Sunny is the booktuber behind the YouTube channel a sunny book nook, producer and co-host of The Lavender Menace Podcast, and writing editor of Beloved Zine. In all of her work, she hopes to promote literacy and encourage critical thinking. Educating people on communism and feminism, building lesbian and trans communities around butch-femme identity, and giving readers book recommendations are Sunny’s main hobbies and passions. 

Mariama J. Lockington is an adoptee, author, and educator. She has been telling stories and making her own books since the second grade, when she wore shortalls and flower leggings every day to school. Mariama’s middle-grade debut, For Black Girls Like Me, earned five starred reviews and was a Today Show Best Kids’ Book of 2019. Her sophomore middle-grade book, In The Key of Us, is a Stonewall Honor Award book and was featured in the New York Times. Her debut Young Adult novel, Forever is Now came out in May of 2023.  Mariama holds a Masters in Education from Lesley University and a Masters in Fine Arts in Poetry from San Francisco State University, she calls many places home, but currently lives in Kentucky with her wife, her little sausage dog, Henry, and an abundance of plants. You can find her on Twitter @marilock and on Instagram/TikTok @forblackgirlslikeme.

Jen Ferguson is Métis and white, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and Creative Writing. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. Her debut YA novel, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (Heartdrum/HarperCollins) won a 2022 Governor General's Literary Award and is a 2023 Stonewall Honor Book. Jen's second YA novel with Heartdrum, Those Pink Mountain Nights, releases September 12, 2023.

Dannie lives in Arizona with her partner of over two decades and the very goodest geriatric rescue pup. When she isn’t writing, you can find her reading, hiking, or cooking with her husband. BETWEEN SAFE AND REAL is her debut novel. and she was fortunate to get to talk about it at the Association of Independent School Librarians virtual conference and the American Library Association’s annual convention in Washington D.C. in 2022. You can follow her on Twitter @danniemolguin