About the Authors
Stephanie Kuehn holds degrees in linguistics and sport psychology, as well as a doctorate in clinical psychology. Her debut young adult novel, Charm & Strange, was the winner of the 2014 William C. Morris Debut YA Award.
Justina Ireland is the author of Dread Nation, Deathless Divide, Vengeance Bound, Promise of Shadows, and the Star Wars novel Lando’s Luck. You can visit her online at www.justinaireland.com.
Eugene Myers, pen name E. C. Myers, is an American writer best known as the writer of the 2012 Andre Norton Award-winning Young Adult science fiction novel Fair Coin, and his 2014 YA hacktivist novel The Silence of Six. Myers is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.
Brandy Colbert is the critically acclaimed author of the novels Pointe, The Voting Booth, Finding Yvonne, The Revolution of Birdie Randolph, The Only Black Girls in Town, and the Stonewall Award winner Little & Lion. A trained journalist, she also worked with boundary-breaking ballet dancer Misty Copeland to adapt her memoir into the bestselling book Life in Motion: Young Readers Edition. She is on the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA degree program for writing for children and young adults. find her online at www.brandycolbert.com.
Robin Talley loves Shakespeare and hates being scared. She always covers her eyes during horror movies, and she keeps trying to explain to her wife why she’s sure their house is haunted. (Her wife is not so easily convinced.) Robin’s previous books include What We Left Behind and a Lambda Literary Award finalist, Lies We Tell Ourselves. She lives with her family in Washington, DC.
Shaun David Hutchinson is the author of numerous books for young adults, including The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley, which won the Florida Book Awards’ Gold Medal in the Young Adult category and was named to the ALA’s 2015 Rainbow Book List; the anthology Violent Ends, which received a starred review from VOYA; and We Are the Ants, which received five starred reviews and was named a best book of January 2016 by Amazon.com, Kobo.com, Publishers Weekly, and iBooks.
Marieke Nijkamp is a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, geek. She holds degrees in philosophy, history, and medieval studies, and is an executive member of We Need Diverse Books, the founder of DiversifYA, and a founding contributor to YA Misfits. She lives in the Netherlands. Visit her at mariekenijkamp.com.
Alaya Dawn Johnson is the author of half a dozen novels for adults and young adults. Her novel The Summer Prince was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, including Asimov’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Interzone, Subterranean, Zombies vs. Unicorns, and Welcome to Bordertown. She has also won the Cybils and Nebula Awards and been nominated for the Indies Choice and Locus Award.
Suzanne Young is the New York Times bestselling author of five series of young adult fantasy novels, paranormal romance, and young adult fiction. After earning her degree in creative writing, she spent several years teaching middle school language arts.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.