Becky Albertalli is the author of William C. Morris Award winner and National Book Award longlist title, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (now a major motion picture, Love, Simon), which has been challenged many times for its LBGTQ storyline about the coming out of a gay teenage boy. Becky is also the author of the acclaimed The Upside of Unrequited; as well as the New York Times bestsellers Leah on the Offbeat; What If It’s Us (co-written with Adam Silvera); Yes No Maybe So (co-written with Aisha Saeed), and Love, Creekwood: A Simonverse Novella. Her next novel, Kate in Waiting, is scheduled for April 2021. Becky lives with her family in Atlanta. You can visit her online at www.beckyalbertalli.com.

Karyn Olivier (b. Trinidad and Tobago) received her M.F.A. at Cranbrook Academy of Art and her B.A at Dartmouth College. She has exhibited at the Gwangju and Busan Biennials, World Festival of Black Arts and Culture (Dakar, Senegal), The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Whitney Museum of Art, MoMA P.S.1, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, The Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), SculptureCenter (NY), Drexel University, the University of the Arts, Ulrich Museum of Art, University of Delaware Museum, among others. In 2017 Olivier installed a large-scale commissioned work for Philadelphia’s Mural Arts program in historic Vernon Park. In 2015 Olivier created public works for Creative Time in Central Park and NYC’s Percent for Art program. She received the 2018-19 Rome Prize and has been the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, the New York Foundation for the Arts Award, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, the William H. Johnson Prize, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award, a Creative Capital Foundation grant and a Harpo Foundation grant. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, Art in America, Flash Art, Mousse, The Washington Post, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Frieze, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Hyperallergic, among others. Olivier is currently an associate professor of sculpture at Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

Portugal The Man Grammy Award-winners Portugal. The Man began their career in their home state of Alaska and have gone on to become one of the most successful and recognized rock bands of the last decade, touring the globe and selling millions of records, along the way. In addition to their impressive list of music industry accolades and achievements, the band recently received the Legend Award at the Native American Music Awards, as well as the Public Sector Leadership Award by the National Congress of American Indians for their work via the PTM Foundation.

Donna Bray, Vice President, Co-Publisher Balzer & Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.

Ben Philippe, a New York-based writer and screenwriter. He is the author of the young adult novels Charming As A Verb and the William C. Morris Award-winning The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, as well as a forthcoming memoir-in-essays for adults, Sure I’ll Be Your Black Friend. He is currently a writer on the Hulu television show Only Murders In The Building and teaches at Barnard College.