Speakers and Authors

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

More authors will be added as they are confirmed.

= Indies Introduce Author


Keynote Speakers

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Chain-Gang All-Stars, Pantheon
Danny Caine
How to Resist Amazon and Why, Microcosm Publishing
Carrie Colliton
Co-Founder of Record Store Day and Director of Marketing, The Department of Record Stores
Calvin Crosby
Co-Owner, The King's English Bookshop
Ray Daniels
Chief Communications Officer, American Booksellers Association
Laura DeLaney
Owner, Rediscovered Books and Once and Future Books
Ani Di Franco
The Knowing, Rise x Penguin Workshop
Cory Doctorow
Chokepoint Capitalism, Beacon Press
Chloe Gong
Immortal Longings, Saga Press
Heather Hall
Owner, Green Feather Book Company
Maia Kobabe
Gender Queer: A Memoir, Oni Press
Taj McCoy
Zora Books Her Happy Ever After, MIRA
Michelle MiJung Kim
The Wake Up, Hachette Go
Stacy Mitchell
Co-Executive Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Hannah Oliver Depp
Owner, Loyalty Bookstores
Robert Sindelar
Owner, Third Place Books
Courtney Wallace
Marketing Manager and Independent Bookstore Day Program Director, American Booksellers Association
Kendrick Washington
Director of the Policy Advocacy Group, ACLU of Washington
Andrew Joseph White
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Peachtree Teen / Peachtree

Featured Presenters

Stesha Brandon
Literature & Humanities Program Manager, The Seattle Public Library
Jordan Brannon
Co-founder and President, Coalition Technologies
Peter Brous
Professor of Finance, Seattle University
Megan Castillo
Program Manager, Town Hall Seattle
Harsh Chandra
Product Manager, Square for Retail
Elnian Gilbert
Keynote Speaker and Trainer, ZingTrain
Caprice D. Hollins
Inside Out: The Equity Leader’s Guide to Undoing Institutional Racism and co-authored Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Strategies for Facilitating Conversations on Race., New Society Publishers
Marjorie Ingall
Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies, Gallery Books
Brandon Lueken
Director of Grant Development, Bellevue College
Gary Luke
Board President, Hugo House
Susan McCarthy
Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies , Gallery Books
Toraya Miller
Director of Training and Consulting, GSBA
Billy Roh
Product Designer, Square for Retail
John Schu
This Is a Story, Candlewick Press
Peter Smith
Managing Partner, APEX Law Group, Seattle
Jason Thompson
Diversity and Inclusion Matters: Tactics and Tools to Inspire Equity and Game-Changing Performance, Wiley
Tara Vitale
Managing Partner, APEX Law Group, Seattle
KJ Williams
CEO and Founder, RISEWITHUS, LLC
AJ Williams
Managing Director, RISEWITHUS, LLC
Dr. Corey Yeager
How Am I Doing?, Harper Celebrate
Alison Zak
Wild Asana: Animals, Yoga, and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World, North Atlantic Books

Appearing Authors

Kweku Abimbola
Saltwater Demands a Psalm, Graywolf Press
Indies Introduce icon

Kweku Abimbola earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Shade Literary Arts, 20.35 Africa, The Common, and elsewhere. He lives in Detroit, Michigan.

 
Jade Adia
There Goes the Neighborhood, Hyperion
Indies Introduce icon

Born and raised in South LA, Jade Adia writes stories about gentrification, Black teen joy, and the sh*tshow that is capitalism. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnicity, Race & Migration, and a certificate in Human Rights. She recently survived law school, graduating with a specialization in Critical Race Studies. There Goes The Neighborhood is her debut novel. Find her online at www.jadeadia.com and on Instagram @jadeadia.

 
Akim Aliu
Dreamer: Growing Up Black in the World of Hockey, Graphix (an imprint of Scholastic)
The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus
Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr., Parallax Press

The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus is the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California. Prior to his election as Bishop of California, he served as Bishop Suffragan in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. His leadership has focused on key issues related to peace and justice, including immigration reform, civil rights for LBGTQ+ people, health care, and climate change. His climate advocacy work has taken him to the UN Climate Conferences in Paris (COP21), Marrakesh, (COP22), Bonn (COP23), Katowice, Poland (COP24), and Egypt (COP27), as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline demonstrations at Standing Rock. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Sheila.

 
Miya T. Beck
The Pearl Hunter, Balzer + Bray
Indies Introduce icon

Miya T. Beck is a native Californian who always had a deep interest in the Japanese side of her heritage. Though she tried and failed to become fluent in Japanese, her studies did introduce her to the myths and fairy tales that inspired The Pearl Hunter. A former daily newspaper reporter and magazine writer, she lives in Brooklyn with her family.

 
Katharine Beutner
Killingly, Soho Crime

Katharine Beutner is an assistant professor of English at the College of Wooster in Ohio; previously, she taught at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She earned a BA in Classical Studies at Smith College and a MA in English (creative writing) and PhD in English literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her first novel, Alcestis, won the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award in 2011 and was a finalist for other awards, including the Lambda Literary Association’s Lesbian Debut Fiction Award. Her writing has appeared in Tinfish Press, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, and other publications. She is the editor in chief of The Dodge, a magazine of eco-writing and translation.

 
Sin Blaché
Prophet, Grove Atlantic

Sin Blaché (she/they) is a Black Irish musician and author. They have been writing horror and sci-fi stories all their life. Prophet is their first novel. Born in California, they live in the North West of Ireland and can be found obsessing over obscure folk instruments, being a reluctant savior to feral cats, and playing too many video games.

 

 
Melissa Blair
A Shadow Crown, Union Square & Co.

Melissa Blair (she/her/kwe) is an Anishinaabe-kwe of mixed ancestry living in Turtle Island and the author of A Broken Blade, the first book in The Halfling Saga. She splits her time between Treaty 9 in Northern Ontario and the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Canada. She has a graduate degree in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, loves movies, and hates spoons. Melissa has a BookTok account (@melissas.bookshelf on TikTok) where she discusses and reviews her favorite books, including Indigenous and queer fiction, sapphic books, LGBTQ+ romance, feminist literature, and non-fiction.

