All the Love Under the Vast Sky

Alexandra Alessandri is the award-winning author of several books for young readers. The daughter of Colombian immigrants, she is also an educator and a poet. When not writing or teaching, Alexandra spends her time planning the next great adventure with her husband and son, with whom she lives in South Florida.

David Bowles is the award-winning Mexican American author of They Call Me Guero and other titles for young readers. Because of his family’s roots in Mexico, he’s traveled all over that country studying creepy legends, exploring ancient ruins, and avoiding monsters (so far). He lives in Donna, Texas.

Melanie Crowder is a ceramist, painter, and sculptor who received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College.

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, All the Way to Havana, Bravo!, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré Medals, Golden Kite Award, Walter Honor, Jane Addams Award, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt Prize, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate.

Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California.

Robin Gow is a trans poet and author from rural Pennsylvania. They are the author of several poetry books, an essay collection, the middle grade verse novel Dear Mothman, and the young adult verse novel A Million Quiet Revolutions. They live in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they coordinate programs for their local LGBTQ+ community center.

Mariama J. Lockington is a transracial adoptee, author, and educator. She has been telling stories and making her own books since the second grade, when she wore shortalls and flower leggings every day to school. Mariama’s middle grade debut, For Black Girls Like Me, earned five starred reviews and was a Today Show Best Kids’ Book of 2019. Her sophomore middle grade book, In the Key of Us, is a Stonewall Honor Award book and was featured in the New York Times. Her debut young adult novel, Forever Is Now, came out in May 2023. Mariama holds a master’s in education from Lesley University and a master’s in fine arts in poetry from San Francisco State University. She calls many places home but currently lives in Kentucky with her wife, her little sausage dog, Henry, and an abundance of plants. You can find her on Twitter @marilock and on Instagram/TikTok @forblackgirlslikeme.

Laura Ruby is the Michael L. Printz Award–winning author of many books for adults, teens, and children, including Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All and Bone Gap, both National Book Award finalists; the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection York: The Shadow Cipher and its sequels; the Edgar Award nominee Lily’s Ghosts; and the Book Sense Pick Good Girls. She is on the faculty of Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program and lives in the Chicago area. You can visit her online at lauraruby.com.

Jasmine Warga is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of middle grade novels A Rover's Story, The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan, Other Words For Home, The Shape of Thunder, and A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall. Her books have won numerous awards, including a Newbery Honor. Originally from Cincinnati, she now lives in the Chicago-area with her family in a house filled with books.

Charles Waters is a children's poet, author, anthologist and actor based in Georgia. His book Mascot (co-written with Traci Sorell) has received an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor and a Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor. His other books (co-written with Irene Latham) include: African Town (winner of the 2023 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction), Dictionary For A Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A--Z, Be A Bridge, and the Charlotte Huck Honor book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes and Friendship. You can visit him at: www.charleswaterspoetry.com