Brandy Colbert is an author of books for children and teens, including Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, The Only Black Girls in Town, and Little & Lion.

Her work has received the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and the Stonewall Book Award, and was a finalist for the American Library Association’s Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award. Her writing has been published in The New York Times and several national magazines, and her short stories and essays have appeared in critically acclaimed anthologies for young people.

She earned a journalism degree from Missouri State University and served as a faculty member in Hamline University’s MFA program in writing for children. Born and raised in the Missouri Ozarks, she now lives in Los Angeles.

Cornelius Minor is a Brooklyn-based educator and part-time Pokemon trainer. He works with teachers, school leaders, and leaders of community-based organizations to support equitable literacy reform in cities (and sometimes villages) across the globe. His latest book, We Got This, explores how the work of creating more equitable school spaces is embedded in our everyday choices — specifically in the choice to really listen to kids.

Cornelius has been featured in Education Week, Brooklyn Magazine, and Learning for Justice. He has partnered with The New York City Department of Education, The International Literacy Association, Scholastic, and The National Council of Teachers of English. Out of Print, a documentary featuring Cornelius, made its way around the film festival circuit, and he has been a featured speaker at conferences all over the world. He is a dedicated Hip hop fan, and on some evenings, you can find him online saving the universe with his PlayStation or on paper saving the realm in Dungeons & Dragons.

Most recently, along with his partner and wife, Kass Minor, he has established The Minor Collective, a community-based movement designed to foster sustainable change in schools. Whether working with educators and kids in Los Angeles, Seattle, or New York City, Cornelius uses his love for technology, literature, and authentic connection to bring communities together. As a teacher, Cornelius draws not only on his years teaching middle school in the Bronx and Brooklyn, but also on time spent skateboarding, shooting hoops, and working with young people.

These days, Cornelius spends time building elaborate Lego structures with his two young children, searching for an elusive pair of Jordan IVs, and is ritually re-reading all of the 1990’s era comic books that he can find.