Jennifer Torres is a first time picture book author and freelance journalist. She grew up listening to mariachi music, and as a reporter, she met mariachi musicians who were responsible for popularizing the genre in California. Torres was inspired to write Finding the Music, for which she won Lee & Low's New Voices Award, by her own neighborhood and the tradition of neighbors coming together to support one another. She lives in Stockton, California, with her husband and their two children.