About the Authors
Natalie C. Parker is the author of the Beware the Wild duology, a 2014 Junior Library Guild selection, and the the Seafire trilogy, as well as the editor of Three Sides of a Heart. She earned her BA degree in English literature from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MA in gender studies from the University of Cincinnati.
Renée Ahdieh 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. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and their tiny overlord of a dog.
Rae Carson is the author of the New York Times bestselling Girl of Fire and Thorns series, as well as three novellas set in the same world. Originally from California, Carson now lives in Arizona with her husband.
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.
Katie Cotugno went to Catholic school for thirteen years, which makes her, as an adult, both extremely superstitious and prone to crushes on boys wearing blazers. She is a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in the Mississippi Review, Iowa Review, and Argestes, among other literary magazines, as well as on Nerve.com.
Lamar Giles is the Edgar Award–nominated author of young-adult fiction, including the Legendary Alston Boys series, the Epic Ellisons series, and several stand-alone novels. He is the cofounder of We Need Diverse Books and the editor of the WNDB anthology, Fresh Ink.
Tessa Gratton wanted to be a paleontologist or a wizard since she was seven. She was too impatient to hunt dinosaurs, but is still searching for someone to teach her magic. After traveling the world with her military family, she acquired a BA in gender studies and went to graduate school, but halfway through ditched the program to focus on writing fiction. She doesn’t have a master’s degree, but did translate her own version of Beowulf. She lives in Kansas with her partner.
Bethany Hagen was born and raised in Kansas City. She grew up reading Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and all things King Arthur, and went on to become a librarian.
Landry Park is her debut novel.
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.
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.
E. K. Johnston is the author of LA Times Book Prize and William C. Morris Award finalist, The Story of Owen and its sequel, Prairie Fire. The New York Times called The Story of Owen “a clever first step in the career of a novelist who, like her troubador heroine, has many more songs to sing.” E. K. Johnston lives in Ontario, where she also works as a bookseller.
Julie Murphy
lives in North Texas with her husband who loves her, her dog who adores her,
and her cats who tolerate her. When she’s not writing or trying to catch stray
animals, Julie can be found in a library smelling old books and manning the
reference desk.
Garth Nix, born in Melbourne, Australia, is a novelist whose books have won the Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy Novel, Best Young Adult Novel, and Best Children’s Novel. His books have appeared on the bestseller lists of Publishers Weekly, the Guardian, and the Australian, and his work has been translated in forty languages.
Veronica Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent series. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s creative writing program.
Sabaa Tahir is the author of the acclaimed young-adult fantasy novels of An Ember in the Ashes series, which has been translated into over thirty-five languages. Visit her online at SabaaTahir.com and follow her on Instagram and Twitter @SabaaTahir.
Brenna Yovanoff was raised in a
barn, a tent, and a tepee, and was homeschooled until high school. She spent
her formative years in Arkansas, in a town heavily populated by snakes, where turkeys would sometimes drop out of the sky, before moving to Colorado
when she was five. Her short fiction has appeared in Chiaroscuro and Strange
Horizons. She holds an MFA in fiction from Colorado State University and is
the New York Times bestselling author
of The Replacement and The Space Between. She currently lives
in Denver with her husband.
About the Narrators
James Fouhey is an actor and narrator living in New York City. He received classical training at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He has recorded more than forty audiobooks across a variety of genres, including science fiction, romance, young adult fiction, and children’s fiction.
Almarie Guerra is an actor known for her work on Sorry You’re Sad, Dude Bro Party Massacre III, and Night of the Living Deb. She is part of an LA/NY based improv group, the Story Pirates.
LuLu Lam is a professional imaginaire, hoop dancer, yogini, and audiobook narrator. She has acted in national commercials and television shows such as The Mindy Project on Fox and ABC’s All My Children.
Bahni Turpin, winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards for her narrations, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. Publishers Weekly magazine named her Narrator of the Year for 2016. She is an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What about Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of the Dust. She is also a member of the recording cast of The Help, which won numerous awards.