Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni is the author of Lincoln and Douglass, Spin a Soft Black Song, The Sun Is So Quiet, and the Caldecott Honor Book Rosa. Her autobiography Gemini was a finalist for the National Book Award, and several of her books have received NAACP Image Awards. She was the first recipient of the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, and has been awarded the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry.

Ashley Bryan is a beloved children's book artist whose works include What a Morning!; The Christmas Story in Black Spirituals; and Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum.