Riley Samels is an illustrator who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Kent State University and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications and Design. After graduating he moved to Salt Lake City, Utah where he spent a few years as an illustrator for gifting goods including greeting cards and wrapping paper. He now resides in New Haven, Connecticut where he Illustrates pop-up greeting cards daily. Riley is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and allows this and other minority communities to inspire and fuel his work to amplify unheard voices. In his free time, he is probably tending to his collection of 112 (and growing) plants. Riley has a green thumb with a passion for illustration, social justice, travelling, and good food.
Lily Dyu lives in a Welsh valley. Growing up, she wanted to be a writer then an astronaut. Her favorite things are running in the mountains, camping wild and watching the night sky. Through her writing, she loves to tell true stories about people from all over the world. Maybe one day she'll still make it into space. She is the author of
Earth Heroes: 20 Inspiring Stories of People Saving Our World (Nosy Crow, 2020) and
Fantastic Female Adventurers: Truly Amazing Tales of Women Exploring the World (Vertebrate Publishing, 2019).