Kwame Mbalia is a husband, father, and New York Times bestselling author of the Tristan Strong series, for which he received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor award for Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. Kwame also cowrote Last Gate of the Emperor with Prince Joel Makonnen and edited the instant New York Times best seller Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood. Kwame lives with his wife and children near Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is currently working on several projects—including a new middle-grade series—and cultivating cutting edge dad jokes. www.KwameMbalia.com
Nikkolas Smith is an Artivist, picture book author, and Hollywood film illustrator. He is the author-illustrator of The Artivist, The Golden Girls of Rio, and My Hair Is Poofy & That’s Okay. He also illustrated I Am Ruby Bridges, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: The Courage to Dream, That Flag, and the New York Times bestselling The 1619 Project: Born on the Water. Many of Nikkolas’s viral and globally published sketches are included in his book Sunday Sketch: The Art of Nikkolas. Nikkolas speaks on his Artivism and leads digital painting workshops around the world. Born in Houston, Texas, Nikkolas lives in Los Angeles, California. www.NIKKOLAS.art
