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Illustrator

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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GZLA

Author / Illustrator

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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GZLA

Brenna Burns Yu

Illustrator

Brenna Burns Yu (she/they) is the author and illustrator of two Hazel and Twig books published by Candlewick Press. Brenna has an MFA from the Fiber Department of Cranbrook Academy of Art, and their artistic practice continues to be shaped by their love of fabric, paper, and patterns. Brenna works ink, pencil, watercolor, and gouache, and they love to see visible traces of the art-making process in their finished work. Brenna also brings their love for nature and early scientific exploration to libraries, leading art activities based on the Hazel and Twig books.


Self-Identifiers: Non-binary; LGBTQIA + Family


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GZLA

Wendy Xu

Illustrator

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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GZLA

Ashley Wong

Illustrator

Ashley Wong is a freelance illustrator and designer based in Hamilton, Ontario. She works with embroidery floss (and sometimes ink and paint, too!) to create warm and fuzzy images. Her work draws inspiration from delicious meals with loved ones and the changing of seasons.


Self-Identifiers: Chinese-Canadian; Bisexual


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Wallace West

Illustrator

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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GZLA

Elizabeth Schoonmaker

Illustrator

Elizabeth Schoonmaker is an artist, illustrator, writer, designer and picture book author of Square Cat and Square Cat ABC. Elizabeth’s work is community based with roadside attractions, nursing home portraits, oral interviews, and interactive sculptures. Elizabeth lives in the Town of Plainfield, in Upstate New York.
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GZLA

Amy Schimler-Safford

Illustrator

Amy Schimler-Safford has had an impressive career as a textile designer and children’s illustrator for over two decades. Her children’s book illustrations have been well reviewed and award-winning. In 2010 “Why is the Sky Blue?” was paired with an Eric Carle title for Booktrust.org’s book bag program. Over 700,00 book bags were distributed to first year students throughout the UK. Some very generous words used to describe her work: “glimmering”, “lavish”, “vibrant”, “gorgeous”, “magical”, “lush”, “amazing”, “breathtaking”, “gloriously colorful”, “dreamlike”, “luminous”, “dynamic”, “engaging’, “skillful”, “alluring” and a “celebration of observation”.
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Sean Rubin

Illustrator

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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GZLA

Daria Peoples

Illustrator

Daria Peoples earned a BA in English at UC Santa Barbara, California, where she found herself shelving books at the library and reading many notable writers. Daria’s debut picture book, This is It was published by Greenwillow/HarperCollins in 2018, she has then illustrated many other children’s books, which can be found on her website.


Self-Identifiers: Black; Cuban; Female


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Andy Chou Musser

Illustrator

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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Ying-Hwa Hu

Illustrator

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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GZLA

Connie Hernandez

Illustrator

Connie Hernandez (he/him/his) is a cartoonist and community organizer from Chicago, Illinois. Seeing comics as an opportunity for radical re-imagination of the state of the world, Connie draws from his personal relationships between family and friends, as well as his political experience organizing in Chicago. His current projects are middle grade graphic novels, such as his background illustrations in Johnnie Christmas’ Swim Team, and Connie’s own upcoming debut graphic novel. His dream projects range from silly middle grade books to weird adult fiction, comedy, and horror.


Self-Identifiers: Filipino; Asian; Transgender; Disabled; Fat


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GZLA

Shelley Hanmo

Illustrator

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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Rosa Colón Guerra

Illustrator

Rosa Colón Guerra is an illustrator and comic artist working in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her nonfiction comics have been featured in The Believer, The Lily, and various indie anthologies. Her work for The Nib featuring Puerto Rico’s current events and culture is featured in the Ignatz winner Be Gay, Do Comics!. Rosa also collaborated in the Eisner winner Puerto Rico Strong anthology. She has worked for local government and nonprofits illustrating children’s books that focus on representation and social cause. In order to nurture the comic and illustration scene in Puerto Rico, she co-organizes Tintero, a comic and art festival focusing on local talent.


Self-Identifiers: Puerto Rican; Latinx; Caribbean; LGBTQ+


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GZLA

Melissa Gardner

Illustrator

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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GZLA

C.G. Esperanza

Illustrator

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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GZLA

Mike Dutton

Illustrator

During the day, Mike Dutton works in the animation industry. He has served as art director and production designer at Tonko House on the Netflix series, Go! Go! Cory Carson. He was a sets designer on an unannounced feature film at Kuku Studios. Currently he is an art director on a 2D animated feature film at Epipheo.


Self-Identifiers: Asian-American; Multi-Ethnic; Korean


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GZLA

J de laVega

Illustrator

J de laVega is an author-illustrator of Puerto Rican ancestry who thrives on color and texture. She enjoys translating complex topics into art children can understand. Her debut book, Wepa!, was published by Lil’ Libros in 2023.


Self-Identifiers: Afro-Latina; Hispanic; Female


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GZLA

Alexis Castellanos

Illustrator

Alexis Castellanos is the author of Guava and Grudges (Bloomsbury) and Isla to Island (Simon & Schuster), an Eisner-nominated and award-winning graphic novel. Born in Miami, Florida, she studied theatre design and technology in college and landed in New York City after graduation working as a scenic artist before transitioning into publishing as a graphic designer. When she’s not working she can be found tackling a new sewing project, playing D&D, or cooking up a storm. For now she’s calling Los Angeles home, where she lives with her partner and two spoiled cats.


Self-Identifiers: Cuban-American


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GZLA

Derick Brooks

Illustrator

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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Gonzalo Alvarez

Illustrator

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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