Ellen Oh is the author of the Prophecy trilogy and the upcoming middle grade Spirit Hunters.

She is a Brooklyn native, attended NYU undergrad, and has a law degree from Georgetown. She lives with family in Bethesda, MD.

Elsie Chapman grew up in Prince George, British Columbia, before graduating from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor of arts in English literature.

She currently lives in Tokyo with her husband and children. She is the author of the young adult thrillers Dualed and Divided.

Alyssa Wong writes award-winning fiction, comics, and games. Their stories have won the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award.

Alyssa was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and their fiction has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Awards.

Alyssa’s comics credits include Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Marvel (Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Alligator Loki, Extreme Carnage), DC (Batwoman, Wonder Woman), and Adventure Time. Alyssa has also written for Overwatch and Blizzard Entertainment’s Story and Franchise Development.

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. 

Shveta Thakrar was one of the inaugural Walter Dean Myers grant recipients of 2015 and has been a shining mainstay in fantasy.

She has had fiction published in Uncanny Magazine, Faerie Magazine, and the YA anthologies Toil & Trouble and A Thousand Beginnings and Endings. Star Daughter is her first novel.

Renee Ahdieh is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wrath and the Dawn and The Rose and the Dagger. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In her spare time, she likes to dance salsa and collect shoes. She is passionate about all kinds of curry, rescue dogs, and college basketball. The first few years of her life were spent in a high-rise in South Korea; consequently, Renee enjoys having her head in the clouds.

She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and their tiny overlord of a dog. Her most recent novel is The Flame in the Mist.

Melissa de la Cruz is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly internationally bestselling author of many critically acclaimed novels, including The Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel and the Summer on East End series.

Her Blue Bloods series has sold over three million copies.

Lori M. Lee is the author of Gates of Thread and Stone and The Infinite. She's also a contributor in the anthology A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (Greenwillow/Harper) featuring re-imaginings of East and South Asian mythology, folklore, and fairytales, and the forthcoming anthology Color Outside the Lines (Soho Teen, November 2019). Lori was born in the mountains of Laos but relocated to the United States when she was three. Now she lives in Wisconsin with her husband and kids while dreaming up magic and mayhem.

Aisha Saeed is a Pakistani-American writer, teacher, and attorney. She is one of the creators of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks social media campaign.

Her writings have appeared in Orlando Sentinel, Muslim Girl Magazine, and Rivaaj Magazine. She is a contributing author to the highly acclaimed Love Insh’Allah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, which features the story of her own (happily) arranged marriage. Aisha lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and sons.

Sona Charaipotra has worked as a celebrity reporter at People and TeenPeople and has contributed to publications from the New York Times to TeenVogue. 

She is the co-founder of CAKE Literary, a boutique book packaging company with a decidedly diverse bent, and the co-author of the YA dance dramas Tiny Pretty Things and Shiny Broken Pieces, as well as the psychological thriller The Rumor Game. She is a proud We Need Diverse Books team member.

Born in Sacramento, CA, Julie Kagawa moved to Hawaii at the age of nine. There she learned many things; how to bodyboard, that teachers scream when you put centipedes in their desks, and that writing stories in math class is a great way to kill time. Her teachers were glad to see her graduate. Julie now lives is Louisville, KY with her husband and furkids. She is the international and NYT bestselling author of The Iron Fey series.

Roshani Chokshi is the author of commercial and critically acclaimed books for middle grade and young adult readers that transport audiences to fantastical worlds heavily inspired by world mythology and folklore.

Her work has been nominated for the Locus and Nebula awards, and has frequently appeared on Best of The Year lists from Barnes and Noble, Buzzfeed and more.

Her New York Times bestselling series includes The Star-Touched Queen duology, The Gilded Wolves, and Aru Shah and The End of Time, which was recently optioned for film by Paramount Pictures.

Aliette de Bodard is one of the Writers of the Future, has won two Nebula Awards, a Locus Award and a BSFA Award. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Sturgeon, and Tiptree Awards, making her one of our most-lauded contemporary fiction writers.

A writer by night, by day she is a qualified engineer, specialising in Applied Mathematics. She lives in Paris, in a flat with more computers than she really needs.