Alana Viramontes Albertson is a Latina bestselling romance author (her book Badass hit #3 in entire Amazon paid store, she has had multiple novels in the top 100 paid store, and her Se7en Deadly SEALs romantic thriller serial has over one million views on the Radish fiction app). She has over thirty books published and recently signed a three-book, six-figure deal with Berkley Publishing for the upcoming Latinx romantic comedy series, Spicy Rich Tacos. Alana Albertson holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. She’s a paid social media influencer and the former President of Romance Writers of America’s Contemporary Romance, Young Adult, and Chick Lit chapters. She’s the founder of the non-profit dog rescue, Pugs N Roses.™ She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two young sons, and six dogs.

Juan Alvarado Valdivia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico to Peruvian parents and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of ¡Cancerlandia!: A Memoir and Ballad of a Slopsucker, which was a 2020 International Latino Book Award finalist for Best Collection of Short Stories – English or Bilingual and was chosen as Best Short Story Collection for the 2019 Latinidad List. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Prairie Schooner, The Acentos Review, Black Heart Magazine, The Cortland Review, Label Me Latina/o, Mount Hope, Origins Journal, Somos en escrito, and Thread.

Katrina Carrasco is queer and Latinx, with roots in Southern California and home in Seattle, WA. Katrina received her MFA in Fiction in 2015, and has had stories and essays published by Witness, Literary Hub, CrimeReads, and other outlets. Her debut novel, The Best Bad Things (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux), won a 2018 Shamus Award and was a Lambda Literary Award and Washington State Book Award finalist. She is working on a new novel.

Pablo Cartaya is the author of the critically acclaimed middle-grade novels: The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish, and Each Tiny Spark. His novels center around the themes of family, culture, community, and the cross-section of the Latinx experience in the United States. Pablo has worked as an actor, notably co-starring on NBC’s “Will & Grace” and Telemundo’s “Los Beltran.” Pre-pandemic he was giving performative talks around the country on writing, reading, and identity. Now he’s home working on his next novels and speaking to students, educators, and readers around the world in a virtual format. He calls Miami home and Cuban-American his cultura. Awards and Honors include: 2020 Schneider Family Book Award Honor, 2019 ALSC Notable Book, 2018 American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Honor, 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Middle Grade Audiobook of the Year (for narration and title).

Joe Cepeda received his BFA in Illustration from California State University, Long Beach. He is the illustrator of award-winning picture books such as What a Truly Cool World (Scholastic), Nappy Hair (Knopf), Mice and Beans (Scholastic), and The Swing (Arthur A. Levine Books), which he wrote as well as illustrated. Mr. Cepeda has illustrated books written by numerous notable authors including Gary Soto, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Arnold Adoff, Monica Brown, Julius Lester and Toni Morrison. He’s also illustrated book jackets for several titles, including Esperanza Rising and the Newbery Medal winner Merci Suarez Changes Gears. Mr. Cepeda received a 2002 ALA Pura Belpré Honor and the Recognition of Merit Award for 2000 from the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books. Joe was awarded a Capstone Fellowship for 2016. In addition to his illustrative work, Mr. Cepeda is sought after as a public speaker to schools and other groups. He is the president of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. He lives in Southern California.

Rosalie Morales Kearns, a writer of Puerto Rican and Pennsylvania Dutch descent, is the founder of Shade Mountain Press. Her novel Kingdom of Women (Jaded Ibis, 2017), about a female Roman Catholic priest in a slightly alternate near-future, was described in Kirkus Reviews as a “daring critique of today’s patriarchy [that] never feels didactic or forced” and praised by U.S. Catholic as a “deeply felt and richly imagined rendering of what the upending of patriarchy might look like.” Her fabulist/speculative story collection Virgins and Tricksters (Aqueous, 2012) was described by Marge Piercy as “succinct, smart tales rooted in a female-centered spirituality.” Kearns has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Illinois and has taught creative writing at the University of Illinois, the University at Albany, and adult education venues.

