Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her novel All the Blues in the Sky won the Newbery Medal, and Piecing Me Together received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include the Ryan Hart series, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan, and Love Is a Revolution, as well as acclaimed picture books: Summer Is Here, Maya's Song, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem's Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée splits her time between Portland, Oregon and New York City.
www.reneewatson.net; @reneewauthor

Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer, and educator. Her books include: Watch Us Rise (YA collaboration with Renée Watson), Reckless, Glorious, Girl, Don't Call Me a Hurricane and All That Shines. Ellen is Head of the Poetry & Theatre Departments at the DreamYard Project and directs their International Poetry Exchange Program with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines. She co-leads the Alice Hoffman Young Writer's Retreat at Adelphi University and is on faculty in the low residency MFA program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives with her partner and children in New York City.
www.ellenhagan.com; @ellenhagan