Julie C. Dao is a proud Vietnamese-American who was born in upstate New York. She studied medicine in college, but came to realize blood and needles were her Kryptonite. By day, she worked in science news and research; by night, she wrote books about heroines unafraid to fight for their dreams, which inspired her to follow her passion of becoming a published author. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is her debut novel. Julie lives in New England.

Chloe Gong is the New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and its sequel Our Violent Ends.

She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and International Relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York pretending to be a real adult.

Joan He was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way.

She studied psychology and Chinese History at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the city waterfront.

Descendant of the Crane is her young adult debut. An active figure in the 'Own Voices' movement, she has 7k followers on Twitter.

Born and raised in the DC Metro Area, Kosoko Jackson is a digital media strategist for non-profit organizations; which enables his Twitter obsession.

Occasionally, his personal essays have been featured on Medium, Thought Catalog, and The Advocate.

When not searching for an extra hour in the day, he can be found obsessing over movies, drinking his (umpteenth) London Fog, or writing length Twitter Threads summarizing how Slytherin is the best Hogwarts House. A Place for Wolves is his debut novel.

Adiba Jaigirdar is a Bangladeshi/Irish writer and teacher. She is a contributor for Bookriot and an editor/writer for Cultured Vultures.

Previously, she has published short fiction and poetry in various journals and anthologies. She lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Darcie Little Badger is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting. She is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. Her first novel, Elatsoe, was a National Indie Bestseller, named to over a dozen best-of-year lists, and called one of the Best 100 Fantasy Novels of All Time by Time.

Axie Oh is a first-generation Korean American, born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. She studied Korean history and creative writing as an undergrad at the University of California San Diego and holds an MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. Her passions include K-pop, anime, stationery supplies, and milk tea, and she currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her dog, Toro (named after Totoro). She is the author of multiple books for teens, including The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea.

Laura Pohl is a Brazilian writer who lives in Sao Paulo.

She likes writing messages in caps lock, quoting Hamilton, and obsessing about Star Wars. When not taking pictures of her dog, she can be found discussing alien conspiracy theories.

She has not crashed any cars or spaceships-yet.

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by ALA Booklist and one of 2009's best Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror by VOYA; Serpentine and Sacrifice (Month9Books), which were both Junior Library Guild selections and received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews, respectively; Want (Simon Pulse), which is a Freeman Book Award Honorable Mention; and Ruse (Simon Pulse). She is the cofounder of Diversity in YA with Malinda Lo and on the advisory board of We Need More Diverse Books. Cindy is also a Chinese brush-painting student. 

Karuna Riazi is a born and raised New Yorker, with a loving, large extended family and the rather trying experience of being the eldest sibling in her particular clan. Besides pursuing a BA in English literature from Hofstra University, she is an online diversity advocate, blogger, and publishing intern. Karuna is fond of tea, baking new delectable treats for friends and family to relish, Korean dramas, and writing about tough girls forging their own paths toward their destinies. She is the author of The Gauntlet and The Battle.

Julian Winters is a best-selling and award-winning author of contemporary young adult fiction. His novels Running With Lions and How to Be Remy Cameron (Duet, 2018 and 2019 respectively), received accolades for their positive depictions of diverse, relatable characters.

Running With Lions is the recipient of an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Award. How to Be Remy Cameron was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and received a starred review from School Library Journal.

A former management trainer, Julian currently lives outside of Atlanta where he can be found reading, being a self-proclaimed comic book geek, or watching the only two sports he can follow--volleyball and soccer. His third novel for Duet Books, The Summer of Everything, will be released in September 2020, to be followed by Right Where I Left You from Viking Children's/Penguin in 2022.

Kat Zhang loves traveling to places both real and fictional - the former have better souvenirs, but the latter allow for dragons, so it's a tough pick. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, she now spends her free time scribbling poetry, taking photographs, and climbing atop things she shouldn't.