Jerry Craft is a New York Times bestselling author-illustrator who has worked on numerous books for young readers, including the Newbery medal-winning graphic novel New Kid. Jerry is the creator of Mama’s Boyz, an award-winning syndicated comic strip. He has won five African American Literary Awards and is a cofounder of the Schomburg Center’s Annual Black Comic Book Festival. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and now lives in Connecticut. Class Act, the companion novel to New Kid, will be published in October 2020. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.com.

John Jennings is the curator of the Megascope list and illustrator of the graphic novel adaptations of Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred and Parable of the Sower. He is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Kristin Anderson manages the Bear Creek Area and the Ashland Branch of Jackson County Library Services in Southern Oregon. Prior to her time in Oregon, she spent thirteen years working in youth services roles in Central Ohio libraries. She is passionate about the importance of diverse representation in literature for young readers. She has been an SLJ reviewer for nearly 15 years. She holds both an MLIS from Kent State University and an MBA from University of Texas at Austin.

Crystal Chen

Mahnaz Dar is Reference & Professional Reading Editor, School Library Journal & Library Journal. She also handles graphic novels at SLJ in addition to participating in the magazine’s equity and diversity initiatives.

Shelley M. Diaz is SLJ Reviews Editor. She also teaches young adult literature to future librarians at CUNY's Queens College and is currently working on her EP.

Thomas Maluck is a teen services librarian at Richland Library in South Carolina. He loves encouraging creativity and expression in young people and reviews graphic novels for School Library Journal and No Flying No Tights. His hobbies include running, rolling dice to tell stories, and talking too much about comics.

Alea Perez, the 2020-2021 President of the ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table, has been a Youth Services manager in the Chicago suburbs since June 2015. For over ten years, she has aimed to help children, teens, and their caregivers in both Illinois and Arizona discover the many services and opportunities libraries provide. Alea is dedicated to advocacy for children and teens, youth services management, graphic novels for children and teens, and anti-racism in the field at large.

Anja Webb

Ashleigh Williams is Assistant Editor, Chapter Books & Middle Grade, School Library Journal

Jeremy Brett is an Associate Professor at Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, Texas A&M University, where he is Curator of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Research Collection, one of the world’s largest of its kind. He has also worked at the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the National Archives and Records Administration-Pacific Region, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. He received his M.L.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1999. His research and professional interests include science fiction, popular culture in libraries and archives, and the intersection of libraries and social justice.

Chuck Brown is the Eisner and Ringo award winning writer and co-creator of such books as The Punisher and Black Panther for Marvel, Rotten Apple for Dark Horse Comics, and BITTER ROOT for Image Comics. He has been self-publishing for more than 18 years and has also written comics for Zenescope Entertainment, 12-Gauge Comics, and Line Webtoon. Connect with Chuck @Cbrown803 on Twitter.

Kristin Cashore grew up in northeast Pennsylvania and earned her master's degree from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons College. She lives in the Boston area. Her epic fantasy novels set in the Graceling Realm--Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue--are all New York Times best sellers and have won many awards.

From his early careers in teaching and humanitarian aid work, Tyler Chin-Tanner took the leap into his lifelong passion for comics attending The Kubert School from 2003 to 2006 and co-founding A Wave Blue World with his wife Wendy in 2005. Publishing through AWBW, Tyler wrote a number of graphic novels including New York Times featured American Terrorist and edited several anthologies such as All We Ever Wanted, art books like Punkrock* Jazz, and creator-owned projects including Kismet, Man of Fate.

Wendy Chin-Tanner is the co-publisher and executive director of A Wave Blue World. She is the author of the poetry collections Turn (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards, and Anyone Will Tell You (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019). Wendy also serves as a poetry editor at The Nervous Breakdown. A trained sociologist specializing in cultural studies, identity, discourse analysis, and cultural production, she was educated at Cambridge University, UK. Her essays and poems have been published at such venues as Gay Magazine, xoJane, The Huffington Post, Alternet, The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, and The Rumpus. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.

Cassandra Rose Clarke, author of Forget This Ever Happened, has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and the Phillip K. Dick Award and is frequently published in magazines like Fantasy & Science Fiction and Strange Horizons. Her 2012 novel The Assassin’s Curse was a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of the Year. She is a graduate of Clarion West, the country's premier writing program for speculative fiction.

Alex de Campi writes comics. She is best known for her critically-acclaimed teen survival thriller NO MERCY and the groundbreaking, digital-native comic VALENTINE. Her latest work is the spy noir miniseries MAYDAY. She was nominated for an Eisner for her first comic work, Smoke, and it's all been downhill from there. Alex also directs music videos, and has worked with acts as diverse as Grand Duchy (Frank Black / Violet Clark), Joan As Police Woman, and Amanda Palmer to the retro-fabulous Puppini Sisters. Alex's background is a three-whisky conversation and involves several continents. She is a single mother of an awesome daughter; they live in the Stephen Kingdom (Downeast Maine) with two dogs.

