NCTE 2019
Meet our authors in Booth #1110!
Friday, November 22
Annie Silvestro
ANNIE SILVESTRO is the author of numerous children's books, including Bunny's Book Club. She grew up on the Jersey Shore. After graduating from St. Paul’s School and Georgetown University, she moved to New York, where she worked in the editorial departments of Harper’s Bazaar, Talk, and Allure magazines. She later returned to New Jersey, where she currently lives, to start a family and to focus on her passion, writing for children. Visit Annie online at anniesilvestro.com.
Kerry Madden-Lunsford
Kerry Madden (www.kerrymadden.com) is the author of the Appalachian Maggie Valley Trilogy: Gentle's Holler, Louisiana's Song, and Jessie's Mountain (all Viking). Her other books include Offsides, a 1997 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age selection, Writing Smarts, which helps kids craft their own stories and poetry, and Nothing Fancy About Kathryn & Charlie, about a Selma, Alabama friendship between a storyteller and a folk artist. Kerry is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Alabama Birmingham and also teaches at Antioch University in Los Angeles and at the Sewanee Young Writers Conference in Tennessee. The mother of three grown children, she divides her time between Birmingham and Los Angeles.
Emma Otheguy
Emma Otheguy is the author of the middle-grade novel Silver Meadows Summer and the award-winning picture books Martí's Song for Freedom and A Sled for Gabo. She coauthored The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Madre de Aguas of Cuba with Adam Gidwitz, and her most recent publication is her contribution to the new Carmen Sandiego universe, Secrets of the Silver Lion.
Emma holds a PhD in history from New York University, where she focused on colonial Latin America; graduated from Swarthmore College; sold books at an independent bookstore; and taught elementary-school Spanish. She lives in New York City with her family.
Candace Fleming
Candace Fleming is the prolific and versatile award-winning author of many books for children and young adults. Her most recent title, The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, received six starred reviews, was a Kirkus, PW, Booklist, and SLJ Best Book of the Year, and was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as a "fascinating chronicle." Candace's The Family Romanov also received six starred reviews and won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was recognized as a Sibert Nonfiction Honor Book. Amelia Lost received four starred reviews and won the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction. Her many acclaimed picture books include Giant Squid, a Sibert Honor Book. Visit her on the web at candacefleming.com.
Zetta Elliott
Zetta is a Black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children. She was born and raised in Canada, but has lived in the US for over 20 years. Zetta earned her PhD in American Studies from NYU in 2003. She has taught at Ohio University, Louisiana State University, Mount Holyoke College, Hunter College, Bard High School Early College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College. She currently lives in Lancaster, PA.
Andrea J. Loney
Andrea J Loney received the 2014 Lee & Low New Voices Award for her picture book biography TAKE A PICTURE OF ME, JAMES VAN DERZEE!, a Junior Library Guild Fall 2017 selection with a starred Publishers Weekly review and an NAACP Image Award Nomination, published in July 2017. Her picture book BUNNYBEAR, published Albert Whitman in January of 2017, was chosen for the 2018 ALA Rainbow List, and DOUBLE BASS BLUES will be published by Random House Knopf in 2019. Andrea is a proud member of The Brown Bookshelf, SCBWI, and Picture The Books 2017, as well as a board member of the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California. She volunteers for the We Need Diverse Books campaign, and as a story time reader, a second grade coordinator, and a curriculum development specialist at Reading to Kids. A graduate of New York University with both a BFA and an MFA in Dramatic Writing, she’s currently a computer science professor at a local community college. Andrea lives in Los Angeles with her towering stacks of children’s books, her devoted family, and their incredibly spoiled pets.
Katherine Locke
Katherine Locke lives and writes in Philadelphia, where she’s ruled by her feline overlords and her addiction to chai lattes. She writes about that which she cannot do: ballet, time travel, and magic. When she’s not writing, she’s probably tweeting. She not-so-secretly believes most stories are fairy tales in disguise. Her Young Adult debut, The Girl with the Red Balloon, won a 2018 Sydney Taylor Honor Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries and a 2018 Carolyn W. Field Honor Award from the Pennsylvania Library Association.
Saturday, November 23
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is the author of 8th Grade Superzero, It Doesn't Take a Genius, the nonfiction books Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to Tomorrow and Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, and the upcoming Mae Makes a Way and Saving Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Fight for Our Future. She is the coauthor of the middle-grade novel Two Naomis, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and its sequel, Naomis Too. Inspired by some of her favorite family stories and the city she loves, Operation Sisterhood is a celebration of the sweetness and spice of sisterhood. Olugbemisola is a member of the Brown Bookshelf and a former board member of We Need Diverse Books. She lives with her family in New York City, where she writes, makes things, and needs to get more sleep. Discover more about Olugbemisola online at olugbemisolabooks.com.
Lisa Rogers
Lisa Rogers studied English Literature at The College of William and Mary in Virginia, earned a Master’s in English Literature from Boston College, and a Master’s of Library Science from Southern Connecticut State University. She eventually became an elementary school library teacher and children’s book author. Now, she writes from the shores of a pond outside of Boston, Massachusetts (and sometimes from on the pond itself, where she kayaks almost every day in summer) where she lives with her husband, daughter, rabbit, too many fish, and Walker Foxhound, Tucker.
Nic Stone
Nic Stone was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, GA. After graduating from Spelman College, she worked extensively in teen mentoring and lived in Israel for a few years before returning to the US to write full-time. You can find her on her website: nicstone.info.
Camryn Garrett
CAMRYN GARRETT grew up in New York and began her writing career at thirteen, when she was selected as a TIME for Kids reporter, interviewing celebrities like Warren Buffett and Kristen Bell. Since then, her writing has appeared on MTV and in HuffPost and Rookie magazine, and she was recently selected as one of Teen Vogue’s “21 Under 21: Girls Who Are Changing the World.” When she’s not writing, she studies film at NYU, and she’s a proud advocate for diverse stories and storytellers in any medium. Her first two novels, Full Disclosure and Off the Record, received rave reviews from outlets such as EW, Glamour, and SLJ, which said, in its starred review, “Readers will fall in love.” Friday I'm in Love is her third novel and first rom-com.
Laura Shovan
Laura Shovan's debut middle-grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, was a NCTE 2017 Notable Verse Novel and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year, and won a Cybils Award for poetry, as well a Nerdy Book Club award. Her son's experiences as a member of a travel wrestling team were the inspiration for Takedown. Laura and her family live in Maryland, where she is a longtime poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council. Visit her online at laurashovan.com, or follow her on on Facebook (facebook.com/laura.shovan.poet/) and on Twitter at @LauraShovan.
Russell Ginns
Russell Ginns is a writer and game designer who specializes in puzzles, songs, and smart fun. He has worked on projects for a wide variety of organizations, corporations, and publications, including Sesame Workshop, Girl Scouts of America, Nintendo, and Scientific American. Russell lives and writes in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the Samantha Spinner series: Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans, Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs,Samantha Spinner and the Boy in the Ball, and Samantha Spinner and the Perplexing Pants. To learn more about him, visit samanthaspinner.com and follow @rginns on Twitter.
Scott Reintgen
Scott Reintgen is a former public school teacher from North Carolina. He survives mostly on cookie dough, which he is told is the most important food group. When he's not writing, he uses his imagination to entertain his wife, Katie, and their sons, Henry and XXX. Scott is the author of the middle-grade novel Saving Fable, as well as the Nyxia Triad and Ashlords for young adults. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @Scott_Thought.
Jeff Zentner
JEFF ZENTNER is the author of New York Times Notable Book The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, and Rayne and Delilah's Midnite Matinee. He has won the William C. Morris Award, Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, International Literacy Association Award, Westchester Fiction Award, been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and UKLA and was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize and Indies Choice Award. He was a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and an Indies Introduce pick. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville with his wife and son. www.jeffzentnerbooks.com Social: Twitter:@jeffzentner; Facebook: Jeff Zentner-Writer
Sunday, November 24
Erin Soderberg
ERIN SODERBERG lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, three adventure-loving kids, and a mischievous goldendoodle named Wally. Before becoming an author, she was a children's book editor and a cookie inventor, and she also worked for Nickelodeon. She has written many books for young readers, including the other books in the Puppy Pirates series and the Quirks series. Visit her at erinsoderberg.com.
Mae Respicio
Mae Respicio writes novels full of hope and heart. Her debut, The House That Lou Built, received the Asian/Pacific American Library Association Honor Award in Children's Literature and was an NPR Best Book of the Year. She's also the author of the acclaimed Any Day With You and How to Win a Slime War.
Erica S. Perl
Erica S. Perl is the author of books for young readers. Her most recent middle grade novel, All Three Stooges, won the 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature and received a 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor (Silver Medal). In addition to novels, Erica writes picture books (including Chicken Butt! and Goatilocks and the Three Bears), early chapter books (the Arnold and Louise series), early readers (the Truth or Lie series) and plays (The Capybara Conspiracy: A Novel in Three Acts). She has been awarded fellowships by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), the Yiddish Book Center (TENT program), the PJ Library (Author Israel trip), and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Erica divides her time between writing and doing school visits. In 2018, she did a residency at the American International School in Lusaka, Zambia. She also supports literary organizations--including First Book, An Open Book Foundation, PEN/Faulkner’s Writers in School Program, and Turning the Page--in her hometown of Washington, DC and beyond. Erica’s family includes her husband, kids, and four pets (three well-behaved, one not so much). Her favorite foods are popcorn and stale red licorice. Her website is ericaperl.com and her social media presence is @ericaperl.
