Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Star Child; Okoye to the People; the Walter Award-winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam; and the Coretta Scott King Honor-winning picture book The People Remember. She is also the editor of the anthology Black Enough.
Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net.
Tracey Baptiste is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade novels Minecraft: The Crash, The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, and The Jumbie God's Revenge. A former elementary school teacher, Tracey is now on the faculty at Lesley University's creative writing MFA program.
Raised in Trinidad until she was fifteen, she now lives with her family in New Jersey. You can visit her online at traceybaptiste.com.
Dhonielle Clayton is the New York Times bestselling author of the Belles series and The Marvellers and the coauthor of The Rumor Game and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, which was made into a Netflix original series. She is COO of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and the owner of Cake Creative.
Brandy Colbert is the award-winning author of several books for children and teens, including Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which was the winner of the 2022 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and a finalist for the American Library Association's Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award.
Her other acclaimed books include Pointe, The Voting Booth, The Only Black Girls in Town, and the Stonewall Book Award winner Little & Lion. A member of the faculty at Hamline University's MFA program in writing for children, Brandy lives in Los Angeles. You can find her online at brandycolbert.com.
Lamar Giles writes for teens and adults. He is the author of the Edgar Award finalists Fake ID and Endangered as well as the critically acclaimed Overturned, Spin, and The Last Last-Day-of-Summer.
He is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books and resides in Virginia. Visit him online at lamargiles.com.
Leah Henderson is the author of many critically acclaimed books for young readers, including The Magic in Changing Your Stars; Your Voice, Your Vote; The Courage of the Little Hummingbird; and Together We March. She holds an MFA in writing and teaches in Spalding University's graduate writing program. Because she has serious wanderlust, when she isn't creating stories, she's off someplace in the world getting lost, then found, discovering new ones.
Visit her at leahhendersonbooks.com.
Justina Ireland is the New York Times bestselling author of Dread Nation and its sequel, Deathless Divide, as well as Vengeance Bound and Promise of Shadows. She is also one of the creators of the Star Wars High Republic series and is the author of the Star Wars adventures A Test of Courage, Out of the Shadows, and Mission to Disaster. She lives with her family in Maryland, where she enjoys dark chocolate and dark humor and is not too proud to admit that she's still afraid of the dark.
You can visit her online at justinaireland.com.
Kekla Magoon is the author of many novels and nonfiction books, including The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, The Season of Styx Malone, and Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People. Kekla received the 2021 Margaret A. Edwards Award for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. She has been a National Book Award finalist in addition to receiving an NAACP Image Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, a Printz Honor, four Coretta Scott King Honors, and two Walter Award Honors.
Kekla teaches writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Visit her online at keklamagoon.com.
A poetAn artistOne blackOne whiteTwo voicesOne journeyJason Reynolds & Jason Griffin are superheroes.
Nic Stone is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the William C. Morris Award finalist Dear Martin, Dear Justyce, Odd One Out, Jackpot, and Clean Getaway and the Shuri novel series with Marvel Comics.
Liara Tamani holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Duke University.
She is the author of the acclaimed young adult novels Calling My Name, a 2018 PEN America Literary Award Finalist and SCBWI Golden Kite Finalist; All the Things We Never Knew, a 2020 Kirkus Best YA Book of the Year; and What She Missed. Before becoming a writer, she attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets and Comets, production assistant for Girlfriends (TV show), home accessories designer, floral designer, and yoga and dance teacher.
She lives in Houston, Texas. liaratamani.com
Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her young adult novel Piecing Me Together received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her children's picture books and novels for teens have received several awards and international recognition. Her picture books include A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills, Summer Is Here, and The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Renée grew up in Oregon and splits her time between Portland and Harlem.
Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor Book, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The two sequels, P. S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both Coretta Scott King Author Award winners and ALA Notable Children's Books.
Her novel Clayton Byrd Goes Underground was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the NAACP Image Award for Youth/Teen Literature. Rita is also the author of five other distinguished novels for young adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here, Every Time a Rainbow Dies (a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book), Fast Talk on a Slow Track (all ALA Best Books for Young Adults); and Blue Tights.
Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, with her husband and has two adult daughters. You can visit her online at ritawg.com.
