Cynthia Leitich Smith is a best-selling, award-winning children’s-YA writer, writing teacher, a NSK Neustadt Laureate, and the author-curator of the Native-centered Heartdrum imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books. Her latest book is the YA novel HARVEST HOUSE, an Indigenous ghost mystery, which has so far received three starred reviews. She looks forward to the release of MISSION ONE: THE VICE PRINCIPAL PROBLEM (Book 1 of THE BLUE STARS graphic novel, middle grade series), co-authored by Kekla Magoon and illustrated by Molly Murakami. Cynthia’s recent releases include her middle grade anthology ANCESTOR APPROVED: INTERTRIBAL STORIES FOR KIDS and her middle grade novel SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA. ANCESTOR APPROVED received four starred reviews and is the winner of the Reading the West Young Readers Book Award, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, an ALA Children’s Notable Book and a Kids Indie Next List Pick. It also was named to the ILA, Kirkus Reviews, Chicago Public Library, NY Public Library, Shelf Awareness, and Bank Street Best Books of 2021 lists. SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA received six starred reviews and was named to summer reading lists by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. It also named to the Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Chicago Public Library, American Indians in Children’s Literature; Politics & Prose, and Parents Magazine Best Books of 2021 lists. Her debut picture book, JINGLE DANCER, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu, is widely considered a modern classic. Her debut tween novel RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME was named one of the 30 Most Influential Children’s Books of All Time by Book Riot, which in addition listed her among 10 Must-Read Native American Authors. She also was named Writer of the Year by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers for RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME and won the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Young Adult Books for HEARTS UNBROKEN, which also was named to YALSA’s Amelia Bloomer list and received the Foreword Reviews Silver Medal in Young Adult Fiction. In addition, Cynthia is the New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestselling YA author of the TANTALIZE series and FERAL trilogy. Cynthia lives in Austin, Texas, and is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation. The Austin chapter of SCBWI has instituted the Cynthia Leitich Smith Mentor Award in her honor, and Cynthia is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. She also serves on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, where she was named the inaugural Katherine Paterson Endowed Chair. Plus, Cynthia coordinates and leads the annual We Need Diverse Books Native Writing Intensive. Cynthia holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, Lawrence and a J.D. from The University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor. She studied law abroad at Paris-Sorbonne University.

Jen Ferguson (she/her/hers) Métis (on her father's side) and Canadian settler (on her mother's side) is an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. She is represented by Patricia Nelson at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Her debut young adult novel, THE SUMMER OF BITTER AND SWEET, is forthcoming from Heartdrum / Harper Collins in the summer of 2022. Her first book for adults, Border Markers, a collection of interrelated flash fiction stories, is out now with NeWest Press. She lives and works in Los Angeles. — Visit her website to subscribe to News from the Michif Creamery, an occasional (seasonally or less) newsletter, for a chance to win The Summer of Bitter and Sweet themed prizes! Open international, prizes will be drawn from among all subscribers when we reach 200, 300, 400, and 500 subscribers respectively. Grand prize is a Scream Pretty dinosaur-themed necklace or set of earrings in gold or silver (winner’s choice). Other prizes will support BIPOC, queer, trans, and otherly marginalized creators. Sign up for News from the Michif Creamery today for a chance to win (and get very occasional news from Jen)!

Gansworth is an enrolled citizen of the Onondaga Nation; however, he grew up in the Tuscarora Nation as a descendant of one of two Onondaga women present among the Tuscarora at the foundation of the nation in the 18th century. Gansworth originally qualified in electroencephalography, considered a profession useful to his nation; however, he went on to study literature and to continue a lifelong interest in painting and drawing. Gansworth has written five novels, including the award-winning Mending Skins (2005) and Extra Indians (2010). In all his novels, illustrations form an integral part of the reading experience. His most recent novel, If I Ever Get out of Here is his first Young Adult novel, and deals with the 1975 friendship between two boys, one a resident of the Tuscarora Nation, the other living on the nearby Air Force base. In a starred review, Booklist stated that the book succeeded in "sidestepping stereotypes to offer two genuine characters navigating the unlikely intersection of two fully realized worlds." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric\_Ga...

Andrea L. Rogers is a writer from Tulsa, Oklahoma and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She graduated from the Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Arts with an MFA in Creative Writing. Currently, she is splitting time between Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she is a Ph.d. student at the University Arkansas and Fort Worth, Texas, where her family lives. Her book Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story was named an NPR Best Book of 202) by both NPR and American Indians in Children’s Literature. Ms. Rogers is on the Board of the Fort Worth Public Library. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, she is currently revising a middle grade mystery, writing an adult literary horror novel, and working on a series of picture book manuscripts. All text and images © Andrea L. Rogers 2018 – 2021, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.