Elisa Houot

Authors

Sarah E. Bailey

Sarah E. Bailey is a romance writer and artist, living in sunny SoCal with her college sweetheart, twin (almost adult) children, and a cuddly little bulldog named Gizmo. She writes coming of age romance with strong heroines and swoony-worthy heroes.

When sheâs not crafting HEAâs, sheâs crafting with just about anything else: yarn, paint, and donât forget the GLITTER. An artist since birth, she grew up with an addiction to creating art in all its forms and canât imagine a day when that could ever change.

Sarah is an eclectic music junkie, a Mexican food connoisseur, and a remedial gardenerânot for a lack of trying.

Ashlee Hashman

Ashlee Hashman is a children's author who is passionate about creating stories that entertain, inspire, and educate.

Her love of numbers prompted her to work as a math teacher, where she discovered how much she loves encouraging young people. Ashlee enjoys all the unique aspects of Midwest living with her husband and toddler. When she's not writing, you can usually find Ashlee giggling at her sister's chickens, rewatching the same two TV shows over and over again, or spending time with her family.

Dea Lenihan

Dea Lenihan is an artist and writer. She has designed many best-selling coloring books for adults, and a book she illustrated, The Open Pillow, was featured for a Special Storytime Weekend at The Eric Carle Museum of Storytime Art.

She studied painting, illustration, and drawing at Rutgers University and Montclair State. She has a passion for vintage writing instruments, ghost stories, and has a tendency to root for the underdog. She lives on the Jersey coast, where she can be found drawing something, usually with Buddy the conure sitting on her shoulder.

Sarah Lindauer

Sarah writes books for MG and YA audiences, because those are the people who still have magic in their hearts.

She grew up in Montana, and while her first love will forever be Big Sky Country, she currently lives in Colorado with her crazy-supportive husband and three crazy-wonderful kids.

Sarah is the librarian for a rural K-12 school and currently has way too many dogs, way too many horses, and even a couple of squirrely goats (against her better judgement).

Betty Piccioli

Betty Piccioli was born in 1991 in Avignon, France, and grew up near Bordeaux. As a child, she gets passionate about reading and writing, escaping reality thanks to Phillip Pullman's or Suzanne Collin's imaginary worlds. She finishes writing her first novel after her studies in political science. Her career as an author really started in 2018, and works for the recognition of the authors' status in France.

To this day, she has published 7 novels, mainly for children, and specializes in choose-your-own-adventure books as well as fantasy.

Allison Rozo

Allison Rozo is a picture book writer and artist. She writes bilingual stories with her Colombian native husband Rafael Rozo, to weave together their two cultures, as well as stories in English. She creates illustrations, designs t-shirts, and paints portraits.

Allison received her BFA from Miami University of Ohio in the History of Art and Architecture and she studied Graphic Design at Harrington College of Design in Chicago. She attended Loyola University Chicago, receiving her Certificate in Paralegal Studies, and was a litigation paralegal at Baker & McKenzie LLP.

Rafael Rozo

Rafael Rozo is a native of Colombia who immigrated to the United States. He and his wife, Allison Rozo, write bilingual English and Spanish picture books to weave together his Hispanic and American cultures. He is proud to create books that represent himself and his two children.

Rafael graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia with a degree in Information Systems, Computer Science. He received a masterâs degree in Business Administration from Universidad de La Salle. Rafael is the co-owner of the Quimera Group, a US based consultancy firm.

Marcy Salenieks

Marcy Salenieks is a picture book writer and native Jersey girl at heart, though she has been living in Florida for the last 25 years. Ever since she can recall, writing has been her main source of creative expression, particularly poetry and songwriting. As a teen, MANY angst- ridden tales of love were written with boxes of tissues on hand. She has always been swept away by beautiful language. A joyful experience, she wrote the lyrics to a song sung at her wedding by a well-known Nashville singer-songwriter.

Writing picture books that stir the heart, and tickle the funny bone, is what she calls her âout of bodyâ experience where she loses all sense of time. Creating characters that children can feel connected to, and inspired by, is what makes writing magical for her, and bringing stories filled with laughter, hope, and wonder to childrenâs lives, is her greatest dream.

Her other passion is her career as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, in which she had a private practice while raising her now three young adult sons. and which now keeps her busy as a Therapeutic Educational Consultant helping families of children and teens. She can be seen happily flipping back and forth all day between writing and helping families.

Ramya G. Spaulding

R.G. Spaulding is an Indian-American author-illustrator. She loves to draw and frequently got into trouble as a kid for daydreaming too much. She spent most of her lunchtime at the school library, escaping into different worlds of the stories she read.

Before she was an author-illustrator, she used to be an engineer because she also loved math and science. She feels extremely privileged to be making up stories with words and pictures. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. She wants to make sure all children can see themselves in the books they read.

Heidi Yates

Heidi Yates is an author, artist, and photographer. She received her BFA from The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. She is an active member of SCBWI, Julie Hedlundâs 12x12 Picture Book Challenge, and a 2021 PBChat mentee.

Heidi splits her time among the lush green forests of Oregon, the sunny Arizona desert, and the packed aisles of a bookstore. (Have you seen Powellâs City of Books?) When sheâs not reading a story, she is usually creating one. Inspiration is everywhere. It doesnât matter if sheâs hiking, biking or taking nature photos, Heidi can always find a seed for a story.