Ronnie Vazquez (they/them) is a southern-raised queer Puerto Rican illustrator and comic artist with a background in visual development. Their work has been featured in several indie anthologies, including the Eisner-winning anthology, Puerto Rico Strong. Their graphic novel debut, Saving Chupie, is a Louisiana Reader’s Choice and CYBILS award nominee, and has been featured in the Texas Maverick, New York Public Library, and IndieBound reading lists.

Self-Identifiers: Puerto Rican; Latin; Queer; Neurodivergent

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Kelly and Nichole Matthews are a twin art team making a living in the Emerald City. They have brought to life many stories and worlds, including a magic treehouse, a little mermaid under the sea, the world of Thra, a young boy lost in time, and many more.

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Wendy Xu is a bestselling, award-nominated Brooklyn-based illustrator and comics artist. She is the creator of Infinity Particle (2023, HarperCollins), Tidesong (2021 HarperCollins), and the co-creator of Mooncakes, a young adult fantasy graphic novel published in 2019 from Oni Press. Her work has been featured on Catapult, Barnes & Noble Sci-fi/Fantasy Blog, and Tor.com, among other places.

Self-Identifiers: Chinese; Queer

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Wallace West is an award-winning children’s book author-illustrator and a world explorer. His first picture book, Mighty Red Riding Hood, won a Lambda Literary Award. He also illustrated the New York Times bestselling middle-grade Dogtown series by legendary authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko. Kirkus has called his illustrations “utterly charming” and “expressive” with a vibrancy “that relates as much of the story as the text itself.” Wallace was born in Houston, Texas, came of age in Paris, France, and spends most of his time on the U.S. East Coast. By day he writes and scribbles, by night he dreams of adopting a snake.

Self-Identifiers: Gay; LGBTQIA+

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Cornelius Van Wright is an award-winning children’s book illustrator, an author, and an art instructor. He has illustrated numerous picture books, many of which he co-illustrated with his wife, Ying Hwa-Hu. His work has appeared on Reading Rainbow and Storytime and has been exhibited in Bologna Book Fair and the Society of Illustrators. Cornelius’ authored-illustrated picture books have garnered praise from The Horn Book, Kirkus Review, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and many others. Cornelius also teaches at Fred Dolan Art Academy. His students have attended and graduated from many top art colleges in the country. Cornelius lives with his wife in New York City.

Self-Identifiers: African-American

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An old vagabond that loves a good story, Morgan Thompson is a Cherokee artist that loves telling stories. She is Keetoowah Cherokee with membership in Cherokee Nation and comes from the Cherokee Nation Reservation in Northeastern Oklahoma. When not drawing, you can find her writing, and when she isn’t writing you can find her beading. She has a deep love for her Cherokee community and telling Indigenous stories to a wider audience.

Self-Identifiers: Indigenous; Native American; Cherokee; First American

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Jared Andrew Schorr is an illustrator living in Southern California. He is the illustrator of Better Together (Abrams Appleseed, 2017) and Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights (Simon & Schuster, 2018), and specializes in creating detailed work entirely from cut paper. His work has appeared in many publications, as well as in galleries and homes around the world.

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Israel Sanchez lives in Los Angeles and has worked as an art director for Disney and Netflix animation studios. He has written and illustrated comics for the Flight anthology series, Spongebob Comics, and the Fable Comics collection. He loves to paint in gouache and used it for his illustrations in the picture book, The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy (Arthur A. Levine Books).Self-Identifiers: Hispanic; Mexican; Latino 

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Sean Rubin was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a city kid, he entertained himself by collecting interesting things, learning about unusual subjects, and by drawing characters from books, especially Redwall and The Lord of the Rings. Bolivar, the first book Sean both wrote and illustrated, received three starred reviews, and was nominated for an Eisner award, an ELG, and a Ringo award.

Self-Identifiers: Jewish; New York City; Rural

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Ariel Slamet Ries is the Ignatz-award winning cartoonist and author of graphic novels Witchy and Cry Wolf Girl. They’re interested in using a fantastical lens to examine the mundane, and curating empathy for flawed characters. Their debut graphic novel with HarperCollins, Strange Bedfellows—a queer YA sci-fi romance about a boy who develops the ability to manifest his dreams in real life, including his infuriatingly attractive high school crush—is set for release in March of 2025.

Self-Identifiers: South East Asian; Mixed race (Asian/White); Queer; Trans; Neurodivergent; Non-Binary 

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Jennifer Black Reinhardt is the author and illustrator of several acclaimed books for children, including Always by My Side: A Stuffie Story, Playing Possum, and Blue Ethel. She illustrated Gondra’s Treasure and Yaks Yak, both written by Newbery award winner Linda Sue Park, as well as illustrating Sometimes You Fly by Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate, to name a few. Her books have received many starred reviews and been selected for recommended lists. Jennifer joyfully creates picture books from her comfortably cluttered studio in her Iowa City, Iowa home.

