Nafiza Azad is a self-identified island girl. She has hurricanes in her blood and dreams of a time she can exist solely on mangoes and pineapple. Born in Lautoka, Fiji, she currently resides in British Columbia, Canada, where she reads too many books, watches too many K-dramas, and writes stories about girls taking over the world. Nafiza is the coeditor of the young adult anthology
Writing in Color and author of
The Candle and the Flame, which was nominated for the William C. Morris Award,
The Wild Ones, and
Road of the Lost. Learn more at NafizaAzad.com.
Melody Simpson is the founder of Melanin in YA, a database for all things Black in traditional young adult publishing. Her short story, "The Guardrail Disappears" can be seen in the feminist horror anthology
Betty Bites Back: Stories to Scare the Patriarchy edited by Mindy McGinnis, Demetria Lunetta, and Kate Karyus Quinn. Melody is also the coeditor of the young adult anthology
Writing in Color. She's from New Jersey and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Visit her at MelodyLSimpson.com.
Chloe Gong is the #1
New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and have been featured in
The New York Times,
People,
Forbes, and more. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double majored in English and international relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York City, pretending to be a real adult.
Cindy Pon is the author of
Silver Phoenix, which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by
Booklist, and one of 2009's Best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by
VOYA.
Serpentine and
Sacrifice were both Junior Library Guild selections and received starred reviews from
School Library Journal and
Kirkus Reviews, respectively. She also wrote
Want, which is a Freeman Book Award Honorable Mention and
Ruse. She is the cofounder of Diversity in YA with Malinda Lo and on the advisory board of We Need Diverse Books. Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Learn more about her books and art at CindyPon.com.
Karuna Riazi is a born and raised New Yorker, with a loving, large extended family and the rather trying experience of being the eldest sibling in her particular clan. Besides pursuing a BA in English literature from Hofstra University, she is an online diversity advocate, blogger, and publishing intern. Karuna is fond of tea, baking new delectable treats for friends and family to relish, Korean dramas, and writing about tough girls forging their own paths toward their destinies. She is the author of
The Gauntlet and
The Battle.
Kat Zhang loves traveling to places both real and fictional--the former have better souvenirs, but the latter allow for dragons, so it's a tough choice. A writer of books for teens and children, she spends her free time scribbling poetry, taking photographs, and climbing atop things she shouldn't. You can learn more about her at KatZhang.com.