 
Landis Blair
The Night Tent, Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House

Landis Blair is the author and illustrator of The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes, as well as the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty and the graphic novel The Hunting Accident by David Carlson, which won the 2021 Fauve d'Or and the 2020 Quai des Bulles. He has published illustrations in numerous print and online periodicals including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Chicago, VQR, and Medium.

 
Alexandra Bracken
Silver In the Bone, Random House Children's Book

Alexandra Bracken was born in Phoenix, Arizona. The daughter of a Star Wars collector, she grew up going to an endless string of Star Wars conventions and toy fairs, which helped spark her imagination and a deep love of reading. She attended The College of William & Mary in Virginia, where she double majored in English and History. She sold her first book, Brightly Woven, as a senior in college, and later moved to New York City to work in children’s book publishing. After six years, she took the plunge and decided to write full time. She now lives in Arizona with her tiny pup, Tennyson, in a house that’s constantly overflowing with books. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @alexbracken, and visit her at alexandrabracken.com.

 
Melissa Broder
Death Valley, Scribner

Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Milk Fed and The Pisces, the essay collection So Sad Today, and four poetry collections, including Last Sext. She has written for The New York Times, Elle.com, VICE, Vogue Italia, and New York Magazine’s “The Cut.” Her poems have appeared in POETRY, The Iowa Review, Tin House, and Guernica, and she is the winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry. She lives in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @SoSadToday and @MelissaBroder and Instagram @RealMelissaBroder. Death Valley is her most recent work.

 
Adrienne Brodeur
Little Monsters, Avid Reader Press

Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir Wild Game, which was selected as a Best Book of the Year by NPR and the Washington Post and is in development as a Netflix film. She founded the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story with Francis Ford Coppola, and currently serves as executive director of Aspen Words, a literary nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute. She splits her time between Cambridge and Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband and children.

 
Keah Brown
The Secret Summer Promise, Levine Querido

Keah Brown is a journalist, screenwriter, and author of The Pretty One and Sam’s Super Seats. She is the creator of #DisabledAndCute. Her other work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire UK, and The New York Times, among other publications. She has been featured in anthologies including the New York Times-bestselling You Are Your Best Thing edited by Brené Brown and Tarana Burke. To learn more, check out keahbrown.com.

 
Diane Marie Brown
Black Candle Women, Graydon House Books

Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.

 

 
Patti Callahan Henry
The Secret Book of Flora Lea, Atria Books

Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of several novels, including Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the recipient of the Christy Award, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year Award, and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year. She is the cohost and cocreator of the popular weekly online live web show and podcast Friends and Fiction. A full-time author and mother of three, she lives in Alabama and South Carolina with her family. Find out more at PattiCallahanHenry.com.

 
Marianne Celano
Something Happened to Our Planet: Kids Tackle the Climate Crisis, American Psychological Association (APA)

Marianne Celano, is the New York Times bestselling author of books in the groundbreaking Something Happened social issues series, which includes Something Happened in Our Town, Something Happened in Our Park and Something Happened to My Dad. “Dr. Celano has been involved in advocacy efforts at the intersection of children’s behavioral health and social justice issues, including the climate crisis.” Dr. Celano is a faculty member at Emory, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

 
J.C. Cervantes
The Enchanted Hacienda, Park Row Books

J.C. Cervantes is a New York Times bestselling author of books for children and young adults. Her books have appeared on national lists, including the American Booksellers Association New Voices and Barnes and Noble’s Best Young Reader Books. She has earned multiple awards and recognitions, most recently the 2021 New Mexico Land of Enchantment Readers’ Choice Award.

 

 
Rita Chang-Eppig
Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea, Bloomsbury

Rita Chang-Eppig received her MFA from NYU. Her stories have appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Rumpus, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories 2021 (selected by Jesmyn Ward), and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation/Vermont Studio Center, the Writers Grotto, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University. She lives in California.

 
Alix Christie
The Shining Mountains: A Novel, High Road Books

Alix Christie is the descendant of Angus McDonald’s brother Duncan. Winner of the 2021 Editors’ Prize in fiction from The Missouri Review, she published her debut novel, Gutenberg’s Apprentice, with Harper Books in 2014. For the past thirty years she has reported from abroad for newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian of London and Washington Post, and currently writes about culture for The Economist. She lives in San Francisco, California.

 
Nicole Chung
A Living Remedy, Ecco

Nicole Chung is the author of the national bestseller All You Can Ever Know, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a semifinalist for the PEN Open Book Award, and an Indies Choice Honor Book. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Atlantic, The New York Times, GQ, Time, The Guardian, and Slate. Nicole lives in the Washington, DC, area with her family.

 

 
Melissa Coss Aquino
Carmen and Grace, William Morrow
Indies Introduce icon

Melissa Coss Aquino is a Puerto Rican writer from The Bronx. She received her MFA from The City College of New York, CUNY, and her PhD from The Graduate Center, CUNY in English. She currently works as an Associate Professor in the English department at Bronx Community College, CUNY. She is a proud IWWG, VONA, AROHO and Hedgebrook alumna. Carmen and Grace is her first novel.

 
Alex Crespo
Saint Juniper’s Folly, Peachtree Teen / Peachtree

Alex Crespo is a debut queer, trans, Mexican-American writer who loves writing queer spooky love stories.

 

 
Tove Danovich
Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them, Agate
Indies Introduce icon

Tove Danovich is a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Ringer, Backyard Poultry Magazine, and many others. She is a former Midwesterner, turned New Yorker, who now lives in Portland, Oregon. She keeps several chickens in her suburban yard and hopes to add more. Their Instagram @BestLittleHenhouse is more popular than hers. You can find her on Twitter @TKDano.