Self-Identifiers: Woman

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Andy Rash is the author and illustrator of several picture books, including The Robots Are Coming, Are You a Horse?, Agent A to Agent Z, and Eclipse. Andy’s illustrations have been featured in The New York Times, Time, Wired, the New Yorker, and other national publications, and his animations have been shown on Nickelodeon. He teaches illustration at The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife and two children.

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Andy Chou Musser makes books for kids. He is the author and illustrator of the picture book A Home Under the Stars, co-creator of the picture book Papilio with Ben Clanton and Corey R. Tabor, and co-creator of two series for young readers: Science Explorers with Amy Seto Forrester and Ploof with Ben Clanton. Andy lives in Seattle with his partner and two cats.

Self-Identifiers: Chinese-American; Asian-American; Mixed-Race; POC; AAHIPI 

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Madeline McGrane is a cartoonist and illustrator. She is the author and illustrator of The Accursed Vampire and its sequel The Accursed Vampire #2: The Curse at Witch Camp. She has created illustrations and comics for various clients on topics ranging from superheroes to renewable energy, in her spare time she self-publishes zines. Madeline lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Wook Jin Jung is currently VP, Head of Design at Scholastic Education. He is also game designer, artist, visual strategist and monster maker. He writes and illustrates children’s picture books. Leading the UX design process from initial definition to final implementation.

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Bagram Ibatoulline is an award-winning American illustrator who has illustrated over thirty acclaimed books for children. His books have been published all across the globe and have been translated into dozens of languages. He is celebrated internationally for his best-selling titles like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller.

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Ying-Hwa Hu is an educator, picture book author, and illustrator. She has worked solo as well as collaborated with her husband, Cornelius Van Wright, for over 50 books. Her debut author/illustrator book Ten Blocks To the Big Wok was selected as Best Books for NYPL, CPL, Bank Street Books, and won Delaware Library Association Blue Hen Book Award, and the Mathical Books Honor Award. Ying-Hwa teaches at Fred Dolan Art Academy and helps young artists in the Bronx community to enter art colleges. Her students have attended and graduated from many top art colleges in the country. Ying-Hwa lives with her husband in New York City.

Self-Identifiers: AAPI

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Paige Hender is responsible for upcoming graphic novels from Silver Sprocket and Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. With toes in both the adult and young adult markets, she seeks to bring mature stories to young readers and whimsical tales to grown-ups. Hopefully her corrupting influence will inspire a generation of horror fans. Hender was born in Ottawa, Ontario and currently resides in Louisiana.

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Shelley Hanmo is a concert pianist, self-taught illustrator, and storyteller. As someone who is passionate about the paper art medium, Shelley loves exploring different possibilities of colors, shapes, layers, and textures in pieces of paper. Shelley’s artistic inspirations often come from her life experience as a woman of color, immigrant, professional musician, as well as her love for nature and conservation. In addition, Shelley is actively teaching paper art workshops across the US, recent workshops including at Brooklyn Art Library, Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis Public Library, Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, and Garfield Park Arts Center.

Self-Identifiers: Immigrant; Asian; East Asian; BIPOC; Minority

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Melissa Gardner is an adolescent psychotherapist turned author/illustrator who now lives in the rainy forest outside Eugene, Oregon. Her style is a blend of traditional and digital media, with a focus on natural beauty, tender emotions, and a dash of magic. When she’s not drawing, she’s often snuggling with her three dogs, hanging out with her family, or coming up with recipes that remind her of childhood.

Self-Identifiers: Neurodivergent; LGBTQIA+

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Kat Fajardo (they/she) is a Honduran Colombian award-winning cartoonist and illustrator from the lively and magical place of Loisaida, New York City. They are the creator of Miss Quinces, which was a National Indie Bestseller, received a Pura Belpré Honor for illustration, two starred reviews, and was selected as a summer reading pick by Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, The Horn Book, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Self-Identifiers: Latine; Latinx; Honduran; Colombian; Queer

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C.G. Esperanza was born the second of six cool kids. The South Bronx is where he first opened his eyelids. A land shrouded in bright colored decay, the birthplace of graffiti and the hip-hop DJ. He paints fantasy worlds of elephants and castles, too. Accompanying this wonder is some whimsical truth. Author and Illustrator of Red, Yellow, Blue and a Dash of White Too! (SkyponyPress), Boogie Boogie, Y’all (HarperCollins), and the upcoming Dragon Mama (HarperCollins). He has also illustrated the picture book, My Daddy is a Cowboy.

