Ann Brashares is a writer and mother of four living in New York City. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series as well as several other novels. Before becoming a novelist, she was a student of philosophy, a receptionist, an editor, a ghostwriter, and briefly, the copresident of a small media company. Before that, she grew up in Washington, DC, with her three brothers and a stunning number of weird pets. She helped her youngest brother, Ben, with his socks and shoes every morning before school until he learned to tie his own shoes himself, around ninth grade.

Ben Brashares lives with his wife and three kids in Montclair, New Jersey. He is the author of two children’s books, Being Edie Is Hard Today and The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection. He holds an MFA in creative writing and has worked at and written for several magazines, including Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal. He spent much of his youth wading through heaps of clothes in his big sister’s room looking for the family’s escape-artist tarantula, Fredricka. He may or may not have put Frederika on his sister’s head while she slept.