Virginia Hamilton was a groundbreaking author whose stories centered Black children at a time when there were very few books written with them in mind. She wrote more than forty children’s books across genres and was the first Black woman to win the Newbery Medal for M.C Higgins the Great, which also won the National Book Award.  She received a MacArthur Fellowship Genius Grant, as well as multiple Coretta Scott King Book Awards, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, among many other honors.

Jaime Adoff is an award-winning author of many books for children and teens including The Song Shoots Out of My Mouth which was a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor book and an IRA Notable Book, Jimi & Me which received the Corretta Scott King–John Steptoe New Talent Author Award, and the young adult novels The Death of Jayson Porter and Names Will Never Hurt Me. He is the son of the late Virginia Hamilton and the renowned poet Arnold Adoff. Jaime lives in his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio with his family. He invites you to visit him at therealjaimeadoff.com.

April Harrison, a renowned folk artist, is the illustrator of H is for Harlem, which received a Boston Globe Honor, among many other honors and starred reviews. She is the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for her illustrations in Patricia C. McKissack’s final picture book, What Is Given from the Heart. Her work appears in the public collections of Vanderbilt University, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, the Atlanta Housing Authority, and the Erskine University Museum, as well as in many private collections. She invites you to visit her at april-harrison.com.