The 2024 Queer Kidlit Mentors

headshot of Rebecca Burgess author illustrator - light skinned person with medium length brown hair
Rebecca Burgess (they/them) Rebecca Burgess is a comic artist and illustrator working in the UK, creating award winning published and small press work. Along with drawing comics for their day job, Rebecca also loves drawing webcomics in their free time. Being autistic, they are particularly passionate about bringing more autistic characters into stories! Outside of drawing and cuddling their cat, Rebecca also loves playing RPGs with friends, going on deep dives into history and growing vegetables in their humble Bristol garden. www.rebeccaburgess.co.uk
Mentoring: Graphic Novel (script only or pages) or Illustrator Portfolio
Light skinned woman wearing glasses with curly light brown hair and a white shirt looking at the camera
Marcie Colleen (she/her) Marcie Colleen is a multi-published author of children’s picture books, chapter books, and comics. While her focus has mainly been on humor, her most recent picture book, SURVIVOR TREE, a lyrical tale about the real-life pear tree which withstood the attacks of 9/11 in New York City, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Winner Aaron Becker, was her first foray into non-fiction and garnered many accolades, including being named a 2022 ALA Notable Book. Marcie is also a Senior Writer for Epic!--the world’s leading digital reading platform for kids–where she writes in many formats including comics such as the highly popular KITTEN NINJA with Ellen Stubbings with over 6 million reads and counting. Additionally, Marcie is the Head Writer in the Epic Originals Writer’s Room collaborating with others to create various series for the Epic platform. Marcie is a frequent presenter at conferences for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, as well as a faculty member for The Writing Barn and the University of California San Diego Extension. www.thisismarciecolleen.com
Mentoring: Board Book, Picture Book, Chapter Book, or Graphic Novel Script​
headshot of light skinned woman with dark hair to her chin. She is wearing glasses and a green sweater. Trees behind her
Tina Connolly (she/her) Tina Connolly (she/her) writes fantastical stories for kids, teens, and grown-ups. Some of them are serious and some of them involve flying bananas. Her stories and books have been finalists for the Hugo, Nebula, Norton, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. Her books include the Ironskin trilogy (Tor), the Seriously Wicked series (Tor Teen), the collection On the Eyeball Floor (Fairwood Press), and the Choose Your Own Adventure book, Glitterpony Farm. Her narrations have appeared in over a hundred audiobooks and podcasts, and she has been co-hosting the SF short story podcast Escape Pod for 8 years and counting. She has taught for Clarion West, KU's Center for SF Studies, Portland's Literary Arts, and Willamette Writers, among others, and mentored for SFWA, WorldCon, the Nebulas, Clarion West, and more. www.tinaconnolly.com
​Mentoring: Middle Grade or Young Adult
Photo of light skinned woman with dark red hair and bright red lips looking at camera. Smiling with hand under chin. Background looks like a room with kids toys
​Phaea Crede (she/her) Phaea Crede loves writing silly picture books for silly kids. Serious kids, too! She is the author of the picture books JET THE CAT (IS NOT A CAT) illustrated by Terry Runyan, SUPER PIZZA & KID KALE illustrated by Zach Smith, and more. Phaea lives outside of Boston with her family and pets. As a writer with dyslexia, Phaea is proud to demonstrate that disabilities don't have to stand in the way of dreams. She hopes to connect with kids and adults who think they can't write—and convince them that they can! www.phaeacrede.com
Mentoring: Picture Book Manuscript
Gray background with light skinned person with brown hair with purple tips smilingPhoto by Jennifer Waddell, 2021
Kate Fussner (she/her) Kate Fussner is a novelist, teacher, and accidental poet living in Massachusetts with her wife and dramatic dog. She holds her B.A. in English from Vassar College, her M.Ed. from UMass Boston/Boston Teacher Residency, and her M.F.A. in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. Kate spent more than a decade teaching English for grades 6-12 for Boston Public Schools, where she created and implemented choice-based curriculum for her students, helping all students find joy in reading. Her partnership with her school’s teacher-librarian to build a school-wide culture of reading was the focus of several BPS professional developments and the BostonEd Talks in 2019. When not reading or writing, Kate can be found baking, spending time with her family, or singing her favorite musicals. Kate believes in the power of a good laugh and a good cry, and hopes her stories will provide readers with both. Her debut novel, The Song of Us, was published with HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books in May 2023. www.katefussner.com
​Mentoring: Middle Grade
Dark skinned person looking at the camera with big leaves nearbyPhoto by Caldwell ProPhoto, LLC, 2023
