Blue, Ranier & Lyriq

Blue, Ranier & Lyriq

Lyriq Blue and Ranier Blue are a daddy daughter duo out of Upstate NY who decided to create “The Light In Me” as a way to help kids like Lyriq with their self-esteem. blyriqmusic.com/tlim

Awards
Featured at the Catskill “Books and Breakfast“ event in January 2023
Interviewed by Stephanie Rivas live on WTEN News 10 in January 2023

3 Fun Facts

1. Lyriq is a performer who’s stage name is a play on her real name.
2. Ranier is a self taught producer who makes music with Lyriq
3. Lyriq loves converse and Air Force one sneakers.

Rosswood, Eric

Rosswood, Eric

Eric Rosswood is a multi-award-winning author whose broad body of work centers around family, authenticity, diversity, hope, and strength. His best selling parenting books focus on the LGBTQ+ journey to parenthood and have helped couples around the world start their own families. His latest picture book, STRONG, featuring the world’s first and only openly gay professional strongman, won a 2023 Stonewall Honor from the American Library Association.  www.EricRosswood.com

Awards
Stonewall Honor Book (2013)
WINNER – Best Parenting/Family/Relationships book – IAN Book of the Year Awards (2017)
WINNER – Best Parenting book – Readers’ Favorite Book Awards (2017)
WINNER – Best LGBTQ Non-Fiction book – International Best Book Awards (2017)
AWARD-WINNING FINALIST International Book Awards (2017)

3 Fun Facts

1. Once participated in a giant pillow fight flash mob with hundreds of other people.
2. Climbed to the top of Mount Fuji.
3. Stayed the night in a hotel made out of ice. Even the bed was made out of ice!

Sullivan, Lauren

Sullivan, Lauren

Lauren Sullivan is an artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. Though she produces video content full time, her creative pursuits span nearly every medium, from pastry to pencil to Procreate. She is the illustrator of Bears Don’t Share, an immersive and action-packed story written by Rick Bobrick. In her free time, Lauren loves making fresh pasta, hiking in the greenest parts of Southern California she can find, and visiting her hometown of Tacoma, Washington. www.laurensullivanartworks.com

3 Fun Facts

1. I’m learning to play the banjo.
2. You may have seen my hands in cooking videos before. They have over 2 billion views on Facebook!
3. I love the Pacific Northwest (especially the weather).

Agna, Gwen

Agna, Gwen

Gwen Agna has been an educator for over 45 years, most recently the principal of the Jackson St. Elementary School in Northampton, MA.  She was trained in early childhood education and strove to promote the principles of child and human development in elementary school classrooms. She did her undergraduate work at Nottingham University College of Education, Nottingham, UK. and has a master’s in education from Antioch New England Graduate School She recently received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Smith College in Northampton, MA. She was awarded a Fulbright Memorial Teacher scholarship to study in Japan. She was born in Myanmar and lived in Haiti as a child. She has travelled extensively in Asia and Europe. She taught preschool and kindergarten in schools in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. She served as the Northampton Public Schools’ Early Childhood and Civil Rights Coordinator in the late 80’s and 90’s. In this position, she worked to incorporate social justice, anti-bias, and anti-racism in all aspects of classroom practice.

She continued this work as the leader of the Jackson St. School. Recently retired, she is, as an elder, exploring all ways to share her knowledge and experience as well as to keep learning from humans of all ages. She is dedicated to making the world a safe and happy one for all children. She lives in Northampton with her husband, Tom Marantz, has two children, and two grandchildren.

3 Fun Facts

1. I own a 1960 Morris Minor Traveller which is being converted to electric.
2. I have a teapot collection – 127 of them.
3. I’m known as “Nama” to my two granddaughters, ages 2 and 10.

Roxas, Isabel

Roxas, Isabel

Isabel Roxas is a storyteller and graphic artist. Her debut graphic novel, The Adventures of Team Pom: Squid Happens features three questing kids, a lonely giant squid, dramatic synchronized swimming routines, nefarious rats in bowler hats, mayhem and pigeons.

She has also illustrated several books for young readers, including Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli and Holding On by Sophie N. Lee.

Isabel was born in Manila, Philippines, was raised on luscious mangoes, old wives’ tales, and monsoon moons. She now resides in New York City with her husband and several adopted plants. https://studioroxas.com/

Awards/Honors
2022 Society of Illustrators Original Art show (Holding On)
2022 American Library Association Notable Book (Our Skin)
2022 NCTE Notable Books in Poetry (My Thoughts are Clouds)
2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art show (Team Pom)
2021 CLPE Core reading list (Team Pom)

3 Fun Facts

1. I always trip myself while walking.
2. I can’t resist a crane claw machine. Even though I am absolutely terrible at playing it and have NEVER won a toy, I am forever hopeful.
3. I enjoy collecting facts about pigeons. Did you know? It is a misconception that they dirty animals. They actually like to groom themselves and bathe often, especially during the summer months.

