Jesse Byrd is an award-winning children's book author from New Orleans and Oakland, CA. He has six published works and has also helped over 400 kids become published authors through his "Each Story Matters" book publishing workshop. When he's not writing he's serving as a literary agent for 30 authors and illustrators from over a dozen countries. He's MOST proud of being a new dad to his son, Atlas.

Monisha Bajaj is a South Asian American author and a Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco. A Year of Kites (2026) is her debut picture book and was inspired by her lifelong love of kites. She is the editor and author of eight academic books and numerous articles on issues of peace, human rights, migration, and education; she is also the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Human Rights Education. Dr.

A student at Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Craziest Cajun Football Tale is Melina Alipio’s debut illustrated children’s book. She loves all things in the visual arts from traditional and mixed media to photography and digital art.

A New Orleans native and LSU graduate, Gary Alipio wears a lot of hats: he’s a children’s book author, digital marketer, photographer, SCBWI regional advisor, a fishing aquatic instructor, and a high school bass fishing coach.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi  is one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. His books have been translated into multiple languages and republished throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Kendi is Professor of History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism.