Mateo Askaripour's work aims to empower people of color to seize opportunities for advancement, no matter the obstacle. He was a 2018 Rhode Island Writers Colony writer-in-residence, and his writing has appeared in Entrepreneur, Lit Hub, Catapult, The Rumpus, Medium, and elsewhere. His debut novel BLACK BUCK was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @AskMateo.

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Teodoro Leo has a passion for producing new and innovative ways to tell, experience and consume stories. He has brought his expertise to a diverse set of roles throughout his career, including Associate Editor at AfterShock Comics and Seismic Press, Themed Experience Designer at TAL Creative and Head Chef/F&B Operations Manager at the Lake Mohawk Pool & Spa.

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Chantal V. Johnson is a tenant lawyer and writer. A graduate of Stanford Law School and a 2018 Center for Fiction Emerging Writers Fellow, she lives in New York. Her debut novel, POST-TRAUMATIC, publishes April 5, 2022 and is available for preorder wherever books are sold.

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American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny has earned his reputation as an artist with something to say. With Helio Arts, he commissions artists to write, direct, and film original stories, leveraging his personal power to help elevate new voices and visions in the classical performing arts world.

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Albert Samaha is an investigative journalist, Inequality Editor at BuzzFeed News, and author of two books. His second book, Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes, for which he received a Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant, is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography. His first book, Never Ran, Never Will: Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City, was winner of the New York Society Library’s 2019 Hornblower Award, a finalist for the 2019 PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award, and adapted into the Netflix docuseries We Are: The Brooklyn Saints.

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Jonathan Auxier is the New York Times bestselling author of strange stories for strange kids. His novels include the Peter Nimble series, the bestselling Night Gardener, and the award-winning Sweep: the Story of a Girl and her Monster. Jonathan's newest series, The Fabled Stables is in bookstores now. Jonathan grew up in Canada and currently lives in rainy Pittsburgh with his family and their adorable pet umbrella.

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Fred Koehler is an artist and storyteller whose real-life misadventures include sunken boats, shark encounters, and hurricanes. He has published numerous picture books and founded Ready Chapter 1.

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Tomi Obaro is the deputy culture editor at BuzzFeed News. Her novel Dele Weds Destiny (Knopf) will be out on June 28, 2022.

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Daphne Palasi Andreades is the author of the debut novel, BROWN GIRLS, which follows a group of young women of color who are first and second-generation immigrants, as they come-of-age in Queens, New York—the author’s hometown. BROWN GIRLS is told through a choral voice and blurs poetry and prose to explore hybrid identities and solidarity across different diasporas. Published January 2022 by Random House, BROWN GIRLS was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice, an Indies Next Pick, and featured on ‘Most Anticipated’ lists in major outlets such as The Guardian, Chicago Review of Books, Electric Lit, and more. BROWN GIRLS is now available in the UK and Commonwealth and is forthcoming in France and Germany. A graduate of CUNY and Columbia University’s MFA Fiction program, Daphne is now at work on her second novel.

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Sharan Dhaliwal founded, developed and now runs the UK’s leading South Asian magazine Burnt Roti, which is a platform for young creatives to showcase their talent, find safe spaces and destigmatize topics around mental health and sexuality, amongst others. Her bylines include i-D, HuffPost, the Guardian and was on the list of global influential women for the BBC 100 Women 2019. Her debut nonfiction, Burning My Roti, was published in February 2022. 

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Varud Gupta is the author of the graphic novel Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love and the nonfiction travel memoir Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan: Food of the Gods (both Penguin Random House). His food and travel articles have appeared in National Geographic and America's Test Kitchen, among others, and his short graphic fiction has appeared in Comixense and Inklab. He has worked as head of originals for the production studio Resting Kitsch Face, and taught for the Indian Institute of Art and Design. He holds a BS from New York University.

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Keaton Wooden is a Rhodes and Emmy-nominated screenwriter, composer, and social impact producer. Starting in ethnography and documentary, Wooden's work focuses on projects that change social consciousness and have sustainable, benevolent production and distribution methods. To date, he has produced dozens of world-premiere theatrical projects and raised over a million dollars for charity, while making narrative films, musicals, and stage productions. Notable works include the award-winning trans civil war musical "Albert Cashier" with the producers of "The Carole King Musical,"  social justice film "Kenneth Chamberlain" with EP Morgan Freeman, and the single "Sirens" sung by Hamilton star Javier Muñoz, to raise funds for first responders. Wooden serves around the country as a creative consultant and speaker on creative artist feedback (SAG, IFP Chicago), semiotics & ethnography (Kingston University, Ball State, Oxford) and social impact producing/fundraising.

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Lindz Amer creates LGBTQ+ and intersectional social justice media for kids and families. They are the founder and CEO of Queer Kid Creative, a digital edutainment company spreading queer joy through queer-centered intersectional all-ages media. They created their beloved LGBTQ+ family webseries Queer Kid Stuff in 2015 which has blossomed into a brand new podcast called Rainbow Parenting, a live performance series, a weekly newsletter, educational resources, membership program, and more! Their queer and gender-affirming parenting book is slated for publication with Macmillan in 2023. They also write and consult for children’s television including their work on the Webby award-winning Blues Clues & You “Pride Parade” music video, The Fay and Fluffy Show a Canadian preschool show with drag queen hosts, and more! You can watch their TED Talk on why kids need to learn about gender and sexuality now with more than 2.5 million views! When Lindz isn’t trying to build a queer kid media empire, you can probably find them cooking, fiddling with their ukulele collection, working on a puzzle, painting, or snuggling with their pooch and wife on a New England beach.

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Audrey Mardavich serves as Senior Director of Content for the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX, overseeing the strategic planning, operations, and management of the network, including new launches and ongoing series. Additionally, Mardavich is an executive producer of "Radiotopia Presents," a Peabody Award-nominated podcast feed and home to limited series from independent audio creators, in which creators retain 100% ownership and creative control of their work. Prior to Radiotopia and PRX, Mardavich served as a Boston storySLAM producer for “The Moth” and at the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. She is also a poet.

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Paul Liberti has worked 25 years as a skilled animation voice director, teacher, coach, audiobook director, accent coach and all kinds of voice-over. He teaches nationally for The SAG/AFTRA Foundation and at Universities. He is also an accent coach for Broadway, West End, SAG/AFTRA Film & TV. He is also the voice of Curious George. 

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