Kwame Alexander, an award-winning poet and author, writes picture books for children and cross-genre books for teens. The Crossover — his basketball-concrete poetry-hiphop mashup — was awarded the 2015 Newbery Medal. Alexander is also the creator of the in-school Book-in-a-Day writing and publishing workshop.

Rudine Sims Bishop, professor emerita at Ohio State University, has been referred to as the “mother of” multicultural children’s literature for her groundbreaking American children’s literature research.