COLSON WHITEHEAD, THE NICKEL BOYS
Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad (an Oprah’s Book Club selection and winner of the 2016 National Book Award and 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. He was named New York’s 11th State Author in 2018. His most recent book, New York Times bestseller The Nickel Boys, won the 2020 Pultizer Prize for Fiction (making him only the fourth writer to win two Pulitzers in the Fiction category), the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Colson Whitehead’s reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and the 2020 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. He has taught at the University of Houston, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, New York University, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and been a Writer-in-Residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and the University of Wyoming. He lives in New York City.
Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls. As the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda sets the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthropy. She is also the founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company working to drive social progress for women and families in the United States, and the author of the bestselling book The Moment of Lift.
Melinda grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Duke University and an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School. Melinda spent the first decade of her career developing multimedia products at Microsoft before leaving the company to focus on her family and philanthropic work. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, Bill. They have three children, Jenn, Rory, and Phoebe.
KWAME ALEXANDER,
Kwame Alexander is the Innovator-in-Residence at the American School of London, and the New York Times Bestselling author of 37 books, including Caldecott-Medal and Newbery-Honor winning picture book The Undefeated, How to Read a Book, Swing, Rebound, which was shortlisted for prestigious Carnegie Medal, and, his NEWBERY medal-winning middle grade novel, The Crossover. As the host of the new kid’s television program, WordPlay, and Founding Editor of VERSIFY, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, he aims to Change the World One Word at a Time.
ERICA BAUERMEISTER,
Erica Bauermeister is the NYT bestselling author of four novels, including The Scent Keeper (a Reese’s Book Club pick) and The School of Essential Ingredients. Her memoir, House Lessons, is about the renovation of a trash-filled house, and how the spaces we live in affect who we are.
CHARLES BLOW,
Charles M. Blow is an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times, where his column appears on Mondays and Thursdays. Mr. Blow is also a CNN commentator and the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times best-selling memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones and his new title The Devil You Know.
MIKE CHEN,
Mike Chen is the author of Here And Now And Then (a finalist for Goodreads Choice - Best Sci-Fi, CALIBA Golden Poppy, and the Compton Crook Award) and A Beginning At The End ("a brilliant, fragile path through the darkness" -- Library Journal). His short fiction is featured in Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View -- The Empire Strikes Back, and he has covered geek culture for sites such as Tor.com, The Mary Sue, and StarTrek.com. In a previous life, he covered the NHL for Fox Sports, SB Nation, and other outlets.
HSIAO-CHING CHOU,
Ching Chou is the author of Chinese Soul Food (Sasquatch, 2018) and Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food (Sasquatch, Jan. 2021). She teaches Chinese home cooking at in the Seattle area. She serves as the chair of the James Beard Foundation’s Book Awards Committee, and as a member of the board of directors forthe Ballard Food Bank. In her “day job,” she’s a communications and marketing consultant.
NAIMA COSTER, 
WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS
Naima Coster is the author of two novels: Halsey Street, which was a finalist for the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and What's Mine and Yours, which will be published in March of 2021. In 2020, she received the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honor.
MATT DE LA PEÑA,
Matt de la Peña is the New York Times Bestselling, Newbery Medal-winning author of seven young adult novels (including Mexican WhiteBoy, We Were Here, and Superman: Dawnbreaker) and five picture books (including Love and Last Stop on Market Street). In 2016 he was awarded the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award. Matt received his MFA in creative writing from San Diego State University and his BA from the University of the Pacific where he attended school on a full basketball scholarship. In 2019 Matt was given an honorary doctorate from UOP.
Robert Dugoni is the award-winning and critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police detective series, the Charles Jenkins spy series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and stand-alone novels including The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. Several of his novels are in development for television series. Dugoni’s books have sold more than seven million copies worldwide, have been published in more than twenty-five countries and translated into more than two dozen languages.
A.J. HACKWITH,
A. J. Hackwith is the author of the Hell's Library fantasy series, which begins with The Library of the Unwritten, a library where all the books never written exist. Her work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, and assorted anthologies. She has also written science fiction romance as Ada Harper. A. J. is an alumni of the Viable Paradise writer's workshop and the internet school of surviving as a femme online. She writes from the woods of Washington state, where she hermits with her partner, an awful excuse for a dog, and two terrible orange cats.
Donna Barba Higuera grew up in a tiny desert town in central California surrounded by agricultural and oil fields. Rather than wrangling dust devils, she’d spend recess squirreled away in the janitor’s closet with a good book. Her favorite hobbies were calling the library’s dial-a-story over and over again and sneaking into a restricted pioneers’ cemetery to weave her own spooky tales using the crumbling headstone for inspiration. Donna’s Middle Grade and Picture books reinvent history, folklore, and or her own life experience into compelling storylines. She still dreams in Spanglish.
Donna Barba Higuera won a 2021 Ppura Belpré honor award for Lupe Wong Won't Dance.
KIKU HUGHES,
Kiku Hughes is an author and illustrator from the Seattle area. Her debut graphic novel, Displacement, tells the story of her family's experiences in Japanese American incarceration camps, and thelasting legacy of racist persecution.
Kiku Hughes won the 2020-2021 Asian/Pacific Literature Award for the Displacement.
PRAMILA JAYAPAL,
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal represents Washington's 7th Congressional District, and is the first Indian American elected to the House of Representatives and one of only 14 naturalized citizens currently serving in Congress. She is the elected co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, vice chair of the Equality Caucus, and a member of the House Judiciary, Budget, and Education & Labor committees. She is the founder of OneAmerica, the largest immigrant rights advocacy organization in Washington state, and has spent 20 years leading organizing and advocacy efforts for women's and immigrant rights and racial and economic justice.
GISH JEN,
Gish Jen is the author of four previous novels, a story collection, and two works of nonfiction. Her honors include the Lannan Literary Award for fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She delivered the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University. She teaches from time to time in China and otherwise lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
ALKA JOSHI,
Alka Joshi was born in India and raised in the U.S. since the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts and runs an advertising and marketing agency. She lives in Pacific Grove, California, with her husband. The Henna Artist is her first novel. The sequel, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, will be released July, 2021, and will be followed by a third book in the trilogy. Miramax TV has optioned The Henna Artist for an episodic TV series starring Freida Pinto.
LAUREN KO,
Lauren Ko is an artist, writer, self-taught home baker, and the founder of the popular Instagram account @lokokitchen, where she has amassed over 300,000 followers. Her colorful geometric style made all hell bake loose on the frontier of contemporary pie art, and her iconic signature spoke design has been dubbed the “modern lattice.” Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, O Magazine, Buzzfeed'sTasty, and on-screen in Martha Bakes. Her creations continue to inspire globally from Seattle, WA, where Lauren lives with her husband, Ben, and their bear dog, Santi.
NINA LACOUR,
Nina LaCour is the author of the widely acclaimed Hold Still, The Disenchantments, and Everything Leads to You, and the Michael L. Printz Award-winner We Are Okay. She is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of You Know Me Well. Formerly a bookseller and high school English teacher, she now writes and parents full time. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Nina lives with her family in San Francisco, California.
Lily LaMotte is the debut author of Measuring Up with HarperAlley. When she isn’t writing picture books and middle grade graphic novels, she’s cooking up new recipes. Sometimes, when she sees the gray clouds outside her window in the Pacific Northwest, she loads up the camper van for a writing retreat camping trip with her husband and two dogs. Lily LaMotte has an MFA from Hamline’s Writing for Children and Young Adults. She is passionate about supporting libraries and is a King County Library System Foundation Board member. She was also on the SCBWI Western WA advisory committee for many years.
Karl Marlantes grew up in a logging town on the Oregon coast, commercial fishing with his grandfather. He graduated from Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, before serving as a Marine in Vietnam. He is the bestselling author of Matterhorn, What It Is Like to Go to War and Deep River, and a two time winner of the Washington State Book Award. He lives in rural Washington.
Emma Teal Laukitis and Claire Neaton grew up on a homestead called Stonewall Place on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. They have worked on their family’s commercial fishing boats inthe Bering Sea since they were young. Born from summers fishing with their family, Emma and Claire’s appreciation for their unique upbringing and for sustainable fisheries became central to many of their pursuits. Emma studied art and English at Williams College and earned a master’s degree in design at the University of Washington, and Claire studied business and nutrition at the University of Vermont.
CISCOE MORRIS,
Ciscoe is well known in the media world of TV and radio. His book, Ask Ciscoe, was among the top selling garden books nationwide. In addition, he wrote a weekly garden column for the Seattle Post Intelligencer followed by the Seattle Times. Besides gardening, he is passionate about travel and leads garden tours all over the world.
STEVE OLSON,
Steve Olson’s previous book, Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens, received the Washington State Book Award, and his book Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins was nominated for the National Book Award. A fourth-generation Washingtonian, he now lives in Seattle.
IJEOMA OLUO, 
Ijeoma Oluo is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and the forthcoming Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work on race has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, among many others. She has twice been named to the Root 100, and she received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
MITALI PERKINS
HOME IS INBETWEEN
Mitali Perkins (mitaliperkins.com) writes books for young people, including You Bring the Distant Near, Rickshaw Girl, and Home Is In Between. Mitali's goal is to help readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening. She lives in Northern California. Here's an overview of her work.
MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE,
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (mattildabernsteinsycamore.com) is the award-winning author of three novels and a memoir, and the editor of five nonfiction anthologies. Her new book, The Freezer Door, set almost entirely in Seattle, was described by Maggie Nelson as “a book about not belonging that made me feel deeply less alone.”
Aiden Thomas is a YA author with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, OR. As a queer, trans Latinx, Aiden advocates strongly for diverse representation in all media. Aiden’s special talents include: quoting The Office, finishing sentences with “is my FAVORITE”, and killing spiders. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color.
Lindy West is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She is the bestselling author of Shrill, a memoir which has been adapted into a Hulu series starring Aidy Bryant, The Witches Are Coming and Shit, Actually. She lives in Seattle.
Molly Wizenberg is the author of two bestselling books, A Homemade Life and Delancey, and the James Beard Award–winning blog Orangette. She has written for the Washington Post, the Guardian, Saveur, and Bon Appétit, and she also cohosts the podcast Spilled Milk. With chef Brandon Pettit, Wizenberg cofounded the award-winning Seattle restaurants Delancey and Essex.
Jess Walter is the author of nine books, most recently the national bestseller The Cold Millions and #1 New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Ruins; The Zero, finalist for the National Book Award; and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award. His work has been published in 32 languages and his short fiction has appeared three times in Best American Short Stories.
