Rachelle Abellar is a designer, fat activist, and body love advocate. She is the founder of PNW Fattitude, a group that hosts events for people of size in an effort to foster a fat positive community in the Pacific Northwest. Rachelle is best known for the “Self Care Journal” and the “Self Care Zine” series. Her most recent release is “The Little Book of Big Babes,” a collection of photos documenting fat fashion all over the world. When she’s not busy making zines, she spends a lot of time thinking about the intersection of fatness and fandom and drinking bubble tea. Rachelle lives in Seattle with her cat, Bijou.

Jes Baker is a positive, progressive, and magnificently irreverent force to be reckoned with in the realm of self-love advocacy and mental health. She believes in the importance of body autonomy, hard conversations, strong coffee, and even stronger language. After creating satirical versions of Abercrombie & Fitch advertisements in 2013, she appeared on the Today Show and quickly became one of the leading voices in the current body image movement. When not writing, Jes spends her time speaking around the world, working with plus size clothing companies, organizing body liberation events, taking pictures in her underwear and attempting to convince her cats that they like to wear bow ties. Learn more about Jes at www.TheMilitantBaker.com

Mason Deaver is a bestselling and award-winning young adult novelist. Their first book, I Wish You All the Best was an instant bestseller, being nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards and winning the Pink News Best Young Adult Book Award, as well as being named one of Cosmopolitan's 100 Best YA Books! Their second novel, The Ghosts We Keep earned a starred review from Booklist, as well as praise from Publisher's Weekly. Their third novel, The Feeling of Falling In Love received a starred review from Bookpage as well as critical acclaim from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. Their fourth novel, Okay, Cupid is expected to release Winter 2024. They are also a contributor to several anthologies, as well as the author of the Audible Original Another Name For the Devil. They currently live in San Francisco.

Sarah Hollowell is a fat Hoosier writer aiming to up the magic quotient of Indiana. Her primary genre is young adult fantasy, but she also writes nonfiction and a little poetry. Her work has appeared on The NoSleep Podcast, Huffington Post, and Fireside Magazine, among others. She writes about TV and movies for Frolic, and is a contributor in the YA anthology, The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat and the Fierce. Sarah is represented by Thao Le of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Sarah spends an awful lot of her non-writing time listening to podcasts, needle felting cryptids, and replaying the same five video games.

Isabel Quintero is a writer, poet, teacher, wife, friend, sister, daughter, granddaughter, aunt niece, and a bunch of other things. She lives in the Inland Empire, where she was born and raised by Mexican immigrant parents and Mexican immigrant granddparents; the hospital where she was born in was converted to a Lowe's hardware store. That's how long ago she was born. She learned to love reading and the written word from a very young age when her mother used to read to her Amelia Bedelia. That love was fostered by teachers and professors throughout her schooling and she is sure if they hadn't boosted her ego for all those years she would have never dared letting the world see what she had written. Gabi, A Girl in Pieces is her first young adult novel.

Renée Watson is the author of the children’s picture book, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, June 2010), which was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Her middle grade novel, What Momma Left Me debuted as the New Voice for 2010 in middle grade fiction by The Independent Children's Booksellers Association. Renée’s one woman show, Roses are Red, Women are Blue, debuted at New York City's Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her poetry and articles have been published in Rethinking Schools, Theatre of the Mind and With Hearts Ablaze. When Renée is not writing and performing, she is teaching. Renée has worked in public schools and community organizations as an artist in residence for several years, teaching poetry, fiction, and theater in Oregon, Louisiana, and New York City. She also facilitates professional development workshops for teachers and artists. One of Renée’s passions is using the arts to help youth cope with trauma. She has facilitated poetry and theatre workshops with young girls coping with sexual and physical abuse, children who have witnessed violence, children coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and children who relocated to New York City after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Renée graduated from The New School, where she studied Creative Writing and earned a certificate in Drama Therapy. Renée currently lives in New York City.

Julie Murphy lives in North Texas with her husband who loves her and her cats who tolerate her. After several wonderful years in the library world, Julie now writes full-time. When she’s not writing or reliving her reference desk glory days, she can be found watching made-for-TV movies, hunting for the perfect slice of cheese pizza, and planning her next great travel adventure. She is also the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels Dumplin’ (now a film on Netflix), Puddin’, Pumpkin, Ramona Blue, and Side Effects May Vary. Her middle grade novels include Dear Sweat Pea and a forthcoming 2023 title. She is also Disney's If The Shoe Fits, a modern day romcom retelling of Cinderella. Her writing partner is Sierra Simone and their romance debut is A Merry Little Meet Cute. Julie has been featured in places liek Good Morning America, The New York Times, and Teen Vogue. Dumplin' was also named one of the best young adult books of all time by Time Magazine.

Alex Gino loves glitter, ice cream, gardening, awe-ful puns, and stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of being alive. Gino is genderqueer and uses singular they pronouns and the honorific Mx.

David Bowles is a Mexican American author and translator from south Texas. He has written several award-winning titles, most notably THEY CALL ME GÜERO and MY TWO BORDER TOWNS His work has also been published in multiple anthologies, plus venues such as The New York Times, Strange Horizons, School Library Journal, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children’s Literature. Additionally, David has worked on several TV/film projects. In 2019, he co-founded the hashtag and activist movement #DignidadLiteraria, which has negotiated greater Latinx representation in publishing. He is presently the vice president of the Texas Institute of Letters.