Anthony Del Col is a best-selling writer of comics, podcasts and stage. His comic titles include LUKE CAGE EVERYMAN (Marvel), SON OF HITLER (Image), THE DEATH OF NANCY DREW (Dynamite), and KILL SHAKESPEARE (IDW). He is also the creator of Audible’s ASSASSIN’S CREED: GOLD, an eight-episode fiction podcast starring Emmy Award-winner Riz Ahmed (Star Wars: Rogue One, Venom) that is the platform #1 top-ranked series of 2020.

Bonnie Domingos is the Arts & Culture Exhibitions Manager for the San Diego Public Library, where she directs the Visual Arts Program and organizes the Comic Conference for Educators and Librarians in partnership with Comic-Con International. Bonnie earned her MLIS from San Jose State University and a B.A. in Visual & Performing Arts from CSU San Marcos.

Hafsah Faizal is the New York Times bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame and its sequel, We Free the Stars. She is also the founder of IceyDesigns, where she creates websites for authors and beauteous goodies for everyone else. When she’s not writing, she can be found designing, deciding between Assassin’s Creed and Skyrim, or traversing the world. Born in Florida and raised in California, she now resides in Texas with her family and a library of books waiting to be devoured.

Maria Fonseca currently works at the Matteson Area Public Library as their Digital Librarian, where she teaches technology classes and organizes library events like their MAPLD FanFest. Maria has also worked as a Young Adult Librarian for 5 years. Her love of fandoms, graphic novels, anime, video games, wrestling and more has allowed her to keep her child-at-heart spirit and utilize that imaginative fun into the library programs she creates.

Namina Forna has a MFA in film and TV production from USC School of Cinematic Arts and a BA from Spelman College. She now works as a screenwriter in LA and loves telling stories with fierce female leads. The Gilded Ones is her debut novel.

Nicole Glover works as a UX researcher. A bike commuter and running enthusiast, she enjoys baking and figuring out what book to read next. The Conductors is her debut novel.

Erica Henderson is a multiple Eisner winning comic artist known most for rebooting The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Jughead. She has not lived in New York for a decade but still has very strong opinions on bagels.

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Full Throttle, The Fireman, Heart-Shaped Box, and NOS4A2, recently made into a TV series from AMC. His horror novella In the Tall Grass, co-written with Stephen King, was made into a feature film from Netflix. He earned the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his long-running comic book series, Locke & Key, featuring the eye-popping art of Gabriel Rodríguez.

Justina Ireland enjoys dark chocolate, dark humor, and is not too proud to admit that she’s still afraid of the dark. She lives with her husband, kid, and dog in Pennsylvania. She is the author of Dread Nation (a New York Times bestseller), Deathless Divide, Vengeance Bound, Promise of Shadows, as well as the Star Wars middle grade novels, Lando's Luck and Spark of the Resistance.

Clayton Junior is a fresh and innovative illustrator based in London, where he works on diverse projects ranging from book and magazine illustration, to animation and digital design. Clayton's work has also been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums, both in group and solo shows.

Julia Kaye is an award-winning artist and illustrator whose webcomic Up and Out has garnered hundreds of thousands of readers and wide critical praise. Her commitment to activism has led to collaborations with non-profit organizations such as The Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline. Her work has appeared on Webtoon, GoComics, Buzzfeed, and the Disney animated show Big City Greens. Julia lives in Los Angeles.

Erik Ko has been in the project development business for over 25 years, starting his career by overseeing Star Wars and Star Trek merchandise back in 1993. In 2000, he formed UDON Entertainment, leading a group of international elite artists serving the entertainment industry; their clients include Disney, Marvel, DC Comics, Warner Bros, Universal, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Konami, Hasbro, and Mattel, to name a few. Being an immigrant from Asia, one of Ko’s goals is to bridge the cultures of East and West; his latest project is Manga Classics, which takes classic literature stories and presents them in Japanese manga format, a popular medium among young readers nowadays.

Daniel Kraus is the author of numerous novels, including Rotters, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch duology, and Bent Heavens. With Guillermo del Toro, he wrote the New York Times bestselling The Shape of Water (the companion novel to the Academy Award-winning film), Trollhunters (the inspiration for the Netflix series), and They Threw Us Away (the first book in the Teddies saga trilogy). His novels have been Odyssey Award winners, Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults picks, Parent’s Choice Gold Award winners, Bram Stoker finalists, and more. He lives with his wife in Chicago.

