Our Children's Authors

Chana Stiefel is the award-winning author of more than 30 books for children, both fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent picture book is Let’s Fly!, co-written with Captain Barrington Irving, who broke the record as the youngest person and first Black man to fly solo around the world. The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs received many honors, including the 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Award, a Robert F. Sibert Honor, the Margaret Wise Brown Prize, and the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. Chana’s other titles include Let Liberty Rise: How America’s Schoolchildren Helped Save the Statue of Liberty (nominated for the California Young Reader Medal 2025-2026), My Name is Wakawakaloch (nominated for the UNICEF Prize in Children’s Literature), as well as Mendel’s Hanukkah Mess Up, Bravo, Avocado, and Daddy Depot. Chana loves to visit schools and libraries to share her passion for reading and writing with children. She is represented by agent Miranda Paul. Learn more at chanastiefel.com.

Kara Storti knew she wanted to be a writer when she decided to skip her junior prom to attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Middlebury, Vermont. In the years following she spent most of her free time writing short stories, novellas, and poems, and composing pop songs. In 2006 she graduated from the University of Southern Maine with an MFA in Creative Writing, where she fell in love with writing novels for young adults. Kara has been a singer, songwriter, pianist, and flautist since she was a child and has performed throughout the world. She grew up in upstate New York and now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Ellen Surrey is an illustrator out of sunny Los Angeles, California. Blending her love of mid-century design and vintage children’s books, Ellen enjoys finding beauty in the past and colorfully sharing it with a contemporary audience. She’s illustrated many books about inspiring people, including Dolly Parton! Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and most recently as USPS postage stamps. When she isn’t working, Ellen enjoys watching old movies and visiting her favorite thrift stores. Coming soon with Nosy Crow, a companion to THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU AN ARTIST, titled THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU A SCIENTIST!

Ellen Tarlow writes stories for very young children. Her published children’s books include, most recently, LOOKING FOR SMILE and BECOMING BLUE. She has been a classroom teacher and for many years worked as an editor of early childhood classroom materials. In that job she got to write hundreds of stories for young children. Now that she is working less, she is excited to work on her own stories. After spending her whole adult life in New York City, Ellen just moved to the Hudson Valley with her husband David, a painter.

Sarah Stewart Taylor is a fiction writer and journalist who lives with her family on a farm in Vermont; her published mysteries include the Maggie d’Arcy series, starting with The Mountains Wild, the Sweeney St. George mystery series (the first book in the series, O’ Artful Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel), The Expeditioners series of adventure novels for middle grade readers, and Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean, a graphic novel for younger readers, which was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Laurie Ann Thompson grew up in the fields and forests of rural northern Wisconsin but now makes her home between the mountains and the sea in western Washington State. A volunteer naturalist, climate advocate, and former software engineer, she writes to help her readers—and herself—better understand the world we all share. Laurie is the author of several award-winning nonfiction books, including Emmanuel’s Dream, winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award and Odyssey Audiobook Honor. She is usually trapped under her dog, Louie, and/or her cat Thor.

Leah Tinari is a widely exhibited New York based artist. Since graduating from RISD in 1998, Tinari has documented her life and friends through painting the capture the energy and exuberance of her surroundings.

Phuc Tran is an award-winning writer, tattooer, and Latin teacher (for which he has won no awards). Lots of things make Phuc cranky: being too cold, being too hot, staying up too late, getting up really early, wearing baggy socks, eating jaggedy cereal for breakfast. Cranky is his first children’s book. His memoir Sigh, Gone received the New England Book Award, the Maine Literary Award, and was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Audible, and others. Phuc lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife (who is rarely cranky) and his two daughters (who are sometimes cranky). “Phuc” is pronounced like “Luke” but with an F. Learn more at www.phucskywalker.com.

Jing Jing Tsong is a New York Times bestselling children's picture book illustrator. Jing Jing's images are a digital collage of color, traditional printmaking techniques

and pattern. When not growing kale or surfing, Jing Jing spends her time translating the world through her words and pictures.

Betsy Uhrig is the author of the middle-grade novels Double the Danger and Zero Zucchini, Welcome to Dweeb Club, The Polter-Ghost Problem, and Mind Over Monsters (all from McElderry / Simon & Schuster). She was born and raised in Greater Boston, where she lives with her family and even more books than you are picturing. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in English and has worked in publishing ever since. She writes books for children instead of doing things that aren’t as fun.

Deborah Underwood is the author of more than forty books for kids, including Caldecott Honor Book Outside In, Golden Kite Award winner The Man Who Didn't Like Animals, The Panda Problem, Interstellar Cinderella, and New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book, The Loud Book, and Here Comes the Easter Cat.

She grew up in Walla Walla, Washington and attended Pomona College. She currently lives in Northern California.

Kim-Hoa Ung is a Chinese American author-illustrator and amigurumi artist. She enjoys creating stories that explore family relationships, friendship, empathy, culture and heritage, and immigrant life. She is a lover of all things kawaii and inspirational. When Kim-Hoa is not creating stories, you can find her crocheting pieces for art shows, sending snail mail, and making arts and crafts with her kids. She lives with her family in Southern California. A GIFT FOR NAI NAI is her debut picture book.

For over 17 years, Brandi-Ann Uyemura has written for national, local, and regional publications and worked as a copywriter for various companies including Hawaii Life, Intuit, Nerd Wallet, Toyota Hawaii, Tiny Prints, WalmartLabs, and Art.com. Her debut picture book illustrated by Amy Matsushita-Beal and published by Holiday House, comes out summer of 2025.

Uyemura has been an online columnist for "The Writer" magazine, associate editor for Psych Central, and her articles have been published on various sites including Beliefnet, Spirituality & Health, Yoga Journal, MindBodyGreen, and US News Money. She has a graduate degree in counseling psychology and health, and has a passion for using her storytelling skills to help solve, support and encourage others to heal the earth and write books for kids which you can read more about on her website brandi-annuyemura.com/blog

Karla Arenas Valenti is the Pura Belpré award winning author of best selling middle grade novels, chapter books, and picture books. Her books are on various state reading lists and have received multiple starred reviews, as well as being featured on NPR’s Sunday Edition, the Drew Barrymore Show, and several Best of the Year lists, including Kirkus Best Book of the Year, Banks Street Best Children’s Book, School Library Journal’s Best Books, Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, Evanston Public Library Best Book of the Year, PEOPLE’s pick for best children’s book, and Best Books for kids by Entertainment Weekly.

Karla grew up in Mexico City, in a house built around a tree. Her childhood was filled with fantastical elements, which she incorporates into her books–taking children on journeys steeped in magical realism and fantasy. Karla currently resides in the Chicagoland area with her husband and three kids, two cats, and hundreds of books.

Dana VanderLugt is a writer and teacher who believes firmly in the power of stories to change hearts and minds. In addition to her writing for middle grade readers, Dana’s work has been published in Longridge Review, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith, the Michigan Reading Journal, and The Reformed Journal, where she is also a frequent contributor on its daily blog.

A former middle school English teacher, Dana now works as an instructional coach and has an MFA in Creative Writing from The Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. She lives in Michigan with her husband, three sons, and a spoiled golden retriever.

Allison Varnes taught English in special education for eight years, and once had to convince administrators that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was not an actual endorsement of witchcraft. She is currently a Ph.D. student in English Education at The University of Tennessee, where she also supervises beginning English teachers during their internship year.

Audrey Vernick writes nonfiction and humorous fiction picture books and middle-grade fiction. Her books include the New York Times Notable Book Brothers at Bat, She Loved Baseball, First Grade Dropout, and Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? She is also co-author of six books—six with Liz Garton Scanlon and two with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Audrey has received three writing fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. A frequent presenter at schools throughout the country, she lives near the ocean with her family. You can visit her at www.audreyvernick.com.

Elaine/E.B. Vickers is an award-winning author of picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels that aim to help readers of all ages find connection and belonging. She grew up in a small town in the Utah desert, where she spent her time reading, playing basketball, and exploring. Several years and one PhD later, she found her way back to her hometown, where she now spends her time writing, teaching college chemistry, and exploring with her family.

Rona Wang is currently a math major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For her short stories, she has been named a HerCampus 22 Under 22 and nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology. She is originally from Portland, Oregon, and as a second-generation Chinese American she loves to write stories that reflect the Asian American experience. You Had Me at Hello World is her debut YA novel.

Xulin Wang (they/them) is an award-winning Canadian-Chinese illustrator, author, and comic journalist living in Toronto. As a lifelong learner passionate about causes including science, education, and representation, they've dedicated their career to illustrating complex ideas and diverse, vibrant characters. As a first-generation immigrant, their art is shaped by personal experience—growing up between cultures, exploring the nature of the Rocky Mountains, and a lifelong love of learning. Their approach to art is bold and vibrant, emotional, communicative, and meticulously researched.