Self-Identifiers: Black; African American; Latino; Puerto Rican; LGBTQ+

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Sarah Davis is an award-winning illustrator, concept artist, and book designer working in publishing, film, and animation. She has illustrated more than 50 books and has 4+ years experience working in-house as Associate Art Director at Walker Books Australia, where she had the privilege of collaborating with some of Australia’s finest picture-book authors and illustrators. Her own illustration work is fueled by a restless creativity and inspired by a love of literature and narrative. With each project she experiments with new ways to tell visual tales, working across an eclectic range of media – paint, ink, pencil, collage, photography, and digital 3D sculpture.

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Sage Coffey is a trans non-binary cartoonist living in Chicago, Illinois, who is best known as the creator of Wine Ghost, for their work on the GLAAD award nominated video game BUGSNAX, and as the illustrator on one of Vulture’s funniest books of 2021, I Am Not a Wolf. Since 2016, they’ve edited the Ignatz award nominated anthology Sweaty Palms, a comic anthology about anxiety and have helped organize Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) since 2019. Clients include: Design Museum of Chicago Millie Magazine, We Testify, Cards Against Humanity, The American Independent, and more.

Self-Identifiers: Trans; Nonbinary; LGBTQIA+

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Ben Clanton is a children’s book author-illustrator best known for the Narwhal and Jelly series. He spends most of his time on this planet reading, drawing, playing basketball, gardening, and eating waffles.

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Jade Zhang is a queer Chinese-Canadian illustrator and comic artist based in Toronto. She tells stories about magic, memory, and the occasional eldritch horror. Jade is the illustrator for Ghost Circus (2025) and author of “How to Survive a Haunting,” a horror short about a family that becomes its own monsters published with the Ignatz award-winning Shades of Fear anthology. She also wrote “I’m Stuck in Retrograde,” an autobiographical fabulism comic about a staircase that brings a traveller’s memories to life around them.

Self-Identifiers: Queer; First Generation Chinese-Canadian

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Derick Brooks (he/him) is an award-winning cartoonist from Virginia. He loves to create genre bending illustration and comic art that mixes adventure, fantasy, and sci-fi themes with a slice of life. His published work can be found in A is for Alfie (Macmillan), Drawn to Change the World (HarperCollins), Hey You (Puffin), The Last Chance for Logan County (Versify), Allies (DK), and ten books from the Bright Family universe (Epic). When he’s not writing, doodling, or stopping his pets from wrestling, he serves as the art director for Magpie Literacy where he assists in the creation of decodable texts for grades PK-8+.

Self-Identifiers: Black; African-American

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Megan Brennan is a comics artist and author in Brooklyn, New York. Her goofy, exuberant comics are influenced by shoujo manga, newspaper comics, and the absurd. Her debut solo graphic novel, Magic Girls 1: Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess, was published by Random House Graphic in 2024. She’s also written multiple Amazing World of Gumball graphic novels published by Boom! Studios in addition to self-publishing comics on the web and in print. Megan has also been an art/production assistant for various graphic novels, including Drama, Teen Boat, Amulet, and The Adventure Zone: Here Be Gerblins.

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Brooke Boynton-Hughes is the illustrator and author of Brave Molly and Heart String and the illustrator of several other books for children including Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton, His Fairy Tale Life by Jane Yolen, Henry Wants More! by Linda Ashman, and Where’s My Turtle? by Barbara Bottner. Brooke is the recipient of two portfolio honor awards from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, as well as the recipient of the SCBWI Don Freeman Memorial grant and the SCBWI Mentorship Award. Brooke lives in Colorado with her husband and three children and creates her illustrations using watercolor, pen and ink, graphite, and colored pencil.

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Nico Bocalan (or Nico or skelehime) is a horror cartoonist working on her first full-length horror graphic novel. She enjoys horror movies, books, junk food, coding, and biking at a leisurely pace.

Self-Identifiers: Filipino; Queer; Woman

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Gonzalo Alvarez is an illustrator, designer, and author of the Aztec fantasy graphic novel series, Poyoman. A first-generation Chicano from Southeast Texas, he grew up inspired by the folktales and traditions of his Mexican-born parents, but never saw them represented in media. After graduating from Lamar University with a BFA and a self-published comic, he began decolonizing by relearning the Aztec language, culture, and history to authentically bring his stories to life. He and his partner, Grace Chadwick, founded Studio Tecuan, are working together on a Poyoman, Nawalli the Aztec card game, and enjoy binging fantasy movies and RPGs.

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