Yona Deshommes, Author Yona Deshommes began her professional career in education as a certified teaching assistant and Academic Coordinator at Edwin Gould Academy, a residential treatment center in Chestnut Ridge, NY, where she created and facilitated several cultural and educational programs for at-risk youth from the juvenile justice and foster...
Elise Dillsworth, Literary Agent Elise Dillsworth became a literary agent in 2012. Previously she was a commissioning editor at Virago Press, an imprint of Little Brown Book Group. She co-founded the Diversity in Publishing Network in 2004, which received the New Venture Award from Women in Publishing in 2005. She represents...
Celeste Mohammed, Writer CELESTE MOHAMMED is a Trinidadian lawyer-turned-writer and the author of “Pleasantview”(Ig, Jacaranda, 2021; Ouida, 2022) which won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Award for Fiction, and was a finalist for the UK Society of Authors McKitterick Prize for Fiction. Celeste...
Vashti Harrison, Children's Illustrator Vashti Harrison is the New York Times bestselling creator of Big, which was awarded the 2024 Caldecott Medal, a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor, in addition to being a National Book Award finalist. Vashti is...