Samira Ahmed is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the young adult novels Love, Hate & Other Filters; Internment; Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know; and Hollow Fires. She is also the author of the middle grade fantasy Amira & Hamza duology and the Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit comic series. She was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois, in a house that smelled like fried onions, garlic, and potpourri.
She has lived in New York, Chicago, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. She invites you to visit her online at samiraahmed.com. Sona Charaipotra is the author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak and How Maya Got Fierce and coauthor of The Rumor Game and Tiny Pretty Things, now a Netflix original series. She earned a master's degree in screenwriting from NYU and an MFA in creative writing from the New School.
A working journalist, Sona has held editorial roles at People, TeenPeople, ABCNews.com, MSN, several parenting publications, the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog (RIP), and, most recently, as senior editor of trends and features at Parents.com. She has contributed to publications from the New York Times to TeenVogue. She is a former We Need Diverse Books board member, and she cofounded CAKE Literary, a boutique book packager focused on high-concept diverse titles.
Find her on the web talking about books, Bollywood movies, and chai. Sayantani DasGupta is the New York Times bestselling author of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond middle grade fantasy series, which includes The Serpent's Secret, Game of Stars, and The Chaos Curse. She is also the author of She Persisted: Virginia Apgar and a freestanding Kingdom Beyond novel, Force of Fire. She's a pediatrician by training but now teaches narrative medicine at Columbia University.
When she's not writing, reading, or teaching, she spends time watching cooking shows with her trilingual children and protecting her dog, Khushi, from the many things that scare him, including plastic bags. Sangu Mandanna was four years old when she was chased by an elephant, wrote her first story about it, and decided this was what she wanted to do with her life. Seventeen years later, she read Frankenstein.
It sent her into a writing frenzy that became The Lost Girl, a novel about death and love and the tie that binds the two together. Sangu lives in England with her husband and son. Tracey Baptiste is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade novels Minecraft: The Crash, The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, and The Jumbie God's Revenge. A former elementary school teacher, Tracey is now on the faculty at Lesley University's creative writing MFA program.
Raised in Trinidad until she was fifteen, she now lives with her family in New Jersey. You can visit her online at traceybaptiste.com. Swati Teerdhala is a storyteller at heart. After graduating from the University of Virginia with a BS in finance and BA in history, she tumbled into the marketing side of the technology industry. She's passionate about many things, including how to make a proper cup of tea, the right ratio of curd to crust in a lemon tart, and diverse representation in the stories we tell.
The Tiger at Midnight is her debut novel. She currently lives in New York City. You can visit her online at www.swatiteerdhala.com. Preeti Chhibber is an acclaimed author living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has written for SYFY, Book Riot, Polygon, and Elle, among others. Across prose, comics, and podcasts, she's written for characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Riddler, and so many more. Her debut YA rom-com, Payal Mehta's Romance Revenge Plot, came out in 2024. When she's not writing, she spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of YA, jumping into a brand-new fandom, or food-traveling her way through different countries.
She's also the cohost of the Desi Geek Girls and Women of Marvel podcasts, where she geeks out on the regular. You can learn more about Preeti and her work at preetichhibber.com.
She has lived in New York, Chicago, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. She invites you to visit her online at samiraahmed.com. Sona Charaipotra is the author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak and How Maya Got Fierce and coauthor of The Rumor Game and Tiny Pretty Things, now a Netflix original series. She earned a master's degree in screenwriting from NYU and an MFA in creative writing from the New School.
A working journalist, Sona has held editorial roles at People, TeenPeople, ABCNews.com, MSN, several parenting publications, the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog (RIP), and, most recently, as senior editor of trends and features at Parents.com. She has contributed to publications from the New York Times to TeenVogue. She is a former We Need Diverse Books board member, and she cofounded CAKE Literary, a boutique book packager focused on high-concept diverse titles.
Find her on the web talking about books, Bollywood movies, and chai. Sayantani DasGupta is the New York Times bestselling author of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond middle grade fantasy series, which includes The Serpent's Secret, Game of Stars, and The Chaos Curse. She is also the author of She Persisted: Virginia Apgar and a freestanding Kingdom Beyond novel, Force of Fire. She's a pediatrician by training but now teaches narrative medicine at Columbia University.
When she's not writing, reading, or teaching, she spends time watching cooking shows with her trilingual children and protecting her dog, Khushi, from the many things that scare him, including plastic bags. Sangu Mandanna was four years old when she was chased by an elephant, wrote her first story about it, and decided this was what she wanted to do with her life. Seventeen years later, she read Frankenstein.
It sent her into a writing frenzy that became The Lost Girl, a novel about death and love and the tie that binds the two together. Sangu lives in England with her husband and son. Tracey Baptiste is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade novels Minecraft: The Crash, The Jumbies, Rise of the Jumbies, and The Jumbie God's Revenge. A former elementary school teacher, Tracey is now on the faculty at Lesley University's creative writing MFA program.
Raised in Trinidad until she was fifteen, she now lives with her family in New Jersey. You can visit her online at traceybaptiste.com. Swati Teerdhala is a storyteller at heart. After graduating from the University of Virginia with a BS in finance and BA in history, she tumbled into the marketing side of the technology industry. She's passionate about many things, including how to make a proper cup of tea, the right ratio of curd to crust in a lemon tart, and diverse representation in the stories we tell.
The Tiger at Midnight is her debut novel. She currently lives in New York City. You can visit her online at www.swatiteerdhala.com. Preeti Chhibber is an acclaimed author living in Atlanta, Georgia. She has written for SYFY, Book Riot, Polygon, and Elle, among others. Across prose, comics, and podcasts, she's written for characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Riddler, and so many more. Her debut YA rom-com, Payal Mehta's Romance Revenge Plot, came out in 2024. When she's not writing, she spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of YA, jumping into a brand-new fandom, or food-traveling her way through different countries.
She's also the cohost of the Desi Geek Girls and Women of Marvel podcasts, where she geeks out on the regular. You can learn more about Preeti and her work at preetichhibber.com.
