. He is the author of The Last Leaves Falling and Kaleidoscope Song.

Tanya Boteju is an English teacher and writer living on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, Canada). She believes feminism, diversity, committed educators, sassy students, and hot mugs of tea will save the day. She is also grateful for her patient wife who builds her many bookshelves! Tanya may have been a drag king in her well-spent youth and knows that the queer community is full of magic and wonder. With her books, she hopes she’s brought some of that magic to those who need it most.

Katherine Locke lives in a very small town outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her feline overlords. In addition to fiction, she writes about books and reading and has contributed to The Forward, The GayYA, Teen Librarian Toolbox, and other sites. The Girl with the Red Balloon was her YA debut.