Welcome to the Bios Page for Our Amazing
​2022 Kidlit Palooza Presenters​

And a lovely heads up, all of the presenters except the editors, the publishers, and the agents,
​are former CBA students passing it forward. Thank you.

Join here: bit.ly/PBPalooza2021

KEYNOTE: WHEN IMAGINATION MEETS LIVED HISTORY
from these fantastic authors Saturday, Aug 20th, 11:30-12:30 PM PDT

BUILDING AN ILLUSTRATION CAREER
from these fantastic illustrators Saturday, Aug 20th, 1:30-3:00PM PDT

Larissa Marantz Larissa Marantz is a former animation artist for Nickelodeon's The Rugrats and Rocket Power and has illustrated almost a dozen books for Nickelodeon's licensed properties, including Avatar The Last Airbender.

She has taught art and comics to folks at Cartoon Network and Google, as well as thousands of children, teens and adults all over the world through her educational company OC Art Studios. Her favorite color is purple and she loves doing yoga and eating brownies, but not at the same time.

​Larissa is the illustrator and co-creator of Clyde the Hippo Picture book series, published with Penguin Workshop and is currently illustrating a science fiction graphic novel to be published by HarperCollins about a young girl genius who must save the world from aliens.

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Find Larissa at www.LarissaMarantz.com • www.OCArtStudios.com • Illustrator Larissa Marantz (@larissadrawsstuff) • Instagram photos and videos • Larissa Brown Marantz | Facebook • Larissa Marantz Illustrator Educator (@LarissaMarantz) / Twitter​

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​Chantelle and Burgen Thorne
are internationally published illustrators with over 25 years experience in publishing. The two are now focusing on picture books for children with several titles being released this year. The magic of children’s books is that they’re not just for kids. Avid bookworms themselves, they take great delight in the visual storytelling of picture books, art and text working together, every word and every image adding to the reader’s experience. Both have fond memories of being read to as children and this inspires them to make their illustrations as engaging, honest and relevant to young readers as they possibly can – what a wonderful way to spend one’s working day!
They are represented by Paul Moreton of the fabulous Bell Lomax Moreton agency worldwide. www.belllomaxmoreton.co.uk
Clients include: Stripes, Clear Fork, Jacana, Pearson International, Hodder and Stoughton, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Heinemann, Macmillan, PanMacmillan, BenchMark, Mitr, Imagine That

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Katie Mazeika

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Vincent X. Kirsch

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PUBLISHING AROUND THE WORLD!
from these fantastic authors Saturday, Aug 20th, 1:30-3:00PM PDT
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Yvonne Mes

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Sandhya Parappukkaran (rose

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Debasmita Dasgupta

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Miri Leshem-Pelly

KEYNOTE: DO IT ALL! WRITING BOARD BOOKS, PICTURE BOOKS, CHAPTER BOOKS, MG, YA & GN
​from these fantastic authors Sunday, Aug 21th, 11:30-12:30 PM PDT

Ruth Spiro is the author of the bestselling Baby Loves Science books, the groundbreaking original series introducing big ideas to the littlest listeners. These innovative board books encourage a natural sense of wonder in a research-based, age appropriate and engaging way. The series has been praised by The Los Angeles Times, NPR, TODAY, Popular Science, Working Mother, and more.

Her STEM-themed picture book series, Made by Maxine, is about a creative young Maker who knows that with the right mix of imagination and recyclables, it’s possible to invent anything. The second book in the series is Maxine and the Greatest Garden Ever, named a “Best STEM Book for 2022” by the National Science Teaching Association.

Ruth lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois.

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Samantha San Miguel

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Bryan Patrick Avery At the age of 7, Bryan Patrick Avery discovered a love of reading and mysteries after receiving his first Bobbsey Twins Mystery book. Today, he is an award-winning poet and author of more than a dozen books for children. His middle-grade story, “The Magic Day Mystery”, appears in SUPER PUZZLETASTIC MYSTERIES, an anthology from HarperCollins and the Mystery Writers of America. His Jake Maddox JV Mysteries, OFF BASE and SOCCER SUSPICIONS were released earlier this year by Stone Arch Books. Bryan is the 2021 recipient of the SCBWI Work in Progress Award for his chapter book mystery THE ROBOT IN THE LIBRARY. He is also the author of THE FREEMAN FIELD PHOTOGRAPH, BLACK MEN IN SCIENCE, and the chapter book series, MR. GRIZLEY’S CLASS.