Diana López is the author of the adult novella, Sofia's Saints, and numerous middle grade novels, including CONFETTI GIRL, NOTHING UP MY SLEEVE, and LUCKY LUNA. Her picture book biography, SING WITH ME: THE STORY OF SELENA QUINTANILLA, will be released in April to celebrate what would have been Selena's 50th birthday. Diana recently retired from the University of Houston-Victoria. Her "second act" day job is helping her husband in his physical therapy clinic, FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Center, located in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Jose Nateras is an L.A. based Actor & Writer from Chicago. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago, he also has his MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). A screenwriter and playwright, Jose is also a contributor for The Gamer, The A.V. Club, and elsewhere. His debut novel, Testament, was released by Ninestar Press and his original feature-length horror screenplay, Departing Seniors, is currently in pre-production. Follow him on Twitter: @JoseNateras & Instagram: @JLorca13

Luis Alejandro Ordóñez (1973) is a Venezuelan writer born in Boston, MA. He obtained a Political Science degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela, and he was a professor of Political Communication at the Journalism School of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. He moved to the United States in 2008. He has worked as editor, copywriter, proofreader, translator, Spanish teacher, and bookseller between Chicago and Miami. In 2018 he published El último New York Times (Suburbano Ediciones), and in 2020 its translation into English, The Last New York Times (Katakana Editores, translated by José Ángel Navejas.) He also has published a short stories collection titled Play (Ars Communis, 2015). He has been part of anthologies of writers who live in the United States and write in Spanish, such as Diáspora (Vaso Roto), Pertenencia and Trasfondos (both of Ars Communis), and Escritorxs Salvajes (Hypermedia). In 2014 he won the II Literary Prize in Spanish from Northeastern Illinois University for the story “Doble Negación.” With “Librero,” he won the Severo Ochoa Micro-Story Contest of the Cervantes Institute library in Chicago.

Iván Pérez-Zayas is a poet, scholar, and a trainee acquisitions editor working in the university press field. His first poetry chapbook, Para restarse, was published the summer of 2019. He is now writing a doctoral dissertation about representations of identity in Latin American graphic novels while working as the Mellon Diversity Fellow at Northwestern University Press. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, he is now based out of Chicago, Illinois.

Francisco X. Stork emigrated from Mexico at the age of nine with his mother and his adoptive father. He is the author of nine novels including: Marcelo in the Real World, recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, which received the Elizabeth Walden Award, The Memory of Light, recipient of the Tomás Rivera Award and Disappeared, which received the Young Adult Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book. On the Hook will be published in May of 2021.

Giselle Abreu is a North Carolina native with a love of lemons, family, and writing for kids. She is fascinated with the imaginative minds of children, having worked with them in many capacities, most recently as an after school drama teacher. As a mixed Dominican American she writes about kids with multicultural backgrounds, inspired by her own upbringing. She now works at her local library, connecting her community with stories of all kinds.

Saraliza Anzaldua (ya) is a Nahua-Chicana philosopher earning her PhD at UCLA. Ya is an author from Texas that specializes in Nahua philosophy, horror short stories, poetry, and children’s stories. Ya works in the tradition of the tlamatini, the Mexica philosopher, and contributes to the community by fighting the continued cultural genocide of Indigenous people by promoting inclusive, de-colonized pedagogy in higher academia.

Alexandra Castrillón Gómez was born in Colombia. She learned to read at three and has written short stories since then. She studied Systems Engineering in college, but she was always interested in literature. Traveling is another of her passions and she has visited five continents and made two trips around the world. She shares stories of her adventures on her blog, where she also publishes advice for independent travelers. She has lived in Spain, Mexico, and the United States. In 2019 she self-published Me muero por vivir, a novel about travel, love, and illness. She is currently working on Detrás de mi Nombre, her second novel, and is writing a third one. Alexandra is a member and cultural ambassador of the Hispanic Heritage Literature Organization, a non-profit that promotes literary projects and events for Hispanic authors in the US. Visit her at alexandracastrillon.com or on Instagram @acastrillon.

