Marina Budhos is the author of numerous award-winning adult and young adult novels and nonfiction, including Ask Me No Questions and The Professor of Light. Sugar Changed the World, co-authored with Marc Aronson, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. She is an associate professor at William Paterson University. 

Kekla Magoon is the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award-winning author of the YA novels The Rock and the River, Camo Girl, and How it Went Down. She also writes historical nonfiction. She is a three-time NAACP Image Award nominee, and serves on the Writers Council for the National Writing Project.

Marc Aronson has worked as an award-winning editor of books for children and young adults for more than twenty-five years. He built his career around bringing the fresh insights of the academy to a wide range of younger readers. He teaches at Rutgers and is a frequent speaker on issues in education.

Elizabeth Partridge writes biographies and other nonfiction for young adults. Her honors include National Book Award finalist, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Printz Honor, School Library Journal's Battle of the Books, and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She is core faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.