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Anjali Singh  started her career in publishing in 1996 as a literary scout and is now an agent at Ayesha Pande Literary. Formerly Editorial Director at Other Press, Anjali also worked as an editor at Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Vintage Books. Best known for bringing Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis to the United States,  after stumbling across it on a visit to Paris, Anjali also helped sell Persepolis and Persepolis 2, David B.’s Epileptic, Jessica Abel’s La Perdida, Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat and Craig Thompson’s Habibi for Pantheon. While primarily a literary fiction editor, she championed comics whenever she could; at Houghton Mifflin over and oversaw Best American Comics for several years, and published Posy Simmonds’ Tamara Drewe and Frederik Peeters’ memoir Blue Pills. At S&S, 

Anjali acquired noted Italian artist Igort’s The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks. Anjali now represents graphic novels across the adult and children’s book market. Some of her recent and forthcoming children’s GNs include Gillian Goerz’s middle grade mysteries Shirley & Jamila Save Their Summer and Shirley & Jamila’s Big Fall, Bangladeshi-American Priya Huq’s Piece by Piece: The Story of Nisrin’s Hijab; Lebanese artist Fouad Mezher’s Suraya, Mary Shyne’s Graduation Day, Steenz’s Heart of the City and Side Quest: Sam and Steenz’s Guide to Roleplaying Games (with Samuel Sattin) and comics writer Ivy Noelle Weir’s The Secret Garden on 81st St. ​

FINDING YOUR CREATIVE PB SWEET SPOT
from these fantastic authors Sunday, Aug 21th, 1:30-3:00PM PDT

Elizabeth Brown

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Karen Yin is an award-winning writer and editor in Southern California. Her debut picture book, Whole Whale (Barefoot Books, 2021), is about making space for all. Her second book, So Not Ghoul (Page Street Kids, 2022), follows a little Chinese American ghost who’s caught in bicultural fashion limbo. Winner of the 2017 ACES Robinson Prize for furthering the craft of professional editing, Karen is the founder of several acclaimed digital tools for writers and editors, including Conscious Style Guide, The Conscious Language Newsletter, and the Editors of Color Database. Conscious Style Guide was named by Poynter as a top tool for journalists in 2018 and is recommended by SCBWI, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Poets & Writers, Winning Writers, Jane Friedman, and many others, including NASA. Acclaim for Karen’s fiction includes a Lambda Literary Fellowship, a Table 4 Writers Foundation grant, an SCBWI Nonfiction Grant, and selection of her flash fiction by the L.A. Public Library for its permanent collection and Short Story Portal. Find Karen online at KarenYin.com and her book recommendations at DiversePictureBooks.com.

Website: https://karenyin.com/​ • Twitter: @KarenYin • Instagram: @KarensOffice • WHOLE WHALE at Bookshop.org: http://bit.ly/whole-whale-bookshop • ​Book recommendations: DiversePictureBooks.com / Twitter: @DiversePBs

Karen's innovative presentation will be on: ​The Curious Heart: Asking Questions to Engage Readers

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Ana Siqueira

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Nancy Churnin is the award-winning author of ten picture books about people who persevered to achieve their dreams and make the world a better place. Among her awards: a Junior Library Guild selection, a Kirkus Star, multiple National Council for the Social Studies Notables, multiple Silver Eureka Awards, multiple inclusions on A Mighty Girl list, Sydney Taylor Notable, Towner Award nominee, Sakura Medal finalist, Notable Book for a Global Society, Anne Izard Storytellers Choice Award and the South Asia Book Award. DEAR MR. DICKENS and A QUEEN TO THE RESCUE, THE STORY OF Henrietta Szold, FOUNDER OF HADASSAH, will be out in October 2021. Her website, nancychurnin.com, includes free teacher guides, resources and projects with dedicated project pages for kids. She loves doing school visits, especially virtual ones, and can be booked through carole@authorsandmore.com. A native New Yorker, Nancy lives in North Texas with her family, which includes a dog named Dog and two cantankerous cats. ​

You can also find her on Twitter @nchurnin, on Instagram @nchurnin and on Facebook at Nancy Churnin and Nancy Churnin Children’s Books. and of course, on her website here: https://www.nancychurnin.com/ 
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​Nancy will be presenting on: Finding Jewish Heroes (and your own cultural heroes)​