 
Tembe Denton-Hurst
Homebodies, Harper

Tembe Denton-Hurst (@tembae on the internet) is a staff writer at New York Magazine’s The Strategist, covering beauty, lifestyle, and books; she previously wrote about beauty, gender, and culture for NYLON, them., and Elle. When she’s not writing, Tembe can be found on her couch in Queens where she lives with her partner and their two cats Stella and Dakota.

 

 
Ananya Devarajan
Kismat Connection, Inkyard Press

Ananya Devarajan is an undergraduate at the University of California, Irvine, pursuing a major in Neurobiology and Behavior with a minor in English. Like the majority of her characters, she is a second-generation Indian American young adult. Her love for storytelling began on Wattpad, where she grew her audience as a Featured Author, and she later went on to win first place in TeenPit 2019. In her free time, she can be found watching her favorite Bollywood movies or studying for yet another Organic Chemistry exam. Kismat Connection is her debut novel. ananyadevarajan.com

 
Andre Dubus III
Such Kindness: A Novel, W.W. Norton

Andre Dubus III is the author of Gone So Long, Dirty Love, Townie, The Garden of Last Days, and House of Sand and Fog (an Oprah’s Book Club pick and a finalist for the National Book Award). He lives with his family north of Boston.

 

 
J. T. Ellison
It's One of Us, MIRA

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary show A Word on Words. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, and has been published in 28 countries. She lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.

 

 
Dorothee Elmiger
Out of the Sugar Factory, Two Lines Press

Dorothee Elmiger was born in 1985 in Switzerland. She is the author of Out of the Sugar Factory, Shift Sleepers, and Invitation to the Bold of Heart. Elmiger has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Aspekte Literature Prize for the best debut novel written in German, the 2021 Schillerpreis, and most recently the 2022 Nicolas Born Prize. Out of the Sugar Factory was shortlisted for both the German and the Swiss Book Award. Elmiger is an editor at Volte Books. She lives in New York City.

 
Alisha Fernandez Miranda
My What If Year: A Memoir, Zibby Books

Alisha Fernandez Miranda serves as Chair and former CEO of I.G. Advisors, an award-winning social impact intelligence agency. A graduate of Harvard University and the London School of Economics, her writing has been featured in Vogue, Business Insider, Romper, and Huffington Post. Originally from Miami, Alisha currently lives in Scotland with her husband and twins.

 
Sean Ferrell
The Sinister Secrets of Singe, Pixel+Ink

Sean Ferrell lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He writes stories about children and adults who don’t understand why they keep getting into trouble. Sometimes those stories are for adults. Sometimes for children. His work is usually speculative in nature. His shorter writing has appeared in journals and magazines such as Electric Literature’s “The Outlet” and The Adirondack Review.

 

 
Tim Fite
A Bucket of Questions, Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Tim Fite is a musician, singer-songwriter, and multimedia artist who likes to sing, draw, and consider himself a pebble in the shoe of iniquity. Visit him at TimFite.com.

 
Claire Fuller
The Memory of Animals, Tin House

Claire Fuller is the author of Unsettled Ground (2021), winner of the Costa Novel Award and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction; Bitter Orange (2018); Swimming Lessons (2017), which was shortlisted for the Encore Prize for second novels; and Our Endless Numbered Days (2015) which won the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction. www.clairefuller.co.uk

 

 
Michelle Fus
Ava's Demon, Book One: Reborn, Skybound Comet

Michelle Fus graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2011 for Computer Art & Animation. After interning at Pixar & working at DreamWorks Animation for two years, they decided to follow their dreams by telling stories and creating comics. Fus has been working on their sci-fi/fantasy epic AVA’S DEMON for over eight years and hopes to continue to add new and exciting installments to the story for as long as they can. They want to thank you for supporting their work & hope you thoroughly enjoy this book!

 
Kate Glasheen
Constellations, Holiday House

Kate Glasheen grew up in Troy, New York and lived there until their departure for Pratt Institute for a BFA in Fine Art. Kate has since been a creator, artist, and contributor for several critically acclaimed books, participated in exhibitions and collections across the globe, and worked on several of the biggest properties in entertainment. Their artistic interests find communion in fine and sequential art under the notion that there’s something hilarious about something that’s not funny at all. Constellations is their author-artist debut. Kate lives, draws, and tattoos out of Philadelphia.

 
Maurene Goo
Throwback, Zando Young Readers

Maurene Goo is the author of several acclaimed books for young adults, including I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Somewhere Only We Know. She’s also written for Marvel’s Silk series. She lives and writes in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and cats.

 

 
Charnaie Gordon
Lift Every Voice and Change: A Sound Book: A Celebration of Black Leaders and the Words that Inspire Generations, becker&mayer! kids

Charnaie Gordon is a Diversity and Inclusion Expert, author of A Kids Book About Diversity, blogger, podcast host, and digital creator. She also serves as a member of the National Advisory Board for Reading is Fundamental for their Race, Equity and Inclusion (REI) initiative. More than anything else, she cares about connecting people with great books they’ll love. Charnaie is passionate about instilling a love of reading, lifelong learning and curiosity in her kids. She hopes to inspire others to do the same with their children. Find her online at hereweeread.com and @hereweeread on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 
Sarah Grindler
Garden Wonders: A Guidebook for Little Green Thumbs, Nimbus Publishing

Sarah Grindler is an author/illustrator from the west coast of Canada. Inspired by her artistic family and beautiful surroundings, she followed her passion for art and nature into a career of creating picture books. She now lives in a seaside cottage with her husband, Jason, and her son, Jackson. She is also the author/illustrator of Seaside Treasures and Forest Magic.

 

 
Lauren Grodstein
We Must Not Think of Ourselves, Algonquin Books

Lauren Grodstein is the author of Our Short History, The Washington Post Book of the Year, The Explanation for Everything, and the New York Times-bestselling A Friend of the Family, among other works. Her stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies, and have been translated into French, German, Chinese, and Italian, among other languages. Her work has also appeared in Elle, The New York Times, Refinery29, Salon.com, Barrelhouse, Post Road, and The Washington Post. She is a professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden, where she teaches in the MFA program in creative writing.