Shabel Castro is an emerging writer proudly from the South Bronx. The daughter of Black immigrant parents, Shabel is invested in creating stories that center the experiences of people whose voices are often ignored and silenced. This past year she was selected by bestselling author Tomi Adeyemi as a recipient of the Maison Valentino Emerging Writers Initiative scholarship for access to her online writing and publishing course. In 2019, Shabel participated in a memoir writing workshop organized by the Dominican Writers Association, which inspired her to be braver and committed to her writing trajectory. Shabel presently works full-time as a Public Defender representing detained immigrants, and considers storytelling and sharing the lived experiences of her clients as an essential part of her work. Shabel is eager to cultivate skills that will enhance her development as a writer and is excited to be part of the Class of 2021.

Having developed a love for reading and writing from an early age, Jassyel Gomez has sought to immerse herself in the world of literature in one way or another. She holds a B.A. in English and is a former high school English teacher. She is currently pursuing writing full-time and is focused on telling meaningful stories that reflect cultural pride and make readers feel seen. Jassyel’s stories are inspired by her experiences growing up in Eagle Pass, TX (a town on the US-Mexico border). She hopes her work will bring joy to children and grownups alike. You can follow her on IG & Twitter: @jassyelgomez

Ariana Juarez is a Latina author based in Southern California. As a current student at Whittier College, she is studying for her Bachelor’s in English. Ariana has dabbled in fiction, short fiction, and poetry, and is a contributor for the literary magazine The Greenleaf Review.

After decades of working varied careers--from typesetting and graphic design to massage therapy, customer service, and copywriting--Johnny Miles celebrated 2008 with the release of his first full-length novel, Casa Rodrigo, a historical LGBTQ romance, later produced as a dramatic audio play. He’s the author of more than a dozen stories, including the Rainbow Award winner “Café y Chocolate.” Johnny resides in South Florida, but the ex-New Yorker still calls Brooklyn home and is a pug fanatic.

P.B. Nieto grew up in Lima, Peru. She is a part of the Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Writers group. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and the plants she has managed not to kill.

Andrew Siañez-De La O (he/him) is a Mexican-American writer from El Paso, Texas. He is currently a Huntington Playwriting Fellow at Huntington Theatre Company. His work has been developed across the country with the support of companies such as The Playwrights Realm, Pipeline Theatre Company, Milagro Theatre, Company One, and Echo Theater Company. Additionally, he is a committee member for the WGA Audio Alliance, helping organize for a more equitable future for creators of audio drama. He is a scriptwriter for the Latinx children’s fiction podcast, TIMESTORM, with Cocotazo Media. His play, THE ORTIZ TWINS ARE COMING HOME, is currently being adapted for audio in partnership with Stormfire Productions and slated for a 2021 release. Learn more about Andrew at www.andrewsianezdelao.com.

Robin St. Clare is a writer of adult speculative fiction, focusing on stories that could have been X-Files episodes but with diverse characters. Her work explores the dark side of humanity, the intersection of science and belief, and liminal spaces as a metaphor for the diasporic experience. Character banter is usually her favorite part to write. Robin is a former Pitch Wars mentee, a member of Crime Writers of Color, and a recent participant in the Rainbow Weekend Intensive. She works as a general pathologist at a community hospital in southeast Pennsylvania. When not in front of her microscope or Scrivener, she enjoys making music, learning to bake, and yelling at Philly sports on TV. Robin lives in the woods with her two cats and a pond full of fish.

Kiki Tapiero is an immigration lawyer by profession and an activist at heart. They are a queer, nonbinary, multiracial Latinx person who has loved writing since they first learned how. Kiki grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts and received their B.A. in sociology and economics from Brown University and their J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law. Kiki now works at the Bronx Defenders in New York and lives in Brooklyn, but will never stop writing. They aspire to publish books with queer, feminist, and anti-racist themes and to empower queer youth of color by seeing themselves represented.

Christian Vega is an indie bookseller at two bookstores and grew up living right next to Yankee Stadium and in Spanish Harlem for most of his life. He has worn many hats in his career, such as working at a candy store, a comic book store, and was a toy soldier at FAO Schwarz for one day. He writes science fiction and fantasy that reflect his multi-racial Latinx upbringing and what he wished to see as a kid. You can find him tweeting about books, writing, and what his favorite Square Enix game is at @amadeus_cv.