Nidhi Chanani is a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and writer. After completing her undergrad literature degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nidhi pursued a career in non-profits. The desire to draw kept pulling her away and in 2008 she enrolled in art school (only to drop out a year later).

Born in Calcutta and raised in suburban southern California, Nidhi creates because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too. In April of 2012 she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change.

Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina (First Second/Macmillan), released in fall 2017, received numerous accolades and is set to be adapted for film by Netflix. Other works include Jasmine’s New Pet; Shubh Raatri Dost/Good Night Friend; I Will Be Fierce, written by Bea Birdsong; Binny’s Diwali, written by Thrity Umrigar; and original graphic novel, Jukebox.

Nidhi is currently working on the picture books Kong and Me, written by Kiki Thorpe and her author/illustrator debut What Will My Story Be?, as well as a few unannounced projects. She is an instructor in the Master of Fine Arts, Comics program at the California College of Arts.

Nidhi draws and dreams every day with her husband, kid and their kittens in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Angela Dalton is a published author of fiction and nonfiction in children’s literature. A graduate of the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism, she self-published her award-winning children’s book If You Look Up to the Sky in 2018, Ruby’s Reunion Day Dinner (HarperCollins, 2021), Show the World! (Philomel, 2022). Her forthcoming book is To Boldly Go: How Nichelle Nichols and Star Trek Helped Civil Rights (HarperCollins, 2023). She is a member of SCBWI and the Bay Area #Ownvoices Book Creators. Visit her website at angeladalton.com

Michael Genhart, PhD is a clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco as well as the author of several picture books for children.  His more recent titles include: May Your Life be Deliciosa (Cameron Kids/Abrams, illustrated by Loris Lora), They’re So Flamboyant (Magination Press, illustrated by Tony Neal), Accordionly: Abuelo and Opa Make Music (Magination Press, illustrated by Priscilla Burris), and Rainbow: a First Book of Pride (Magination Press, illustrated by Anne Passchier).  Michael lives with his rainbow family in Marin County.  He serves as the SCBWI SF North and East Bay Co-Coordinator and is represented by Nicole Geiger of Full Circle Literary.

Joanna Ho is the New York Times bestselling author of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners. Her picture books also include Playing at the Border: A Story of Yo-Yo Ma, Eyes that Speak to the Stars, and One Day (2023). Her debut YA novel, The Silence that Binds Us was released in 2022.

The daughter of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, Joanna was born in Minnesota where she developed a mid-Western accent that she has yet been unable to shake. She moved around as a child, attending school in the Twin Cities and Baltimore before settling as a middle schooler in the Bay Area and being happily spoiled by the beautiful weather, beaches, mountains, and forests.

Joanna is a writer and educator with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism, and equity work. She holds a BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s from the Principal Leadership Institute at Berkeley. She has been an English teacher, a dean, the designer of an alternative-to-prison program, and a teacher professional development creator. She is currently the vice principal of a high school in the Bay Area, where she works deeply with restorative justice, project-based curriculum, design thinking and culturally-affirming pedagogy. 

Joanna survives on homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her two butt-shaking kids.

Marissa McGee released her debut title, Free the Curls, in 2022. Teaching for over a decade, she’s read hundreds of children’s books. After visiting several stores and finding all the products for her hair type locked in a case, she decided she had a story to tell and picked up a pen. As an anti-bias educator, Marissa remains passionate about creating stories that serve as mirrors and windows for children. 

She has spent her career in communities that have been historically underserved due to systemic  inequities. She taught kindergarten, first, and second grade in Washington, D.C. After leaving the classroom, Marissa moved back to the Bay Area where she served as an instructional coach in Oakland. Now, she is a Coordinator of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for two school districts in the Bay Area. Marissa earned a BA in Sociology and a MA in Elementary Education from Stanford University, where she currently serves as a lecturer. 

Born in the Bay Area, Marissa is a huge fan of warm weather and the Golden State Warriors.

Originally from Indonesia, Innosanto Nagara moved to the US in 1988 to study at UC Davis. Upon graduation, he moved to the Bay Area, where he worked as a graphic designer for a range of social change organizations, before founding the Design Action Collective design studio in Oakland.

Innosanto Nagara has written and illustrated six children’s books for progressive families. A is for Activist was his first book—written originally just for his own child but became a surprise bestseller. It has now been issued also in picture book format, as well as adapted to Spanish by Martha Gonzalez as A de Activista. Where A is for Activist is about the issues, his follow-up board book Counting on Community is about how we live. My Night in the Planetarium was his first picture book, talking about colonialism, art, and resistance. Next he wrote The Wedding Portrait which discusses why sometimes, in the face of injustice, we break the rules. His next book was a “highly illustrated chapter book” titled M is for Movement (aka. Humans Can’t Eat Golf Balls). His latest book is Oh, the Things We’re For!.