 
Amanda Gunn
Things I Didn't Do with This Body, Copper Canyon Press

Amanda Gunn grew up just at the edge of the woods in southern Connecticut with two older brothers. She is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, as well as a PhD candidate in English at Harvard where she studies poetry, ephemerality, and Black pleasure. Her recent work appears in Poetry, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal, and Narrative Magazine. Her debut collection of poems, Things I Didn’t Do with This Body, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2023.

 

 
Jimin Han
The Apology, Little, Brown and Company

Jimin Han was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island; Dayton, Ohio; and Jamestown, New York. She is the author of A Small Revolution and The Apology. She has written for MPR’s Weekend America, Poets & Writers, Electric Literature, and Catapult, among others. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and Pace University, as well as at community writing centers. She lives outside New York City with her husband and children.

 
Vashti Harrison
Big, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Vashti Harrison is the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends, and the illustrator of Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, Andrea Beaty’s I Love You Like Yellow, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. She earned her BA in studio art and media studies from the University of Virginia and her MFA in film/video from CalArts, where she rekindled a love for drawing and painting. Vashti lives in Brooklyn, New York, and invites you to visit her at vashtiharrison.com or on Instagram and Twitter @vashtiharrison.

 
Alex Hay
The Housekeepers, Graydon House Books

Alex Hay grew up in the United Kingdom in Cambridge and Cardiff, and has been writing as long as he can remember. He studied history at the University of York, and wrote his dissertation on female power at royal courts, combing the archives for every scrap of drama and skulduggery he could find. He has worked in magazine publishing and the charity sector and lives with his husband in London. The Housekeepers is his debut novel and won the Caledonia Novel Award.

 
Deborah Hemming
Goddess, House of Anansi Press

Deborah Hemming is the author of Throw Down Your Shadows, which was a finalist for the 2021 ReLit Novel Award. She studied English at McGill University and the University of King’s College, and Information Studies at Dalhousie University. She lives in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, with her partner and son.

 

 
Adriana Herrera
An Island Princess Starts a Scandal, Canary Street Press
Nancy Horan
The House of Lincoln, Sourcebooks Landmark

Nancy Horan is the New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky. Loving Frank remained on the NYT list for over a year, has been translated into sixteen languages, and received the The Society of American Historians 2009 Prize for Historical Fiction. A native Midwesterner, Horan was a teacher and journalist before turning to fiction. She lived for 25 years in Oak Park, Illinois, where she raised her two sons, and she now lives with her husband on an island in Puget Sound.

 
Ana Huang
King of Wrath, Bloom Books

Ana Huang is an author of primarily steamy New Adult and contemporary romance. Her stories range from lighthearted to dark, but they all have HEAs with plenty of banter and swoon sprinkled in. Besides reading and writing, Ana loves traveling, is obsessed with hot chocolate, and has multiple relationships with fictional boyfriends. She lives in New York City.

 
Leah Johnson
Ellie Engle Saves Herself, Disney Hyperion

Leah Johnson always wanted to be a superhero, but she became a writer instead, which she thinks is the next-best thing. Her bestselling debut novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, was a Stonewall Honor Book, the inaugural Reese’s Book Club YA Pick, and named one of Time’s 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. Leah lives in Indianapolis, where she writes books about Black girls with big hearts, plays fetch with the best dog in the world, and talks about Miles Morales to anyone who will listen. Ellie Engle Saves Herself is her middle grade debut. You can find Leah online at ByLeahJohnson.com and on Instagram and Twitter @ByLeahJohnson.

 
María José Fitzgerald
Turtles of the Midnight Moon, Random House Children's Books
Indies Introduce icon

María José Fitzgerald is a former teacher and current writer of children’s books. Her favorite stories usually include animals, friendship, family, and magic. She grew up snorkeling and hiking in her homeland of Honduras, where nature and culture nourished her soul. Her debut novel, Turtles of the Midnight Moon, will be published by Knopf in the spring of 2023. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, walking her dogs, or maybe out on a family mountain-bike ride.

 
Jason June
Never Forget Eleanor, HarperCollins

Jason June (it’s a two-name first name, like Mary-Kate without the hyphen or the Olsen twin) loves to create flamboyant and heartfelt picture books, as well as queer young adult novels full of love and lust and hijinks. His works include the YA queer rom-coms Jay’s Gay Agenda and the finstant New York Times best-seller Out of the Blue. Up next in 2023 are Never Forget Eleanor, a moving picture book about Alzheimer’s, Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball, a YA contemporary about how gender and sexuality labels can both limit and liberate us, and The Spells We Cast, a YA rivals-to-lovers fantasy about an elf-descended gay cowboy!

 
James Kennedy
Bride of the Tornado, Quirk Books

James Kennedy is the author of Dare to Know. Before becoming a writer, he was a computer programmer with a degree in physics and philosophy.

 

 
Lydia Kiesling
Mobility, Crooked Media Reads

Lydia Kiesling is the author of The Golden State, a 2018 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She is a contributing editor at The Millions and Zyzzyva, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker online, and The Cut, among other outlets. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

 

 
Jon Klassen
The Skull, Candlewick Press

Jon Klassen is the author-illustrator of This Is Not My Hat, winner of the Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, the first book to receive both honors; and its companion books, I Want My Hat Back, We Found a Hat, and The Rock from the Sky. He has also illustrated two Caldecott Honor Books, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn, as well as Triangle, Square, Circle, and The Wolf, the Duck, & the Mouse, all written by Mac Barnett. There are over 2.7 million copies of his books in print, in twenty-seven languages. Jon Klassen lives in Los Angeles, California.

 
Jessica Knoll
Bright Young Women, Marysue Rucci Books

Jessica Knoll is the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive, which is a major motion picture from Netflix starring Mila Kunis. She has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan and the articles editor at Self. She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her bulldog, Beatrice. Bright Young Women is her third novel.

 
Nazlı Koca
The Applicant, Grove Press
Indies Introduce icon

Nazlı Koca is a writer and poet from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame. She is the recipient of grants from the Nanovic Institute, Soham Dance Space, and United States Artists. Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Bookforum, Second Factory, The Chicago Review of Books, and books without covers, among other outlets. The Applicant is her first novel.

 
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Sunshine , Graphix (an imprint of Scholastic)
Benjamín Labatut
The MANIAC, Penguin Press

Benjamín Labatut was raised in The Hague before settling in Chile, where he lives and works. He is the author of Antarctica starts here (2009), a short story collection, After the Light (2016), a series of notes on the void, The Stone of Madness (2021), a diptych on madness, chaos, and modernity, and When We Cease to Understand the World (2021), a book which explores the ecstasy and agony of scientific breakthroughs and that won him international renown: it was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award, included in The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2021, and translated into 30 languages.

 

 
Jason Landsel
By Water: The Felix Manz Story, Plough

Jason Landsel is a New York-based writer and illustrator with a lifelong fascination with the history of social and religious radicalism. He is a regular contributor to Plough Quarterly and a member of the Bruderhof, an Anabaptist community movement that traces its roots to the Radical Reformation.

 
Eric LaRocca
Everything the Darkness Eats, Clash Books

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of several works of horror and dark fiction, including the viral sensation, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. A lover of luxury fashion and an admirer of European musical theatre, Eric can often be found roaming the streets of his home city, Boston, Massachusetts, for inspiration. For more information, please follow @hystericteeth on Twitter/Instagram or visit ericlarocca.com.

 
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Harvest House, Candlewick Press

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the New York Times best-selling, award-winning author of Hearts Unbroken, the Tantalize series, and the Feral trilogy. An NSK Neustadt Laureate and the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, she was named the inaugural Katherine Paterson Chair on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. A citizen of the Muscogee Nation, Cynthia lives in Austin, Texas.

 
Beth Lincoln
The Swifts, Dutton Books for Young Readers
Indies Introduce icon

Beth Lincoln was raised in a former Victorian railway station in the North of England. She grew neither tall nor wise, and never learned to play an instrument — but she did write stories, a bad habit that has persisted to this day. When she isn’t writing, Beth is woodcarving, or making a mess of her flat, or talking the nearest ear off about unexplained occurrences. The Swifts is Beth’s debut novel. It grew out of her love of etymology, the gleeful gothic, and classic murder mysteries. She lives in the North of England with her partner and hopefully, by the time you are reading this, a dog.

 
Fran Littlewood
Amazing Grace Adams, Henry Holt

Fran Littlewood has an MA in creative writing from Royal Holloway, University of London. Before her MA, she worked as a journalist, including a stint at the Times. She lives in London with her husband and their three daughters. Amazing Grace Adams is her debut novel.

 

 
Helen Macdonald
Prophet, Grove Atlantic

Helen Macdonald (she/they) is a writer, poet, and naturalist. She is the author of the bestselling H is for Hawk and essay collection Vesper Flights, as well as a cultural history of falcons and three collections of poetry, including Shaler’s Fish. Macdonald was a Research Fellow in the History of Science at Jesus College, Cambridge, has worked as a professional falconer, and has assisted raptor research and conservation projects across Eurasia. She’s written and presented award-winning TV documentaries for PBS and the BBC and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Suffolk, England, with two small green parrots called The Bugs and she’s been a lifelong sci-fi fan. Prophet is her first novel.

 
Ruth Madievsky
All-Night Pharmacy, Catapult

Ruth Madievsky is the author of a bestselling poetry collection, Emergency Brake (Tavern Books, 2016). Her work appears in Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, Literary Hub, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers from the former Soviet Union. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care pharmacist.

 
Debra Magpie Earling
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, Milkweed Editions

Debra Magpie Earling is the author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea. An earlier version of the latter, written in verse, was produced as an artist book during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She has received both a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She retired from the University of Montana where she was named professor emeritus in 2021. She is Bitterroot Salish.

 
Magogodi Makhene
Innards: Stories, W.W. Norton

Magogodi oaMphela Makhene has been published in Guernica, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, and Granta. An Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, she is a MacDowell Fellow, as well as a Rona Jaffe Award winner and a Caine Prize honoree. Makhene leads Love As A Kind of Cure, a social enterprise working to dismantle white supremacy. She lives in New York.

 

 
Susan Mallery
The Sister Effect, HQN
Krystal Marquis
The Davenports, Dial Books for Young Readers
Indies Introduce icon

Krystal Marquis happily spends most of her time in libraries and used bookstores. She studied biology at Boston College and University of Connecticut and now works as an environmental, health, and safety manager for the world’s biggest bookseller. A lifelong reader, Krystal began researching and writing on a dare to complete the NaNoWriMo Challenge, resulting in the first partial draft of The Davenports. When not writing or planning trips to the Book Barn to discover her next favorite romance, Krystal enjoys hiking, expanding her shoe collection, and plotting ways to create her own Jurassic Park.

 
Greg Marshall
Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew From It, Abrams Press

Greg Marshall was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Prose, Marshall is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays and been supported by MacDowell and the Corporation of Yaddo. Leg is his first book.

 
Sarah Maslin Nir
The Flying Horse (Once Upon A Horse #1), Cameron Kids

Sarah Maslin Nir is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter for the New York Times and the author of the adult memoir, Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal. The Flying Horse is her debut novel for young readers and the first book in the Once Upon a Horse series, published by Cameron Kids. The Jockey and Her Horse: Inspired by the True Story of the First Black Female Jockey, co-written with Raymond White, Jr., will follow in Fall 2023. Sarah lives in New York City.

 
Lily Meade
Shadow Sister, Sourcebooks Fire

Mariah Meade, writing as Lily Meade, is a biracial Black woman living outside of Seattle, Washington. Her work has been published in Bustle and Teen Vogue, and she has been featured in Romper, Buzzfeed, and Rolling Stone. This is her debut novel, which was a finalist for the Eleanor Taylor Bland award for emerging writers by Sisters in Crime. Learn more at lilymeade.com.