Edanur Kuntman is an up-and-coming Turkish artist who has been working in animation, illustration, and game design, as well as taking on publishing projects, and has a degree in political science. She is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, as a visual and game designer. She is the author of the graphic novel Tales from behind the Window (Akan Ajans/Marmara Cizgi; Europe Comics in English,) 2020 Eisner Award Nominee for Best Digital Comic.

Sierra Laddusaw is an Assistant Professor at the Texas A&M University Libraries. She is the Curator of Maps, Co-curator of the Chapman Texas & Borderlands Collection, Curator of Digital Scholarship, and Curator of the Maritime Collection at Cushing Memorial Library & Archives. Her research interests lie in mapping of ideas and imaginary places and the use of cartographic resources in non-traditional fields of study. She has curated a collection at the University Libraries of materials that blur the line between cartography and art. Sierra earned her Master of Library Science from Texas Woman’s University.

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer-songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol, Inspection, A House at the Bottom of a Lake, and Malorie, the sequel to Bird Box. Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist-musician Allison Laakko.

Leatrice “Elle” McKinney, writing as L.L. McKinney, is an advocate for equality and inclusion in publishing, and the creator of the hashtag #WhatWoCWritersHear. Elle’s also a gamer, Blerd, and adamant Hei Hei stan, living in Kansas City. She spends her free time plagued by her cat–Sir Chester Fluffmire Boopsnoot Purrington Wigglebottom Flooferson III, esquire, Baron o’Butterscotch or #SirChester for short. Her works include the Nightmare-Verse books, starting with the A BLADE SO BLACK trilogy, and the upcoming works Nubia: Real One from DC, and ESCAPING MR. ROCHESTER from Harper Collins. Elle is a Gryffindor with Slytherin tendencies.

Ryan North is the writer responsible for Dinosaur Comics, the Eisner and Harvey award-winning Adventure Time comics, the #1 bestselling anthology series Machine of Death and the New York Times bestselling and Eisner-award winning Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series for Marvel. He's turned Shakespeare into NYT-bestselling choose-your-own-path books, and his book HOW TO INVENT EVERYTHING is nothing less than a complete cheat sheet for civilization. He's currently working on adapting Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE into a graphic novel. He lives in Toronto, where he once messed up walking his dog so badly it made the news.

Gabby Rivera is a Bronx-born, queer Puerto Rican babe on a mission to create the wildest, most fun stories ever. She's the first Latina to write for Marvel Comics, penning the solo series America about America Chavez, a portal-punching queer Latina powerhouse. In 2017, Gabby was named one of the top comic creators by the SyFy network, and one of NBC's #Pride30 Innovators. Her debut novel, JULIET TAKES A BREATH is being re-published in September 2019 by Penguin Random House. Gabby now makes magic on both coasts, currently residing in California. She writes for all the sweet baby queers, and her mom.

Isabella Rotman is a cartoonist and illustrator from Maine, living and drawing in Chicago. Her art is usually about the ocean, mermaids, crushing loneliness, people in the woods, or sex. Isabella is the author of You're So Sexy When You Aren't Transmitting STIs and Not On My Watch: The Bystanders’ Handbook for the Prevention of Sexual Violence. Isabella is the co-author and illustrator of Wait, What?: A Comic Book Guide to Relationships, Bodies, and Growing Up. Isabella has been Artist in Residence at Scarleteen since 2013.

Christine Taylor-Butler is the author of over 90 nonfiction children’s books. “The Lost Tribes” series is her first work of fiction. An MIT-trained engineer, Taylor-Butler began writing fiction children’s books in response to the lack of diverse books featuring stories with positive imagery, not always dealing with hardship and strife and making the experience of people of color more humanizing and relevant, connecting all readers.  She will be the toastmaster for the World Fantasy Convention in 2021. Currently, her series “The Lost Tribes” is being used at a STEAM camp run by MIT for Massachusetts middle school students.

Francois Vigneault is a freelance illustrator, designer, and cartoonist (not necessarily in that order). In addition to Titan, his work includes 13e Avenue (Éditions de la Pastèque) and Orcs in Space (Oni Press), and his comics and illustrations have appeared in publications such as Planches, Papercutter, Kayak, and Study Group Magazine. His work has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Joe Shuster Award, Prix des Libraires, and the Prix des Collèges. Born in the United States to immigrant parents, he has lived and worked in Montréal, Québec since 2015.

Judd Winick grew up on Long Island, where he spent countless hours doodling, reading X-Men comics and the newspaper strip Bloom County, and watching Looney Tunes. Today, Judd lives in San Francisco with his wife, Pam Ling, their two kids, and their cats. When Judd isn't collecting far more action figures and vinyl toys than a normal adult, he is a screenwriter and an award-winning cartoonist. Judd also appeared as a cast member of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco and is the author of the highly acclaimed graphic novel Pedro and Me, about his Real World roommate and friend, AIDS activist Pedro Zamora.