Mitali Perkins (mitaliperkins.com) has written many books for young readers, including You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for a National Book Award) and Rickshaw Girl (adapted into a film by Sleeperwave Productions), all of which explore crossing different kinds of borders. Her goal is to make readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening. She lives and writes in the East Bay.

Minh Lê is the award-winning picture book author of Lift (a Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2020 and Eisner Award nominee) and Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature) illustrated by Caldecott-medalist Dan Santat, The Perfect Seat illustrated by Gus Gordon, and Let Me Finish illustrated by Isabel Roxas. He is also the author of Green Lantern: Legacy (his debut middle grade graphic novel for DC Comics, illustrated by Andie Tong) and appears in the anthology, The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth. 

Minh has several forthcoming projects in the works, including A Lotus for You, the authorized picture book biography of the world-renowned Zen Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Thích Nhất Hạnh. Minh serves on the board of We Need Diverse Books and has been published by NPR, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times. 

In addition to his life as an author, Minh is a federal early childhood policy expert and has worked in education at the national, state, and local level — both in and out of the classroom. He received his bachelor’s in Psychology from Dartmouth College and a master’s in Education Policy from Harvard University. Minh was also named one of the 100 Coolest Dads in America by Fatherly in 2018 (landing somewhere between LeBron James and President Barack Obama).

Outside of spending time with his wonderful wife and kids, Minh’s favorite place to be is in the middle of a good book.

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces (Cinco Puntos Press), her first YA novel, was the recipient of multiple awards including the Tomas Rivera Award, California Book Award Gold Medal, and the Morris Award for Debut YA Novel. She is the author of the chapter books, Ugly Cat and Pablo (Scholastic, Inc.) and Ugly Cat and Pablo and the Missing Brother (Scholastic, Inc.). In 2016 Isabel was commissioned by The J. Paul Getty Museum to write a non-fiction YA graphic biography, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide (Getty Publications), which went on to be awarded the Boston Globe Horn Book Award. Most recently, My Papi Has a Motorcycle (Kokila), her latest book, earned the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award. Her books have garnered many starred reviews and have been included in multiple best of lists including NPR’s yearly Book Concierge List, NYPL’s best of list, and the New York Times Best Books list.

Isabel earned her B.A. in English with a concentration in literature and her M.A. in English Composition from California State University, San Bernardino. She has worked in education for the last twenty years in various capacities. She’s worked as a teacher’s aide in a school for children with special needs, as an AVID tutor, an elementary school library tech, a substitute teacher, an adjunct instructor at several community colleges, and even briefly as a high school English teacher.

When she is not writing, Isabel helps facilitate creative writing workshops for youth in the Inland Empire and assists in whatever literary arts endeavors as she can in the region. She believes it is her responsibility to share and extend the platform and opportunities she’s been given with others, especially marginalized voices.

And when she’s not doing that, Isabel spends time with her family, her partner, and her friends doing things like hiking, watching movies, laughing, and cooking.

Nidhi Chanani is a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and writer. After completing her undergrad literature degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nidhi pursued a career in non-profits. The desire to draw kept pulling her away and in 2008 she enrolled in art school (only to drop out a year later).

Born in Calcutta and raised in suburban southern California, Nidhi creates because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too. In April of 2012 she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change.

Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina (First Second/Macmillan), released in fall 2017, received numerous accolades and is set to be adapted for film by Netflix. Other works include Jasmine’s New Pet; Shubh Raatri Dost/Good Night Friend; I Will Be Fierce, written by Bea Birdsong; Binny’s Diwali, written by Thrity Umrigar; and original graphic novel, Jukebox.

Nidhi is currently working on the picture books Kong and Me, written by Kiki Thorpe and her author/illustrator debut What Will My Story Be?, as well as a few unannounced projects. She is an instructor in the Master of Fine Arts, Comics program at the California College of Arts.

Nidhi draws and dreams every day with her husband, kid and their kittens in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Stacy McAnulty is an award-winning children’s book author, who used to be a mechanical engineer. She writes picture books (both fiction and nonfiction), chapter books, and middle-grade novels, many of which embrace her passion for STEM in a way that’s accessible and fun for all kids. Now, she likes to think of herself as a story engineer.

Stacy has authored over twenty-five books, including the middle-grade novels  Millionaires for the Month, The World Ends in April  and The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, which was a Junior Library Guild Selection, a summer “Indie Kids Next List” pick, and winner of the Mathical Book Prize. It was also selected as a ‘Best Book’ of the year by Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kirkus, and Parents Magazine, was an NPR ‘Great Read,’ and is on 13 state-award reading lists (and counting). She received the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor for her picture book  Excellent Ed and the Irma Black Honor for Sun! One in a Billion, part of the Our Universe series. Her other picture books include A Small Kindness, Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, Max Explains Everything: Soccer Expert, and Beautiful.

When not writing, Stacy likes to listen to NPR and 80’s music, bake triple-chocolate cupcakes, and eat triple-chocolate cupcakes. Originally from upstate New York, she now lives in North Carolina with her husband, three human children, and three canine children.