The Beautiful & Banned
Christine Renee Miller fancies herself an expert. Perhaps it’s because she always seems to play one on screen. You can see her recurring on the CBS hit show, Blue Bloods as the snarky M.E. who constantly schools Donny Wahlberg. She also stars opposite Jim Parsons as the head cancer nurse in the Michael Showalter feature […]
Johnson
Kim Johnson has a rich history of leadership, beginning with her early roles in social justice organizations during her teen years and throughout college. Her passion for creating positive change led her to a distinguished twenty-year career in higher education, where she served in various administrative roles, ultimately becoming a vice provost where she advanced […]
Iloh
Candice Iloh (they/them) is the award-winning author of young adult novels, Every Body Looking, Break This House, and Salt the Water. A 2020 National Book Award Finalist and 2021 Printz Honoree, Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian-American writer whose books center home. In 2018, they were awarded a Critical Breaks residency with Hi-ARTS to develop and […]
Carver
Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. is an advocate, a Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and the author of a bestselling collection of narrative poetry about his childhood growing up queer in Appalachia, Gay Poems for Red States (University Press of Kentucky), which was named a Book Riot Best Book of 2023, a Top Ten Best […]
Neri
G. Neri is the Michael L. Printz and Coretta Scott King award-winning author of such books as the bestselling Yummy: the Last Days of a Southside Shorty and Ghetto Cowboy, which was made into the movie, Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba. His books have been translated into multiple languages in over 25 countries. They include […]
Velasquez
Elisabet Velasquez is a Boricua writer, mother of two children from Brooklyn, New York, now living in Jersey City, New Jersey. Velasquez uses poetry to share her own transformative narrative, illustrating how life’s diverse experiences—especially her experiences, growing up in Bushwick, Brooklyn as a first generation Puerto-Rican teen mother and GED recipient have been instrumental […]
Summers
Courtney Summers is an “uncompromising writer” (Quill and Quire) with “a history of risky artistic choices” (Kirkus Reviews) “known for pushing boundaries” (Shelf Awareness) with a body of work that’s “not for the faint of heart” (The New York Times). Hailed “a master of the bitch” (Electric Literature) for years of writing “nuanced, wrenching stories […]
Divakaruni
Dr. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author, poet, activist and professor. She is the author of 20 books including Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Oleander Girl, Before We Visit the Goddess and Palace of Illusions. Her latest novels are The Forest of Enchantments, a feminist retelling of the epic The Ramayana in […]
De Leon
Born in the Boston area to Guatemalan parents, Jennifer De Leon is the award-winning author of the YA novels Borderless, featured on the Today show, and Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From. She is also the author of White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, and Writing which won the Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts […]
Luqman-Dawson
Amina Luqman-Dawson loves using writing to tell stories and to build an understanding of race, culture and community. Her published writing includes op-eds in newspapers, magazine articles, travel writing and book reviews. She’s authored the pictorial history book Images of America: African Americans of Petersburg (Arcadia Publishing). She has a BA in Political Science from Vassar College […]
