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2025 Authors & Illustrators
We are excited to share our 2025 line-up! Please note that Dan Gemeinhart is no longer available to join us. We hope to have him at a future festival!
New Presenter
Online presentation only
Gilbert-Sadler Luncheon Series Speaker
Varsha Bajaj
Varsha Bajaj is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade novel, Thirst, which was a Bluebonnet master list selection for 2023-2024 and a Global Read Aloud pick for 2022-2023. Her other middle grade novels include Count Me In, and Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood, which was shortlisted for the Cybils Award and included in the Spirit of Texas Reading program. Varsha is also the author of Its Showtime Kavi, a young middle grade novel, which tells the story of the American Girl of the year 2023. She wrote the picture books The Home Builders (a Dolly Parton Imagination library selection) This is Our Baby, Born Today (a Bank Street Best Book) and How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight. She grew up in Mumbai, India, and when she came to the United States to obtain her master’s degree, her adjustment to the country was aided by her awareness of the culture through books. She lives in Houston, Texas. Her upcoming titles include a middle grade novel and several picture books.
Kelly Barnhill
Kelly Barnhill is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon and six other novels for children (and a few for adults as well). She was awarded a Newbery Medal and a World Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award, as well as the Nebula and Hugo Awards. She lives in Minneapolis, MN with her family.
Rob Buyea
Rob Buyea taught third and fourth graders in Connecticut for six years before moving to Massachusetts, where he taught high school biology for seven years at Northfield Mount Hermon. In addition to teaching, Rob was also a high school wrestling coach. He is best known for his Mr. Terupt series, which has won numerous awards and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. He is also the author of the award-winning Perfect Score series and three stand-alone novels, What Comes Next and The Daredevils (Mark Twain nominee), and Carter Avery’s Tricky Fourth-Grade Year. Rob’s books continue to reach classrooms near and far and have given him the opportunity to visit with students all over the world—something he loves to do. You can visit him at robbuyea.com.
Pablo Cartaya
Pablo Cartaya is an internationally acclaimed author, screenwriter, speaker, and actor. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC, and on Oprah’s Booklist. He has received multiple starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, and Audiofile Magazine for his novels and audiobook narrations. Pablo has worked with Disney, Apple TV+, and Sesame Street on projects adapted from television series and features. He has appeared on NBC’s “Will & Grace”; Telemundo’s “Los Beltran”; played several characters in the Spanish dubbing of “South Park”; been in numerous television commercials and music videos, as well as several award-winning plays and musicals. His novels and plays have been published by Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, McGraw Hill, and Disney Publishing Worldwide. Most recent novels include: The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish, Each Tiny Spark, the climate dystopia The Last Beekeeper, the collection of nonfiction essays Hope Wins: A Collection of Inspiring Stories for Young Readers, the graphic novel Curveball, the short story collection A Little Bit Super; and the forthcoming A Hero’s Guide to Summer Vacation as well as several forthcoming film and television projects.
Mary Downing Hahn
Mary Downing Hahn, a former children's librarian, has been writing children's books for over thirty years and is a perennial favorite with readers. Her books have sold more than 2 million copies and consistently win state children's choice awards. Mary's work spans a variety of genres—historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and fantasy—but she is best known for her ghost stories and mysteries. Beginning with Wait Till Helen Comes, now a classic that has been in print, selling steadily, for over twenty years, Ms. Hahn has created an oeuvre of well-loved spine-chilling tales including The Doll in the Garden, A Time for Andrew, and The Old Willis Place. Always spooky, but never overly frightening, Mary "has mastered the art of the not-too-creepy ghost story" (Kirkus Reviews). An avid reader, traveler, and all-around arts lover, Mary lives in Maryland, the state where she was born and raised and the setting of many of her books. She has two grown daughters.
Leah Henderson
Leah Henderson is a writer, mentor, and teacher. Her critically acclaimed books for young readers include The Magic in Changing Your Stars, The Courage of the Little Hummingbird and the co-edited anthology A Little Bit Super. Her books have appeared on numerous Best Books lists including the New York Public Library, Bank Street College, and the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature. She holds an MFA in Writing and teaches in Spalding University's graduate writing program. Because Leah has serious wanderlust, when she isn’t creating stories, she’s off someplace in the world getting lost, then found, discovering new ones.
Natalie Lloyd
Natalie Lloyd is the New York Times bestselling and award winning author of novels full of wonder, hope, and adventure for young readers. Her books have received accolades from the American Library Association, Parent's Choice, NPR, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. A Snicker of Magic, her first novel, has been optioned for film by Sony TriStar. Hummingbird, her seventh and most personal book, is nominated for the 2024-2025 Mark Twain Award. Her newest book, The Witching Wind, a mountain fairytale full of mystery, friendship, and adventure was published in September. When Natalie's not writing, she loves spending time with her husband, Justin, and their three spoiled dogs.
Pedro Martin
The son of an immigrant sharecropper and one of nine kids, Pedro spent his childhood in the strawberry fields of the Monterey Bay Area. He recollects those years in his online series Mexikid Stories. In 2023 he debuted Mexikid A Graphic Memoir which garnered him the Newbery Honor Award, An Eisner Award, as well as the Pura Belpré Author and Illustrator awards. Mexikid has also landed on many end of the year best-of lists, including The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Amazon, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, The Guardian, and Booklist. Pedro lives with his very talented wife and two somewhat talented dogs in Kansas City, Missouri.
Dorinda Nicholson
Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson was born in Hawaii to a Hawaiian mother and a Caucasian father. As civilians, they were living in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack and stayed until forced to give up their homes after the end of the war. Her mother was a hula teacher, so Dorinda made her debut as a hula dancer at the age of three. She graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu, then attended the University of Hawaii, where she was spotted by a local TV producer and invited to be the hula dancer on a weekly show, “Campus Canteen.” When Dorinda was 18, she won the KGMB-TV “Flight to Fame” contest for a hula performance, which took her to the mainland for the first time. While there, she went on to visit her father’s family in Missouri. After attending college in Kansas City, she became a flight attendant for a national airline and then married Larry Nicholson, a photographer, who is also a designer, illustrator, and multimedia producer. Dorinda and Larry worked as a team in producing their books and DVDs. After the birth of their four sons, Dorinda earned undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in Counseling Psychology. She worked for a large community mental health center in Kansas City as a psychotherapist.
Celia Perez
Celia C. Pérez is the author of the award-winning and critically acclaimed books The First Rule of Punk, Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers, and Tumble. She lives in Chicago with her family, where in addition to writing books about lovable weirdos and outsiders, she works as a librarian.
Tom Phillips
As a dyslexic child, Tom Phillips eagerly listened to any story his mom or older sister would tell him. Today, he writes books that kids can not only enjoy on their own, but also can be read aloud and shared. Tom employs his passion for storytelling as an artist and video editor in Los Angeles, California. His work includes editing for the acclaimed LeVar Burton Kids, and he is currently writing an animated feature based on the short story Sunbird by Neil Gaiman. An armchair detective and Sherlockian, he is an obsessive watcher of crime dramas. Tom can often be found walking his dog, Dr. Watson, with his wife Autumn.
Lilliam Rivera
Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning author of nine works of fiction: a horror book, four young adult novels, three middle grade books, and a graphic novel for DC Comics. Her books have been awarded a Pura Belpré Honor, been featured on NPR, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, and multiple “best of” lists. A Bronx, New York native, Lilliam currently lives in Los Angeles.
Sarah Sax
Sarah Sax grew up in St. Louis on Uncle Scrooge and Sailor Moon comics. She studied storytelling and sequential imagery at Hampshire College and worked in education and gaming in the Bay Area before starting her publishing journey. She is the illustrator of the first three books (Escape This Book: Titanic; Escape this Book: Tombs of Egypt; and Escape This Book: Race to the Moon) in the inventive, interactive Escape This Book series, which has been translated into eight languages. Picture Day, her first of four graphic novels in the Brinkley Yearbook series, was published in June 2023. Tryouts, the next graphic novel in the series came out in May of 2024. Sarah lives and works in Portland, Maine with her husband and a small menagerie of pets.
