Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor Books: A Girl Named Disaster, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm, The House of the Scorpion, which also won the National Book Award and received a Printz Honor. She grew up on the border between Arizona and Mexico in the landscape that she evokes so strongly in her disturbing futuristic adventure The House of the Scorpion. Nancy Farmer lives with her family in Menlo Park, California.

JT Petty is the author of Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer and The Squampkin Patch: A Nasselrogt Adventure. He is also a director and screenwriter for movies and video games. His film Soft for Digging was an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival. He received a Game Developers Choice Award for his work on the bestselling video game Splinter Cell. JT lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit his Web site at www.pettyofficial.com.

Hilari Bell is a librarian in Denver, Colorado, where she lives with her family. Her favorite books are fantasy, science fiction, and mystery -- all the ingredients for a great novel! Hilari is also the author of the Farsala Trilogy -- Fall of a Kingdom, Rise of a Hero, and Forging the Sword -- as well as Songs of Power, A Matter of Profit, and The Goblin Wood.

D.J. MacHale is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Pendragon series and the Morpheus Road series. He has written, directed and produced many television series and movies for young people that have been seen on Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, HBO, Showtime, PBS, Discovery Kids, and the broadcast networks. D.J. lives with his family in Southern California.

#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi has been creating children’s books for over twenty years. From fanciful picture books like The Spider & the Fly to chapter book series like the Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with a rich imagination. With Holly Black, he created the middle grade series the Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and been translated in over thirty countries. The Norman Rockwell Museum’s exhibition “Never Abandon Imagination” featured artwork from the beginning of DiTerlizzi’s career as a contributing artist for Dungeons & Dragons and broke attendance records. He has been featured in Time magazine and USA TODAY and on CNN, PBS, NPR, the BBC, and the Today show.

Holly Black?is the #1?New York Times bestselling author of?fantasy books, including?the Novels of Elfhame,?The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and her adult debut, Book of Night, as well as an Arthurian picture book called Sir Morien.?She has been a?finalist for the Eisner Award and Lodestar Awards, and the recipient of a Mythopoeic Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery Honor. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages worldwide and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. She invites you to visit her online at BlackHolly.com or on Instagram @BlackHolly.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the author of sixteen books, including Oleander Girl, The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Palace of Illusions, One Amazing Thing, and Before We Visit the Goddess. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times, and has won, among other prizes, an American Book Award. Born in India, she currently lives in Texas and is the McDavid professor of Creative Writing at the University of Houston.

Kai Meyer is the author of many highly acclaimed and popular books for adults and young adults in his native Germany. Pirate Curse, the first book in the Wave Walkers trilogy, was praised by Booklist as "a fast-paced fantasy featuring plenty of action and suspense." The Water Mirror, the first book in the Dark Reflections Trilogy, was named a School Library Journal Best Book, a Locus Magazine Recommended Read, a Book Sense Children's Pick, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. It received starred reviews in both School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. School Library Journal has called Meyer "an expert at creating fantastical worlds filled with unusual and exotic elements." For more information please visit his website at www.kaimeyer.com.

Jodi Lynn Anderson is the bestselling author of several critically acclaimed books for young people, including the May Bird trilogy, the Thirteen Witches series, and My Diary from the Edge of the World. She lives with her husband, son, and daughter in Asheville, North Carolina, and holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College.

Will Davis has an animation background, with experience working as a storyboard artist on television shows and commercials. He also illustrated Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer. Will lives in Pensacola, Florida.