Photo credit: Chelsea Kocina,
Chelsea Morning Photography

KIRSTIN CRONN-MILLS

is a self-proclaimed word nerd who secretly wants to be a street artist. Her first young adult novel, The Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don’t Mind, was a 2010 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her second novel, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, won ALA’s Stonewall Book Award in 2014 as well as an IPPY silver medal for Gay/Lesbian/ Bi/Trans Fiction. She writes a lot, reads as much as she can, teaches at a two-year college, and goofs around with her son, Shae, and her husband, Dan.

Photo credit: Sharolyn B. Hagen

E. EERO JOHNSON

(Erik T. Johnson) is a Minneapolis-based illustrator, graphic designer, and comic book artist. His illustrations have appeared in GQ, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Wired, and The New York Times, and on several book covers. His comic book projects, The Outliers and Kozmo-Knot, have gained a growing interest from the indie comic world. He lives with his wife, Tammy; sons, Emmett and Eilif; and a crazy Boston terrier.