Rogers, Kheris

Rogers, Kheris

Kheris Rogers is an author and CEO of the widely known apparel brand and social movement “Flexin’ In My Complexion.” Born in 2006 in Los Angeles, California, Rogers started Flexin’ In My Complexion after years of bullying in school because of her dark skin complexion. At just 10 years old, she became the world’s youngest designer to ever showcase at New York Fashion Week. Her clothing line has been worn by celebrities such as Whoopi Goldburg, Lupita N’yongo, Lena Waithe, and Alicia Keys. flexininmycomplexion.com

Awards
Teen Vogue 21 Under 21, InStyle Magazine’s Badass 50 list, and honored by the Princess Diana Organization

3 Fun Facts

1. Kheris is a Leo, youngest designer to ever showcase at New York Fashion Week and is a teen entrepreneur

Reidy, Jean

Reidy, Jean

When Jean Reidy was a kid, she was a reader, a writer, a poet and a dreamer. She’s happy to still be that kid at heart. Her bestselling and award-winning picture books have earned their spots as favorites among readers and listeners of all ages and from all over the world. Truman, also illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins, was a Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor winner, a Colorado Book Award winner and was recognized on “Best of” lists by School Library Journal, the New York Times, NPR and Amazon. Visit Jean at https://jeanreidy.com/.

3 Fun Facts

1. I’ve never had a pet spider, but I have resided with an assortment of not-so-well-behaved turtles, parakeets, lizards, goldfish, hamsters and even one feisty, fire-bellied toad.
2. My favorite food is crunchy peanut butter … right off the spoon.
3. I’m a fan of football, train trips and tall, tall mountains.

Pullen, Mark David

Pullen, Mark David

ALTHOUGH HE HAS ALWAYS HAD A VIVID IMAGINATION, his call to writing never manifested itself until his late twenties. Being the boy who sought after adventure and escape, he would use his imagination to create strange characters and unique far-away worlds. Some of those strange characters and far away lands cemented themselves into his mind and later became part of the firm foundation for his writing style.

NOW AN ADULT, he lives with his wife, two children, and their crazy pup, Toby, in Upstate New York. The use of his imagination and sense of wonder as a child has proven to be the first steps on the long road to becoming a published author in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre. His debut novel “The Oasis King” Was released in February of this year.

3 Fun Facts

1. I love to cook.
2. I enjoy playing vintage video games.
3. The dogs in “The Oasis King” are named after my childhood dogs and my basset hound Toby.

Ausherman, Maria Elizabeth

Ausherman, Maria Elizabeth

Maria Elizabeth Ausherman, a teacher and independent scholar, lives in Stuyvesant, New York with her husband, Steven Taylor, a photographer. She has two wonderful grown-up daughters and an awesome granddaughter. She enjoys travel, hiking, reading, and spending time with her family, friends, and neighbors.

The author of Masters of Shape: The Lives and Art of American Women Sculptors, Behind the Camera: American Women Photographers Who Shaped How We See the World, The Photographic Legacy of Frances Benjamin Johnston, and co-author with Patricia Jennings of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Hawaii, she earned her B.A. in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in Cinema Studies from the City University of New York and an M.Ed. in Social Science Education from the University of Georgia in Athens, where she also obtained a graduate certificate in historic preservation and completed coursework and a dissertation for a Ph.D. in Art. 

Awards
– League of Women Voters Citizenship Award
– Cherokee Rose Garden Club Award
– Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Historical (Non-Fiction)
– Starred Reviews

3 Fun Facts

1. Maria wants people to love art history as much as she does.
2. Maria loves team work. She played wing on the Varsity Women’s Field Hockey team at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill where she grew up.
3. Maria’s favorite job of all time was using a 1733 Danish map to find historic plantation sites on St. John, the smallest of the three main U.S. Virgin Islands.

Bulion, Leslie

Bulion, Leslie

Leslie Bulion creates award-winning science poetry steeped in hands-on learning experiences, nature observation, research, humor and imagery in a variety of poetic forms. Her illustrated collections invite readers on multi-layered science adventures exploring spiders, birds, sea creatures, insects, amphibians, and more. Leslie’s graduate science background and years as a school social worker inform both her poetry and her science-infused novels for young readers. She offers lively and engaging author visits worldwide. Her two newest science poetry books, SERENGETI: PLAINS OF GRASS and GALAPAGOS: ISLANDS OF CHANGE take readers on poetic tours of two of Earth’s remarkable ecosystems (Peachtree 2022, 2023). www.lesliebulion.com

NCTE Notable Poetry, NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, Bank Street College Best Books, Parents’ Choice Awards, AAAS Outstanding Science Book

3 Fun Facts

1. The first critter I ever saw while scuba diving was a common mudpuppy (a large, freshwater aquatic salamander—an amphibian) in the depths of freezing cold Cayuga Lake, Ithaca, NY.
2. My parents were teachers who also worked as summer camp counselors, so I started summer camp when I was three years old. My favorite camp was just about an hour south of Hudson, in Beacon, NY.
3. I never go exploring without my __________? How would you fill in this blank? For me, it’s my rubber boots!

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