Natasha Díaz is a born and raised New Yorker, currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, with her two daughters and extremely tall husband. Natasha’s first novel, Color Me In, was published in 2019. Color Me In was a 2020 YALSA Best Fiction selection, was a finalist for the Jewish Book Award, and won the Latino Book Award for Best YA Fiction Book as well as the Azia Award for Best Mixed Race Fiction. Natasha’s writing has been featured in anthologies and novels told in stories including Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, The Grimoire of Grave Fates, House Party, Black Girl Power, and For the Rest of Us. As a screenwriter, Natasha has developed television projects with FX and Disney networks.

Candace Buford has been an avid reader since childhood—always looking for stories with strong and complex POCs. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in German Literature, which exposed her to the delightfully creepy side of storytelling by writers like Kafka and Brecht. Raised in Houston, she now lives in the PNW. She shares her life with a rocket scientist and a Plott Hound, who both ensure there is never a dull day. Kneel is her debut.

A. R. Capetta is an award-winning and bestselling author of wild magic. A. R.’s next release is Costumes for Time Travelers, a cozy romantic fantasy coming May 2025. Other magic-infused novels include The Lost Coast, The Brilliant Death, Lambda Literary Award winner The Heartbreak Bakery, and the national bestseller Once & Future, coauthored with spouse Cory McCarthy. A. R.’s short fiction has appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. For young readers, A. R. pens the Hocus and Pocus series.

Cory McCarthy (he/they) is the acclaimed, bestselling author of five released children’s books and just as many forthcoming titles. His books have been translated into several languages and have appeared on the Bank Street, Barnes & Noble, Book Riot, and Tor best book lists, as well as the Amelia Bloomer List of feminist children’s fiction. Their upcoming titles include a middle grade trilogy and nonfiction picture book. They teach at Vermont College of Fine Arts and, like many of their characters, are a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Kelly Loy Gilbert is the author of Picture Us in the Light, a Stonewall Honor Book and LA Times Book Prize finalist; Conviction, a Morris Award finalist; and, most recently, Everyone Wants to Know. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sonora Reyes is a queer second-generation immigrant who is the bestselling author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School. They write fiction full of queer and Latinx characters in a variety of genres. Sonora is also the creator and host of #QPOCChat, a monthly community-building Twitter chat for queer writers of colour. They currently live in Arizona, in a multigenerational family home with a small pack of dogs who run the place. You can visit them online at www.sonorareyes.com.

Preeti Chhibber is an acclaimed author living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has written for SYFY, Book Riot, Polygon, and Elle, among others. Across prose, comics, and podcasts, she’s written for characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Riddler, and so many more. Her debut YA rom-com, Payal Mehta’s Romance Revenge Plot, came out in 2024. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of YA, jumping into a brand-new fandom, or food-traveling her way through different countries. She’s also the cohost of the Desi Geek Girls and Women of Marvel podcasts, where she geeks out on the regular. You can learn more about Preeti and her work at preetichhibber.com.

Karuna Riazi is the author of the acclaimed A Bit of Earth as well as the duology The Gauntlet and The Battle. She holds a BA in English literature from Hofstra University and an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University. She is an online diversity advocate and an educator, and her work has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Shondaland, and Teen Vogue, among others. A born-and-raised New Yorker, Karuna Riazi lives on Long Island.

Laura Pohl is the New York Times bestselling author of The Grimrose Girls. Her debut novel, The Last 8, won the International Latino Book Award. She likes writing messages in caps lock, never using autocorrect, and obsessing about Star Wars. When not taking pictures of her dog, she can be found curled up with a fantasy or science-fiction book or replaying Dragon Age. She has played cupid more times than she’d like, and prefers to see love in the movies. A Brazilian at heart and soul, she makes her home in São Paulo. 

Katherine Locke lives and writes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she's ruled by her feline overlords and her addiction to chai lattes. Her day jobs always vary, but in the past, she's worked in nuclear weapons abolition activism, lead poisoning prevention and education, and food safety at a mushroom farm. She secretly believes most stories are fairy tales in disguise. She likes heroines with dirty mouths and heroes with boyish charm. Find her on Twitter @bibliogato!

Abdi Nazemian is the author of Only This Beautiful Moment—winner of the 2024 Stonewall Award and 2024 Lambda Literary Award—and Like a Love Story, a Stonewall Honor Book and one of Time magazine’s 100 Best YA Books of All Time. He is also the author of the young adult novels Desert Echoes, The Chandler Legacies, and The Authentics. His novel The Walk-In Closet won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction. His screenwriting credits include the films The Artist’s Wife, The Quiet, and Menendez: Blood Brothers and the television series Ordinary Joe and The Village. He has been an executive producer and associate producer on numerous films, including Call Me by Your Name, Little Woods, and The House of Tomorrow. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, their two children, and their dog, Disco. Find him online at abdinazemian.com.

Aditi Khorana is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning young adult novels, including Mirror in the Sky and The Library of Fates. Both are Junior Library Guild Selections and have appeared on many best book lists. Her debut novel is the subject of a TEDx talk, “Harnessing the Power of the Unknown.” She teaches writing for young people at Antioch University’s MFA program and also gives talks and teaches classes on the creative capacity of language to shape our world. She is currently adapting her debut novel for TV. In a former life, she worked as a producer at CNN, PBS, and ABC News and as an entertainment marketing consultant for Hollywood studios, including FOX, SONY and Paramount. Her work has been featured on NPR, the Los Angeles Review of Books, NBC News, BuzzFeed, EW, Bustle, Seventeen, and HuffPo. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.