Malia
Jen Malia speaks to students, parents, teachers, librarians, administrators, community leaders, and writers about children’s books, autism, and neurodiversity. An autistic mom of three autistic kids, she is the author of the children’s chapter book series The Infinity Rainbow Club and the picture book Too Sticky! Sensory Issues with Autism. Her newest book is June’s […]
Tate
As the national and USA Today bestselling author of more than 50 books, ReShonda Tate has the credentials, and the passion, to bring stories to life. That’s exactly what she does in her novel, The Queen of Sugar Hill (William Morrow, Jan. 30, 2024), a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, one of Hollywood’s most […]
Ortega
New York Times Bestselling and award-winning author, Claribel A. Ortega is a former reporter who writes middle-grade and young adult fantasy inspired by her Dominican heritage. When she’s not busy turning her obsession with eighties pop culture, magic, and video games into books, she’s co-hosting her podcast Bad Author Book Club. Claribel is a Marvel […]
Habeck
Emily Habeck holds a BFA in Theater from Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. Her bestselling debut novel, Shark Heart: A Love Story, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, a Book of the Month selection, a finalist for Book […]
Vulchi
Priya Vulchi is the author of Good Friends: Bonds That Change Us and the World (LegacyLit, April 2025). In Good Friends, she explores friendships across history, continents, and identities to show how friendship can open up new levels of joy and community in your life. Vulchi weaves through Western classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and […]
Guo
In sophomore year of high school, Winona Guo (they/them) co-founded the non-profit, CHOOSE (chooseorg.org, @choose_org), with the goal of advocating for racial literacy curricula in U.S. K-12 schools. Alongside their friend Priya Vulchi, they co-wrote a 224-page racial-literacy textbook, which was funded by Princeton University and featured in Teen Vogue. They then took a gap […]
Guo & Vulchi
In 2014, Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo entered sophomore year of high school, only a few months after the murder of Eric Garner and protests in Ferguson, Missouri. In their home state of New Jersey, financial literacy was a requirement, but racial literacy—the ability to think about and act on race and racial injustice—had been […]
Ford
Dr. Claudia J. Ford is a professor of Environmental Studies at State University of New York, Potsdam, a Fellow of the Panel on Planetary Thinking at Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany, a Fulbright Scholar, a SUNY PRODiG Faculty, and a Research Professor and Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the University at Buffalo. Claudia began her career […]
Askaripour
New York Times bestselling author Mateo Askaripour wants people to feel seen. Mateo’s work aims to empower people of color to seize opportunities for advancement, no matter the obstacle. His first novel, Black Buck, takes on racism in corporate America with humor and wit. Askaripour was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 rising stars […]
Magaziner
Lauren is the internationally bestselling author of four series: The Incorruptibles, Case Closed, The Mythics, and This Book is Trying to Kill You. She has also written three other stand-alone books for middle grade readers. Her books are available in over a dozen languages, have been longlisted for the PADIBA award, have been Junior Library […]