 

 
Kiyash Monsef
Once There Was, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Kiyash Monsef is an Emmy Award-nominated producer and director; a writer of short stories, videos, comic books, and games; and a designer of innovative conversational and voice interface experiences. Once There Was is his first novel.

 
Dan Nott
Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day, Random House Children's Books
Indies Introduce icon

Dan Nott is a cartoonist, illustrator, and educator living in Vermont. Dan’s short comics and illustrations for investigative journalism have appeared in Spotlight PA, The Nib, Resist!, and Seven Days, and in publications for NJ Advance Media and WBUR, among others. Dan graduated with an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) and was the lead writer and cartoonist for its free nationally distributed comic on the US government called This Is What Democracy Looks Like. Dan teaches classes about making comics and comics history at CCS.

 
Rex Ogle
Four Eyes, Graphix (an imprint of Scholastic)
Michael Oren
Swann's War, Dzanc Books

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren is an internationally-renowned author with three New York Times bestsellers: Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East; Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present (W.W. Norton), and Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, (Random House). He was the Middle East analyst for CBS and CNN, but his true passion lies in fiction writing, including recent releases The Night Archer and To All Who Call in Truth (Wicked Son).  He splits his time between Tel Aviv and America.

 

 
Janika Oza
A History of Burning, Grand Central Publishing

Janika Oza is the winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction, and the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The Best Small Fictions: 2019 Anthology, Catapult, The Adroit Journal, The Cincinnati Review, Anomaly, and The Malahat Review, among others. A chapter of her debut novel, A History of Burning, was longlisted for the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize and published in Prairie Schooner. She is a Features reader for The Rumpus and a 2020 Diaspora Dialogues long form fiction mentee. She lives in Toronto.

 
Ed Park
Same Bed Different Dreams, Random House

Ed Park is the author of the novel Personal Days. He was a founding editor of The Believer and the literary editor of The Village Voice, and an editor at Penguin Press. His stories and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Bookforum, The New York Review of Books, and Harper’s. He wrote a science-fiction column for the Los Angeles Times and a comics column for The New York Times. He lives in Manhattan with his family.

 
Lincoln Peirce
Big Nate: Nailed It! and Big Nate: Prank You Very Much, Andrews McMeel Publishing

Lincoln Peirce has been drawing the Big Nate comic strip for over 30 years. Born in Ames, Iowa, Peirce grew up in Durham, New Hampshire. As a kid, he began creating his own strips in the sixth grade. Peirce taught high school in New York City and has created several animated pilots for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his family.

 

 
Sarah Penner
The London Séance Society, Park Row Books

Sarah Penner is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary which has been translated into 40 languages worldwide and is set to be turned into a drama series by Fox. Penner's second book, The London Séance Society, releases March 7. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Sarah spent 13 years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. She and her husband live in Florida. In her free time, Sarah enjoys hiking, running, yoga, and cooking. She also sits on the Board of Directors at her local animal shelter, Friends of Strays. To learn more, visit SarahPenner.com.

 
Thien Pham
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam, First Second

Thien Pham is a graphic novelist, comic artist, and educator based in Oakland, California. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and did the art for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang, and is an ongoing comic contributor to Eater SF. Currently Pham is working on his next graphic novel, teaching, and eating. A lot. Follow Thien on Twitter and Instagram.

 

 
Cecile Pin
Wandering Souls, Henry Holt
Indies Introduce icon

Cecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City. She moved to London at eighteen to study philosophy at University College London and received an MA at King’s College London. She writes for Bad Form Review, was longlisted for their Young Writers’ Prize, and is a 2021 London Writers Award winner. Wandering Souls is her first novel.

 
Andy J. Pizza
Invisible Things, Chronicle Books

Andy J. Pizza is the acclaimed illustrator behind the popular podcast Creative Pep Talk, and the illustrator of A Pizza with Everything on It.

 

 
Justine Pucella Winans
Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything, Clarion Books
Indies Introduce icon

Justine Pucella Winans is a queer writer who resides in Los Angeles with her husband, cats, and long list of fears. When not writing, they try their best at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, read an alarming amount of manga and webcomics, and try to make pasta even a fourth as good as her nonna’s. Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything is their debut novel. justinepucellawinans.com, @justinepwinans

 
Shelley Read
Go As A River, Spiegel & Grau

Shelley Read is a fifth-generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for The Denver Post and a variety of publications.

 
Roger Reeves
Dark Days: Fugitive Essays, Graywolf Press

Roger Reeves is the author of two poetry collections, King Me and Best Barbarian. His essays have appeared in Granta, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award, and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

 
Kiley Reid
Come and Get It, Putnam

Kiley Reid earned her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Truman Capote Fellowship and taught undergraduate creative writing workshops with a focus on race and class. Her short stories have been featured in Ploughshares, December, New South, and Lumina. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

 

 
A.G. Riddle
Quantum Radio, Head of Zeus via Independent Publishers Group

A.G. Riddle spent ten years starting and running internet companies before retiring to focus on his true passion: writing fiction. He is now a Wall Street Journal-bestselling author with nearly five million copies sold worldwide in twenty languages. He lives in North Carolina. Visit www.agriddle.com

 

 
Jeneva Rose
You Shouldn’t Have Come Here, Blackstone Publishing

Jeneva Rose is the internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and One of Us Is Dead. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and optioned for film and television. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Drew, and her English bulldog, Winston.

 

 
Jim Ruland
Make It Stop, Rare Bird Books

Jim Ruland is the co-author of Do What You Want with Bad Religion, and My Damage with Keith Morris, the founding vocalist of Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and OFF! Ruland has been writing for punk zines such as Flipside and Razorcake for more than twenty-five years and his work has received awards from Reader’s Digest and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

 
Elizabeth Rusch
All About Nothing, Charlesbridge

Elizabeth Rusch is the author of more than two dozen award-winning children’s books, including Mario and the Hole in the Sky, winner of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Children’s Science Picture Books, the Green Earth Book Award, the Cook Prize, and the Golden Kite Award. In her newest book, All About Nothing encourages kids to look at the world differently — to see what might be hidden in the space around things and appreciate how important that space can be. Elizabeth lives in Portland, Oregon.

