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Derek Francis

Derek Francis is a lifelong Twin Cities resident and educator with more than 15 years of experience. He began as a high school counselor,...
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Charissa Bates

Charissa Bates is an award-winning children’s author, children’s mental health therapist, and speaker who is passionate about helping families find joy through storytelling. She...
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Connie Wanek

Connie Wanek lived for over a quarter century in Duluth, Minnesota. She is the author of 10 books, including Rival Gardens: New and Selected...
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Helen Weil

Helen Weil is a poet, writer, and educator from the Chicago suburbs who loves ghost stories and love stories in equal measure. She studied...
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Vanessa Lee Christensen

Vanessa Lee Christensen graduated with an M.A. in Education & Human Development from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She is daughter to...
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Sarah Ghazal Ali

Sarah Ghazal Ali is a Pakistani American writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Theophanies, winner of the GLCA New Writers Award...
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Teresa Peterson

Teresa Peterson (Upper Sioux Community) is author of Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden. She and her uncle, Super LaBatte co-authored...
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Maren Daniels

Maren Daniels, M.A. Ed., is the author-illustrator of The Elements of Art: An Elementary Teacher’s Guide to Color, Shape, Texture & More. As an...
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Minda Gomez

Minda Gomez lives in Minnesota with her husband and three spunky bilingual kids. Their family has created their own brand of "Mexigringo" as they...
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Deb Mercier

Deb Mercier is the author of multiple books for young readers across a wide span of ages and genres, including choose-your-path mysteries, historical fiction,...

Teresa Peterson

Teresa Peterson (Upper Sioux Community) is author of Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden. She and her uncle, Super LaBatte co-authored Voices from Pejuhutazizi: Dakota Stores and Storytellers. Peterson is also the author of the children’s book Grasshopper Girl, has poetry in The Racism Issue of the Yellow Medicine Review, and is…
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Bridget Reistad

Bridget Reistad is an educator and librarian who has worked in K-12, public, and academic libraries for nearly 30 years. A licensed high school English instructor and K-12 Media Specialist, she engages audiences through customized presentations.
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Monica Rojas

Monica Rojas is a bilingual queer Chilean-American who hopes to engage communities through writing and artistic practices involving magical realism, joy, and play. She wrote the picture book Nana and Abuela, received a Mirrors and Windows Fellowship through the Loft Literary Center, is a member of SCBWI, and has created many interactive art installations. Rojas…
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Stephen Shaskan

Stephen Shaskan is the author and illustrator of several picture books including: Big Choo, Toad on the Road, Max Speed, The Three Triceratops Tuff, A Dog is a Dog, and the graphic novel series Pizza and Taco. He also illustrated the picture book Punk Skunks and the graphic novel series Q and Ray, both written…
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Trisha Speed Shaskan

Trisha Speed Shaskan has written over 40 books for children, including the picture book Punk Skunks and Q & Ray graphic novel series, both illustrated by her husband and children’s book author and illustrator, Stephen Shaskan. For the past 20 years, she has taught a variety of creative writing classes to students at every level…
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Crown Shepherd

Crown Shepherd is an author and reading advocate. She has dedicated her life to closing the illiteracy rate within the Black community. Shepherd believes if you can read, you can learn, if you can learn, you can grow, and if you can grow, you can be anything!
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Lisa M. Bolt Simons

Lisa M. Bolt Simons has published more than 70 nonfiction and fiction books, as well as five middle grade “choose your path” novels and an adult history book. She’s twice received an Honorable Mention for the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers in Children’s Literature. Simons has also received three Minnesota State Arts Board grants, a…
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Thomas Kingsley Troupe

Thomas Kingsley Troupe is the author of the Furry & Flo series along with over 300 other fiction and non-fiction books for kids. When he’s not writing, he enjoys reading, watching movies, dabbling in stand-up comedy, and investigating haunted places with the Twin Cities Paranormal Society. Otherwise, he’s probably taking a nap or something. He…
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Connie Wanek

Connie Wanek lived for over a quarter century in Duluth, Minnesota. She is the author of 10 books, including Rival Gardens: New and Selected Poems. Wanek’s poems have appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and many other journals. She was named a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress in…
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Susan Wardell

Susan Wardell grew up in Saint Paul and graduated from St. Cloud State University in Special Education. She taught preschool and ECFE for many years, but when their youngest graduated from college, she and her husband took the plunge and sold their home in the city and moved to their lake cabin, which is now…
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