Xulin is an emerging voice in comics, authoring and illustrating thought-provoking stories at the intersection of social justice and science. They have published work with the Guardian, Vox, and solo-exhibited at the United Nations Geneva HQ with a comic (The Silent Pandemic: No Time to Wait) that has brought awareness on pressing public health issues to international diplomats and the general public alike. In the realm of children and middle-grade lit, they have worked on covers and illustrated books for clients such as HarperCollins Kids, Orca Book Publishers, and Lorimer Press.

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Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her picture book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. Her other books, Summer at Squee, Luli and the Language of Tea, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Magic Ramen, and The Nian Monster, have also received awards and starred reviews. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. She also likes to shed light on hidden historical events. Andrea holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for Young People. She lives in the Denver area with her family.

The Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock serves as the Senior Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta. He also has served at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church of Birmingham, the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City, and Baltimore’s Douglas Memorial Community Church. The Rev. Dr. Warnock holds degrees from Morehouse College and Union Theological Seminary, and is the author of The Divided Mind of the Black Church. In January 2021, Dr. Warnock became Georgia's first Black senator.

Carole Boston Weatherford is an accomplished poet, writer, artist, musician, and social critic whose bibliography spans over thirty books. Her work in children's literature  has earned her widespread acclaim and awards.

Carole's picture books have been described as poetic, intimate, and ultimately educational reads. Often focused on the growth of the civil rights movement and the state of African-American culture in the United States, her works provide genuine insights into our cultural memory through their powerful storytelling.

Tony Weaver, Jr. is founder and CEO of Weird Enough Productions, a new media production company dedicated to creating positive media images of black men and other minority groups, and the creator of the educational webcomic The UnCommons, whose curriculum is used by over 40,000 students per month. Tony has been the recipient of the Leadership Prize and the Black Excellence Award, participated in the NBCUniversal Fellowship Program and the Peace First Fellowship, is a TEDx speaker, and was one of Forbes’ 2018 “30 Under 30” honorees—the first comic book writer to ever make the list.

Molly Webster, a graduate of NYU’s Science Writing Program and an award-winning journalist, is a Senior Correspondent at WNYC’s Radiolab. She is an accomplished writer having contributed to Scientific American, National Geographic Adventure, and Wired. Most recently she presented a TED Talk about her research on sex chromosomes.

Maya Wei-Haas is an award-winning reporter at National Geographic. She writes about all things science and has a particular affection for rocks and reactions. Maya pursued a bachelor's in geology at Smith College and then won an NSF fellowship to support her Ph.D. work in Earth Science at the Ohio State University. She's traveled the world in the name of science, scooping ice melt from the top of Antarctic glaciers and hauling up sediments from Svalbard lakes. She made the jump to journalism with the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship. Now she's working to bring these types of adventures—and the science that surrounds us—to all. In 2019, she was honored with AGU's David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for her story about the discovery of a submarine volcano's birth. In addition to National Geographic, her work has appeared at Smithsonian.com and EOS. She's working on a forthcoming children's book about the amazing things that rocks can reveal with Phaidon Press.

As a child, Jacob Sager Weinstein could turn his feet completely backwards, then juggle. Nowadays, his joints are much less flexible, but he can still manage the juggling part. Other accomplishments include two Writers' Guild of America award nominations and one win. He has written for film, TV, radio, and print outlets including HBO, the BBC, The New Yorker, and The Onion.  

His books include the middle grade novel Hyacinth and the Secrets Beneath, the picture books Lyric Mckerrigan, Secret Librarian and What Rosa Brought, and the non-fiction works How to Remember Everything and Be Happier Now. He lives in London with his wife and kids.

Allen R. Wells is an accomplished author, engineer, and advocate for inclusion and representation in children’s literature. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Allen discovered his passion for storytelling at a young age, inspired by his second-grade teacher who introduced him to journaling. This early spark fueled a lifelong journey to create impactful stories that empower young readers.

Sujin Witherspoon is a Korean-American author, artist, and lover of words she can’t pronounce. She gravitates toward stories that will either plague her nightmares or make her stomach hurt from laughter—no in between. Having earned her degree in English from the University of Washington, she spends her time writing, thinking about writing, or thinking about how she should be writing. You can find her online at sujinwitherspoon.com

Sujin is represented by Maeve MacLysaght of Aevitas Creative Management.

