Hi, I’m Cindy Kate Wills. I wrote and illustrated Cookie Math. I am originally from Norfolk, Virginia. I have always loved to draw and added watercolor painting during the pandemic. I now live out of the country with my husband and we love traveling together, although really hate flying! I speak English and Spanish, and work as an interpreter. Writing and illustrating a children’s book was something that I thought about doing but didn’t think I would ever be able to do.

Kimberly W. Heiman is a biology professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She took up creative writing as a pandemic coping strategy, earning an MFA from Wilkes University. Her first book, The Scientist and the Story, a personal storytelling craft book for STEM professionals, is forthcoming from the University of California Press.

Sehaj Kasture is an Indian-born writer and creative who loves telling stories that celebrate imagination, kindness, and the little things that make each of us unique. Inspired by her own birthmark, she wrote Meera’s Magical Birthmark to help children grow up feeling proud of exactly who they are.

EMMY-nominated journalist recently retired from fifty-four years in media (TV/radio). Nominated for the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame as a Local Legend. Nominated for the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame as a Legendary Communicator. Self-published two previous books.

Michelle Myers is an award-winning poet, author, and educator whose work centers storytelling, cultural memory, and voice. A founding member of the Asian American spoken word poetry group Yellow Rage, she was among the first Asian American women featured on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. Her work appears in numerous anthologies and outlets, including USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Smithsonian Channel.

Leslie Reta is an author, trainer, coach, and advocate with over twenty years of experience working with families impacted by abuse, neglect, trauma, and addiction. Her work combines professional experience with a deeply personal understanding of what it means to love someone struggling with addiction while trying to protect the people caught in the middle.

Jack Rife was born in 1941 in Graham, Texas, where he spent his youth. As a boy, he milked cows, helped in his father’s wrecking yard, and spent summers doing seasonal labor with his family in the cherry orchards of Michigan. In high school, he was a track and football star. On a whim, he enrolled at UT Austin, financing the tuition through stints in the oil fields of west Texas. He studied literature and ancient languages.

Before moving to the United States in July 2012, Claire graduated from the French University of Sorbonne Nouvelle with a bachelor’s in French modern literature and languages. While at the university, she studied under Cécile Ladjali, a well-known French author of more than thirty books published by Actes Sud. Cécile then inspired Claire to begin her writing journey and work in the publishing industry.

My creative nonfiction and poems (some award-winning) have appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. Originally from Boston, I remained in California after completing my PhD at Berkeley. I was a tenured professor at a community college for many years and live in Oakland with my husband.

Afshine Emrani, MD, FACC, is a board-certified cardiologist and Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. He founded Los Angeles Heart Specialists in 1999 and has cared for patients for nearly thirty years, earning recognition as a Castle Connolly Nationwide Top Doctor since 2008 and an LA Magazine Super Doctor since 2010. He sees patients in English, Farsi, and Spanish.