WHAT AGENTS AND EDITORS WANT
from these amazing editors & agents Sunday, Aug 21th, 4:00-5:30PM PDT​

Kaitlyn Sanchez - Context Literary
Kaitlyn Sanchez is a mom, wife, middle school math teacher, picture book author and agent with Context Literary Agency.  Context Literary represents high-quality children's literature, women's fiction, and narrative non-fiction. Kaitlyn's MSWL says, " I really connect with emotional writing and, on the other, very funny stories. But both, both is THE BEST! (Creators who can do this are magicians, in my eyes!)". Kaitlyn loves our students. The names in bold below are all former students who Kaitlyn now represents.

Here's a list of book deals that Kaitlyn has agented in just over a year: Monica Acker- BEING BRAVE  Publisher: Beaming Books. Margaret Aitken - OLD FRIENDS Publisher: Feiwel and Friends. Heather Bell- SIMPLY SKYE Publisher: Amicus Ink. Carol Gordon Ekster - TRUCKER KID Publisher: Capstone. Jolene Gutierrez - TOO MUCH! Publisher: Lerner.
Sarah Hovorka - SAME LOVE, DIFFERENT HUG; HATTIE HATES HUGS Publisher: Clarion.
Rebecca Gardyn Levington - I WILL ALWAYS BE Publisher: Harper Children's. David McMullin- FREE TO BE ME Publisher: Clarion. Alyssa Reynoso-Morris GLORIANA, PRESENTE; PLATANOS ARE LOVE; THE BRONX IS MY HOME Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books. DK Ryland - GIRAFFE IS TOO TALL FOR THIS BOOK Publisher: Page Street Kids. Laura Zimmermann - MUSHROOM RAIN
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press. ​

Website: https://kaitlynleannsanchez.com/ 
Twitter: @KaitlynLeann17 
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/KaitlynLeann17 
​Please follow Kaitlyn's clients on social media:  https://kaitlynleannsanchez.com/literary-clients/

BONUS DAY: THE BIG PRACTICAL PIECE IN PUBLISHING
from these amazing editors, ADs & agents Monday, Aug 21th, 5:00-6:00PM PDT
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Frances Gilbert Frances Gilbert is the brilliant Vice President, Editor-in-Chief for Doubleday Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's Books. She is also the author of the picture books Go, Girls, Go!, Too Much Slime!, and I Will Always Be Your Bunny; the Step Into Reading leveled readers I Love Pink!, I Love My Tutu!, I Love My Grandma!, I Love Cake! and I Love My Teacher!; as well as an abridgement of The Secret Garden for Little Golden Books. Follow her on Twitter at @GoGirlsGoBooks.
Frances Gilbert Frances Gilbert is the brilliant Vice President, Editor-in-Chief for Doubleday Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's Books. She is also the author of the picture books Go, Girls, Go!, Too Much Slime!, and I Will Always Be Your Bunny; the Step Into Reading leveled readers I Love Pink!, I Love My Tutu!, I Love My Grandma!, I Love Cake! and I Love My Teacher!; as well as an abridgement of The Secret Garden for Little Golden Books. Follow her on Twitter at @GoGirlsGoBooks.

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Dr. Mira Reisberg has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. Her students have published or contracted over 840 books. She has worn just about every hat in the industry including illustrator, editor, art director, author, and literary agent. Mira holds a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature. She has taught children's literature survey and making courses at Washington State University, Northern Illinois University, San Francisco City College Extension, and US Berkeley Extension. Mira is an award-winning children's book illustrator and writer.
Dr. Mira Reisberg has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. Her students have published or contracted over 700 books. She has worn just about every hat in the industry including illustrator, editor, art director, author, and literary agent. Mira holds a PhD in Education and Cultural Studies with a focus on children's literature. She has taught children's literature survey and making courses at Washington State University, Northern Illinois University, San Francisco City College Extension, and US Berkeley Extension. Mira is an award-winning children's book illustrator and writer.

Find Mira at the Children's Book Academy here:  https://www.childrensbookacademy.com/ on Twitter at @ChildrensBookAc  Her personal website here: http://www.mirareisberg.com/ and the next exciting course that she is co-teaching with agent Charlotte Wenger and a mystery editor at the Academy here: https://bit.ly/2021CBWPB

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​2-day writing conference?
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