Cynthia Leitich Smith is a bestselling, acclaimed author of books for all ages, including
Here Come the Aunties!, Firefly Season, Jingle Dancer, Indian Shoes, On a Wing and a Tear, Sisters of the Neversea, Blue Stars: Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem (with Kekla Magoon),
Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Harvest House, and
Hearts Unbroken, which won the American Indian Youth Literature Award. Cynthia is also the anthologist of
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, and
Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories, which won the Michael L. Printz Award and the American Indian Youth Literature Award. She has been honored with the American Library Association’s Children’s Literature Lecture Award and has been named the NSK Neustadt Laureate. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children's Books, and served as the Katherine Paterson Endowed Chair on the faculty of the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Denton, Texas.
Darcie Little Badger is an award-winning Lipan Apache author with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy novels of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula and Ignyte Award, as well as a Newbery Honor, and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Darcie lives with her husband in Texas. You can visit her online at darcielittlebadger.com.
Karina Iceberg holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut picture book, A Good Hide, publishes with Heartdrum in January 2026. Her work has appeared in two anthologies: Legendary Frybread Drive-In, edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Onward: Climate Fiction to Inspire Hope, edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter. Karina is a member of the Aleut (Unangax^) and Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) Nations of Alaska.
Cheryl Isaacs can often be found running through the Carolinian forest of southwestern Ontario, where she has fearlessly enjoyed the trails for years. Her Kanyen’kéha culture often appears in her writing, including her first horror duology, The Unfinished and The Others.
Andrea L. Rogers is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts with an MFA in creative writing. Andrea lives and writes in the Boston Mountains in Arkansas.
