Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared widely. She edited the ALA Notable international poetry collection, This Same Sky, and The Tree Is Older Than You Are: Poems and Paintings from Mexico, as well as The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East. Her books of poems include Fuel, Red Suitcase, and Words Under the Words. A Guggenheim fellow, she is also the author of the young adult novel Habibi, which was named an ALA Notable Book, a Best Book for Young Adults, and winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award as well as the Book Publishers of Texas award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Naomi lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Michael, and their son, Madison.

Paul B. Kaneczko has been a writer, poet, speaker, and teacher and has edited numerous distinguished anthologies for young people, including Poetspeak, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, the ALA Notable book, The Place My Words Are Looking For, and Poetry from A to Z: A Guide for Young Writers. His third book of poetry is That Sweet Diamond: Baseball Poems. He lives in Hebron, Maine, with his wife, Nadine, and their daughter, Emma.