Sean Fay Wolfe is a seventeen-year-old Eagle Scout and writing prodigy. He is the author of the Minecraft fan fiction series The Elementia Chronicles (HarperCollins).

Jo Wu was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she studied Biology and Creative Writing at UC Berkeley. Her works explore fairy tales, Chinese and Taiwanese mythology and identity, and magical and uplifting narratives in dark worlds. Some of her notable works have been published in Uncanny Magazine, Solarpunk Magazine, and Insignia 2021: Best Asian Fantasy Stories.

She’ll totally understand if you confuse her for Carmilla Jo, the cosplayer and voiceover artist who’s much louder on social media and enjoys twirling around in gowns. As a cosplayer and model, she has graced magazine covers and been hired by companies including as Adult Swim, Riot Games, T-Mobile, and Penguin Random House. When she is not writing, she is likely sewing, weightlifting, motorcycling, and gushing over puppies.

Christina Wyman is the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of Jawbreaker, Slouch, and Breakout. She lives in Michigan with her husband and silly rescue cats Alfred and Greta Cannoli―not to mention the raccoons, owls, and hummingbirds that occupy a tree outside their bedroom window. She grew up in a tiny apartment with her family in Brooklyn, New York, where she dreamed of becoming a writer. Her work has been published in New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Elle Magazine, Ms. Magazine, The Independent, and other outlets. Her debut novel, “Jawbreaker,” a middle-grade book that follows a seventh-grader with a craniofacial anomaly, is a Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2023. When she’s not writing, you can find her stocking up on chocolate or trying to convince her husband to adopt more cats. Most recently, she’s developed a passion for eating strawberry jam straight out of the jar.

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong American writer of books for both adults and children. Kalia was born in a refugee camp. Long before she could write, Kalia sat at the feet of her elders and listened to their stories. As a writer, Kalia now uses her words to return to those long ago evenings—this time as a storyteller. The only thing Kalia loves more than stories are the people who make them possible.

Paula Yoo is an award-winning author, TV writer/producer, and musician. Her latest YA nonfiction book, RISING FROM THE ASHES: LOS ANGELES, 1992. EDWARD JAE SONG LEE, LATASHA HARLINS, RODNEY KING, AND A CITY ON FIRE (Norton Young Readers 2024) is the winner of the 2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award. FROM A WHISPER TO A RALLYING CRY: THE KILLING OF VINCENT CHIN AND THE TRIAL THAT GALVANIZED THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT (Norton 2021) was longlisted for the National Book Award, won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and was a finalist for the YALSA nonfiction award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her books have received multiple starred reviews and selected for “Best Books of the Year” lists including Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, Booklist, School Library Journal, TIME Magazine, NPR, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, as well as several Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections. As a Writers Guild of America (WGA) writer, her TV credits range from NBC’s THE WEST WING to The CW’s SUPERGIRL, and she has sold multiple TV pilots and features. As an AFM Local 47 violinist, Paula plays professionally in many orchestras and has toured with bands like Love, Fun and No Doubt. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and three cats.

Jenna Yoon is a debut author and has spent equal amounts of time living in Korea and the U.S. She holds a BA in Art History from Wellesley College, and a MA in Korean Art History from Ewha Woman’s University. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is her middle grade debut.

Born and raised in California, Helen Yoon graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BS in chemistry and from Art Center College of Design with a BFA in illustration. The author-illustrator of critically acclaimed picture books including OFF-LIMITS and I'M A UNICORN, Helen Yoon lives in the Los Angeles area. She writes and draws for a living. She is fond of sabbaticals.

Susan Yoon writes books for children and is the author of Waiting for Tomorrow, and Gwendolyn and the Light. Her essays have also appeared in the Globe and Mail and the New York Times. She lives in Toronto.

Katie Zhao is a 2017 graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English and Political Science, and a 2018 Masters of Accounting at the same university. She is the author of THE DRAGON WARRIOR duology (Bloomsbury Kids), HOW WE FALL APART (Bloomsbury Kids), LAST GAMER STANDING (Scholastic), WINNIE ZENG series (Random House Children’s Books), THE LIES WE TELL (Bloomsbury Kids), and forthcoming  ZODIAC RISING duology (Random House Children’s Books). She is represented by Penny Moore of Aevitas Creative Management. She’s a passionate advocate for representation in literature and media.