David Macinnis Gill is a faculty member at VCFA and UNC Wilmington, specializing in young adult literature. He is a past president of ALAN, the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE. He has published four YA novels with HarperCollins. His latest is, Uncanny.

Kekla Magoon is the author of eight novels, including The Rock and the River, How it Went Down, and X. She is a CSK Honor winner, NAACP Image Award winner, and National Book Award finalist. She teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts and she is on the Writers Council for the National Writing Project.

William Alexander writes science fiction and fantasy for young audiences. His novels include Goblin Secrets (a National Book Award winner) and Ambassador (an International Latino Book Award finalist). He teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

Cynthia Leitich Smith is a New York Times bestselling, award-winning children's YA author. She was a Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Writer of the Year. She's a Muscogee Indian Nation citizen, a Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty member, and on the advisory board of We Need Diverse Books.