Gary Schmidt
For almost forty years, Gary Schmidt has taught writing, children's literature, and medieval literature at Calvin University, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy--a Newbery Honor books--and The Wednesday Wars--both a Newbery Honor and Printz Honor book--and Okay for Now--a National Book Award finalist. Recent novels include The Labors of Hercules Be, Just Like That, Orbiting Jupiter, and the soon to be released Jupiter Rising. He lives in Alto, Michigan, in a 200-year old farmhouse--along with his Border collie. He gardens--along with the Border collie--and splits wood for the coming winter--along with the Border collie--and writes--with the Border collie curled under his desk.
Roland Smith
New York Times best selling author Roland Smith has written over 50 books. His 30th novel is The Switch. His most recent novels are The Wildes series. His most recent nonfiction book is They Are Here!
Traci Sorell
Best-selling author Traci Sorell writes inclusive, award-winning historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. She is a two-time Sibert Medal and Orbis Pictus honoree and award-winning audiobook narrator and producer. Eight of her books have received awards from the American Indian Library Association. Other accolades include: Jane Addams Children’s Book Honor Award, Charlotte Huck Honor Award, Septima Clark Women in Literature Honor Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, International Literacy Association's Social Justice Literature Award Winner, and many Best-of and Notables lists. In 2024, she shared two fiction picture books: Being Home, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade, and Clack, Clack! Smack! A Cherokee Stickball Story, illustrated by Joseph Erb. A former federal Indigenous law attorney and policy advocate, Traci is a Cherokee Nation citizen and first-generation college graduate. She lives within her tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. Learn more at www.tracisorell.com.
Melissa Stewart
Melissa Stewart has written more than 200 science books for children, garnering such awards as the Sibert Honor, AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, eighteen NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students, two Green Earth Book Awards, and three ALA Notables. She co-wrote 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books, edited the anthology Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing, and maintains the award-winning blog Celebrate Nonfiction.
Erin Stewart
Erin Stewart is an award-winning author of realistic fiction for teens and tweens. Her most recent novel, The Words We Keep, received the Schneider Family Book Award from the American Library Association for its portrayal of living with anxiety. Her third young adult novel, Every Borrowed Beat, hits shelves with Penguin Random House in early 2025 along with her middle-grade debut with Simon & Schuster, The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner. Erin’s writing is fueled almost entirely by peanut M&Ms and anxiety, and she wouldn’t have it any other way!
Aiden Thomas
Aiden Thomas is a trans, Latinx, New York Times bestselling author of young adult novels. They received an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, OR. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color.
Roderick Townley
Roderick Townley is best known as a writer of children’s fantasies. The Great Good Thing, the first book in his Sylvie Cycle, a trilogy, has just been relaunched in a special 25th anniversary edition. In a starred review, Kirkus called it “utterly winning…a book beloved from the first page.” “Sure to become a classic,” declared VOYA. The Harry Potter artist, Mary Grand Pre, illustrated his award-winning book, The Blue Shoe. Almost always the tallest man in sight, Roderick met his 6’ wife Wyatt, Poet Laureate of Kansas Emerita, in New York at a poetry reading across a crowded room. He has two children, Jesse and Grace. Visit him at RoderickTownley.com.
Andrea Wang
Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her picture book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, among other accolades. Her other books, Summer at Squee, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Luli and the Language of Tea, Magic Ramen, and The Nian Monster, have also received awards and starred reviews. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. She lives in Colorado with her family.
Jeff Zentner
Jeff Zentner is the author of New York Times Notable Books The Serpent King and In the Wild Light, as well as Goodbye Days, Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, his debut for the adult market, Colton Gentry's Third Act, and a YA novel in verse, Sunrise Nights, coauthored with Brittany Cavallaro. Among other honors, he has won the ALA’s William C. Morris Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award twice, the Muriel Becker Award, the International Literacy Association Award, and been longlisted for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize and twice for the Carnegie Medal. He’s a two-time Southern Book Prize finalist; and was a finalist for the Indies Choice Award. He was selected as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and an Indies Introduce pick. His books, which have received 21 starred reviews, have been translated into fifteen languages and been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and in Vanity Fair and People Magazine. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville.