Alicia D. Williams is the author of Mid-Air, which was longlisted for the National Book Award; Genesis Begins Again, which received Newbery and Kirkus Prize honors, was a William C. Morris Award finalist, and for which she won the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award for New Talent; and picture books Jump at the Sun, Nani and the Lion, and The Talk, which was also a Coretta Scott King Honor book. An oral storyteller in the African American tradition, she lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. <p/>Briana Mukodiri Uchendu, recent recipient of the John Steptoe New Talent Award, is an illustrator, visual development artist, and first-generation Nigerian American. She is the illustrator of multiple picture books including The Talk by Alicia D. Williams, which received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. Her work is inspired by her interests in folklore, film, and animation and her passion to highlight voices that usually go unheard. <p/>Alison Ridley is a professor of Spanish at Hollins University, having completed her PhD at Michigan State University. She has translated a number of novels, including Marjorie Agosín's Pura Belpré Award-winning I Lived on Butterfly Hill.