 
Liselle Sambury
Delicious Monsters, Margaret K. McElderry Books

Liselle Sambury is the Trinidadian Canadian author of the Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalist Blood Like Magic and its sequel, Blood Like Fate. Her work spans multiple genres, from fantasy to sci-fi, horror, and more. In her free time, she shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to demystifying the sometimes complicated business of being an author.

 
Terah Shelton Harris
One Summer in Savannah, Sourcebooks Landmark

Terah Shelton Harris is a collection development librarian based in Alabama and a freelance writer. She has been published in Women’s Health, Natural Solutions, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Backpacker, Draft, and Women’s Adventure.

 

 
Jade Shyback
Aqueous, Xeno Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press

An outdoor enthusiast and avid beekeeper, Jade Shyback left a financial services career in the Middle East to return to Canada and pursue endless hobbies, including writing, by which she finally utilized her English Literature degree to create her debut fictional novel, Aqueous.  

 

 
Gail Silver
Where Did Poppy Go?, Plum Blossom Books

Gail Silver, J.D. E-RYT, RCYT, is an award-winning author, educator and entrepreneur whose recent picture books include Booma Boom Boom (Magination 2022), Mindful Bea and The Worry Tree (Magination), and the acclaimed Anh’s Anger trilogy (Parallax). She is the founder, CEO, and curriculum developer of Yoga Child, Inc. and The School Mindfulness Project, Inc., organizations providing sustainable mind-body education to underserved Philadelphia area school communities. Prior to becoming an author/educator, Gail was an attorney, specializing in children’s advocacy law. She lives in Philadelphia with her family.

 
Safiya Sinclair
How to Say Babylon, Simon & Schuster

Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award in Literature, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Cannibal was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year, was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Seamus Heaney First Book Award in the UK, and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

 
Sharon Sochil Washington
The Blue Is Where God Lives, Overlook

Sharon Sochil Washington, a cultural anthropologist and creator of White Space, a newsletter on Substack that explores the meaning between the words we use, has written for the Dallas Times Herald, New York Newsday, and the Akron Beacon Journal. She received degrees from Columbia University and The New School in New York City, and speaks regularly at universities and conferences on issues of social justice, race, economic insecurity, education, and media influences. The Blue Is Where God Lives is her debut novel. She lives in Houston.

 
Charles Soule
The Endless Vessel, Harper Perennial

Charles Soule is a #1 New York Times-bestselling novelist and Eisner-nominated comics writer, who has written some of the most prominent comic stories of the last decade for Marvel, DC, and Lucasfilm. His notable stories include Daredevil, the mega-bestsellers Death of Wolverine, The Rise of Kylo Ren, Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, and She-Hulk. In addition to his work in comics, he was one of the primary architects for the hugely successful Star Wars: The High Republic initiative, and has written three acclaimed novels for HarperCollins and Del Rey, with a fourth due in 2023.

 
Laura Spence-Ash
Beyond That, the Sea, Celadon Books

Laura Spence-Ash’s fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. Her critical essays and book reviews appear regularly in the Ploughshares blog. She received her MFA in fiction from Rutgers–Newark, and she lives in New Jersey.

 

 
Shawnte’ Spriggs
She’s Positive: The Extraordinary Lives of Black Women Living with HIV, Aevo UTP

Shawnte’ Spriggs is the epitome of “D.C. raised me, but Carolina made me” as a proud native of Washington D.C.  With over 17 years of banking experience and her M.A. in Executive Leadership, Shawnte’ has a strong passion for transformation and development. Shawnte’ is a certified Life Coach & Business Strategist, where she empowers women through leadership & coaching. Shawnte’ serves as a support group leader and facilitator for local and national organizations. On World Aids Day in December 2020, Shawnte’ published her first book, Undetected: More Than a Status. Shawnte’ is transparent about living with HIV and what it truly means to live Purposed, Positive, and Unapologetically Out Loud!

 
Jen St. Jude
If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come, Bloomsbury Children's Books

Lambda Literary Fellow Jen St. Jude (she/they) grew up in New Hampshire apple orchards and now lives in Chicago with her wife and dog. She holds degrees in creative writing from Colby College and Harvard University Extension School, and has served as an editor for Chicago Review of Books, just femme & dandy, and Arcturus Magazine. When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her cheering on the Chicago Sky and Red Stars. If Tomorrow Doesn't Come is her first novel. jenstjude.com @jenstjude

 
L.S. Stratton
Not So Perfect Strangers , Union Square & Co.

L.S. Stratton is a NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter who has written more than a dozen books under different pen names in just about every genre, from thrillers to romance to historical fiction. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat.

 

 
Emma Straub
Very Good Hats, Rocky Pond Books

Emma Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of five books for grown-ups, including This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here and Modern Lovers. Her novels have been published in fifteen languages. Her shorter fiction and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and Elle. Emma and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn. They have two kids and two cats.

 

 
Jessica Swift
Radiant Rainbows: Messages of Hope, Healing, and Comfort, Gibbs Smith

Jessica Swift is an artist and fabric + surface pattern designer who creates colorful, magically uplifting artwork intended to inspire others to live courageous, honest, hope-filled lives. She creates and manufactures her own products that she sells in her Portland, Oregon studio and in shops around the country. She also licenses her artwork to others for branded products such as fabric, stationery, puzzles, books, and more.

 
Megan Tady
Super Bloom, Zibby Books

Megan Tady is a writer and editor who runs the company Word-Lift. When she’s not scrutinizing copy, she can be found stocking her free neighborhood library, challenging anyone to a dance-off, or stewing over how Portlandia stole all of her jokes. She’s a corn-fed Nebraska gal who now lives in a quaint New England town with her husband and two kids.

 
Jillian Tamaki
Roaming, Drawn & Quarterly

Jillian Tamaki is a cartoonist, illustrator, and educator raised in Calgary, Alberta. She is the author of the Eisner Award-winning graphic novels SuperMutant Magic Academy and Boundless, and the author-illustrator of two picture books, including most recently Our Little Kitchen. With her cousin Mariko Tamaki, she is the co-creator of the young adult graphic novels SKIM and This One Summer, which won a Governor General’s Award and Caldecott Honor. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

 
Betty C. Tang
Parachute Kids, Graphix (an imprint of Scholastic)
Priyanka Taslim
The Love Match, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Priyanka Taslim is a Bangladeshi American writer, teacher, and lifelong New Jersey resident. Having grown up in a bustling Bangladeshi diaspora community, surrounded by her mother’s entire clan and many aunties of no relation, her writing often features families, communities, and all the drama therein. Currently, Priyanka teaches English by day and tells all kinds of stories about Bangladeshi characters by night. Her writing usually stars spunky Bangladeshi heroines finding their place in the world — and a little swoony romance, too. You can connect with her on Twitter and Instagram @BhootBabe and check out her website, PriyankaTaslim.com.

 
Héctor Tobar
Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”, MCD/FSG

Héctor Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Deep Down Dark, as well as The Last Great Road Bum, The Barbarian Nurseries, Translation Nation, and The Tattooed Soldier. He is also a contributing writer for the New York Times opinion pages and an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has written for The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and his short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, L.A. Noir, ZYZZYVA, and Slate. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, Tobar is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his family.

 
Gail Tsukiyama
The Brightest Star, HarperVia

Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she received both her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English. She is the bestselling author of Women of the Silk and The Samurai’s Garden, as well as the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.

 
Neely Tubati Alexander
Love Buzz, Harper Perennial

Neely Tubati Alexander is the author of women’s fiction with rom-com feels you can escape into with a smile. Originally from the Seattle area, she currently resides in Arizona with her husband and two elementary-aged children. If she’s not tucked away at the little desk in her bedroom writing, you can find her at some kiddo activity, drinking wine, or watching reality television, usually the last two together.

 
Steve Turner
Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion, Chronicle Prism

Steve Turner is the guitarist and cofounder of seminal Seattle grunge band Mudhoney. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

 

 
Abraham Verghese
The Covenant of Water, Grove Atlantic

Abraham Verghese is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the author of books including My Own Country and The Tennis Partner. His most recent book, Cutting for Stone, spent 107 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold more than 1.5 million copies in the US alone. Verghese was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2016. He lives and practices medicine in Stanford, California where he is the Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. A decade in the making, The Covenant of Water is his first book since Cutting for Stone.

 
Wendy Walker
What Remains, Blackstone Publishing

Wendy Walker is the author of the psychological suspense novels All Is Not Forgotten, Emma in the Night, The Night Before, Don’t Look for Me, and American Girl. Her novels have been translated into 23 foreign languages, topped bestseller lists both nationally and abroad, and have been optioned for television and film. Wendy holds degrees from Brown University and Georgetown Law School. She is a former family law attorney with training in child advocacy and has worked in finance and several areas of the law.

 
Robby Weber
I Like Me Better, Inkyard Press

Robby Weber is a Florida-based writer who loves sunshine, summer and strong-willed characters. He can normally be found as close to the ocean as possible with his dog, Arthur, and a novel from Reese’s Book Club. He is the author of If You Change Your Mind.

 

 
Tyriek White
We Are A Haunting, Astra House

Tyriek White is a writer, teacher, and musician born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He has received fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the New York State Writers Institute. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi.

 

 
Colson Whitehead
Crook Manifesto, Doubleday

Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eleven works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City.

 

 
Brittany Williams
That Self-Same Metal, Amulet

Brittany N. Williams is an actress, writer, Co-Artistic Director of The NOLA Project, and nerd of many fandoms. She’s performed across three continents — including a year spent as a principal vocalist at Hong Kong Disneyland — and her writing has been featured on BlackNerdProblems.com, Tor.com, in The Indypendent, The Gambit, Fireside Magazine, and in the Star Wars anthology From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @BrittanyActs and at brittanynwilliams.com. Williams lives in New Orleans.

 
Synithia Williams
The Secret to a Southern Wedding, Canary Street Press
Jane Wong
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, Tin House

The author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour, Jane Wong is a Kundiman fellow and the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, and others. Her writing can be found in places such as The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, The Best American Poetry 2015, POETRY, McSweeney’s, Ecotone, The Common, and more. An associate professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, she grew up on the New Jersey shore and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

 
Zach Zimmerman
Is It Hot In Here (Or Am I Suffering For All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)?, Chronicle Books

Zach Zimmerman is a Brooklyn-based comedian and writer named a TimeOut New York Comic to Watch. With essays and humor pieces that have been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Washington Post, The Independent, and more, Zach was called a “rising star” by the New York Times and a “world class comic” by the Chicago Reader. Zach has performed around the world and was a host and staff writer for Scruff’s popular trivia game Hosting. An alum of The Second City Theatricals in Chicago, Zach’s first stand-up album, “Clean Comedy,” debuted on the Billboard Top 10 and at #1 on iTunes.

 

 

About ABA

American Booksellers Association is a national trade association that supports and advocates for the success of independent bookstores. We provide members with education, networking opportunities, advocacy, resources, and technology. In turn our members support local schools through book fairs, donations and author visits; promote literacy; provide inclusive community centers; connect readers and books; add character to neighborhoods; champion and center diverse and new voices; and contribute to the local economy. We feel honored to support them in their work.

Contact

PRESS INQUIRIES: [email protected]

INDIECOMMERCE: [email protected]

ALL OTHER INQUIRIES: [email protected]

 

 

Copyright 2024 American Booksellers Association. BookWeb is a registered trademark of ABA.
Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Accessibility Statement