H.D. Hunter (he/they) Hugh “H.D.” Hunter is a storyteller, teaching artist, and community organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. He’s the author of Torment: A Novella and Something Like Right, as well as the winner of several international indie book awards for multicultural fiction. You can find his work online in Porter House Review. Hugh is also the author of the Futureland series, including Battle for the Park, which was named a Georgia Center for the Book 2023 Book All Young Georgians Should Read. Futureland: The Nightmare Hour and Futureland: The Architect Games release in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Hugh holds a couple degrees that don’t matter a ton. He’s an alum of the inaugural Tin House Young Adult Fiction Workshop. He’s served as both a moderator and panelist at FIYAHCON. He’s a “cocoa” founder of the Voodoonauts Summer Fellowship, and his teaching credits include Clarion West Online, Catapult, and a Writer-in-Residence position with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Hugh is committed to stories about Black kids and their many expansive worlds. Connect with Hugh on Instagram (@hdhunterbooks), or his website thesoutherndistrict.com
Mentoring: Middle Grade or Young Adult
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​Blue Jaryn (they/he) Blue Jaryn (they/he) is a writer and illustrator creating picturebooks. Their debut book, Payden’s Pronoun Party (2022), illustrated by Xochitl Cornejo and published by Page Street Kids, is available now. Blue is also the illustrator of As Bright as a Rainbow, written by Romy Ash and published by HarperCollins, which will be released January 31, 2024. Born in the Victorian Otways/unceded Gadubanud land, in Australia, Blue grew up on 36 acres of bushland with a basic mudbrick home amongst gum trees and a variety of animals (including some other humans…). Living in a rural area and not having a TV at home in their early years meant they spent a lot of their free time reading insatiably and developing a passion for creativity. Blue has a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in professional and creative writing, and a PhD in education studies. They are queer and nonbinary with Scottish, Irish, English, Channel Islander and settler Australian heritage. bluejaryn.com
Mentoring: Board Book or Picture Book
Light skinned person with short graying hair smiling wearing a blue shirt with colorful stripes

Adria Karlsson (they/them) Adria Karlsson's debut picture book, My Sister, Daisy illustrated by Linus Curci was published by Capstone in 2021. Adria has written for Boston Globe and was the content editor and a writer for the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) Journal. They hold an MFA from the Lesley University program in Creative Writing for Young People where they worked with Jason Reynolds, Michelle Knudsen, Chris Lynch, and Cynthia Platt. They also have and Ed.S. in Behavior Analysis from Simmons University which they used when they were a dog and cat behavior consultant and ran a dog training business in Cambridge, MA. They have their MAT  in Elementary Education from Brown University and taught 3rd and 4th grade. In between teaching in the classroom and training animals, Adria also tutored dyslexic kids in grades K-8 using the Orton-Gillingham approach. They are a current member of SCBWI, 12x12 Picture Book Challenge, and Storyteller Academy. They identify as a queer, trans/non-binary, ADHD, white, first generation Swedish-New-Zealand-American and are a divorced parent of five (ages 5-13) and split their time between parenting the kids and writing/illustrating picture books and middle grade. They grew up in Providence, RI and currently reside in Cambridge, MA. www.adriakarlsson.com
Mentoring: Board Book or Picture Book
Headshot of a smiling light skinned, dark short hair and beard man with gray backgroundPhoto by Genna Brems
​​Michael Leali (he/him) is an award-winning writer and veteran educator. He earned his MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he wrote the first draft of his second novel, Matteo. His widely-praised debut novel, The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, won the prestigious Golden Kite Award in 2023 and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary award among many other honors. Michael’s next middle grade novel, The Truth About Triangles, will be available nationwide on May 21, 2024 from HarperCollins Children’s. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Michael currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his partner and many, many books.  michaelleali.com
Mentoring: Middle Grade
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​​Teresa Robeson 何顥思 (she/her) Teresa Ho Robeson is an Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Picture Book Award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction books on science, nature, and her own culture, as exemplified by her debut QUEEN OF PHYSICS: HOW WU CHIEN SHIUNG HELPED UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF THE ATOM (illus. Rebecca Huang) to the upcoming CLOUDS IN SPACE: NEBULAE, STARDUST, AND US (MIT Kids/Candlewick; illus. Diana Renjina), WHO SMASHED HOLLYWOOD BARRIERS WITH GUNG FU? BRUCE LEE (Penguin Workshop; illus. Ryan Inzana), and CLEAR AND BRIGHT: THE CHING MING FESTIVAL (Astra; illus. William Low). She keeps busy with her family growing, and canning, much of their own food on 27 acres, as well as knitting, sewing, drawing, and sometimes making soap. www.teresarobeson.com
Mentoring: Picture Book or Graphic Novel Script
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Ana Siqueira (she/her) As a Spanish teacher who loves to cast learning spells to little ones, and fly like superhéroes with her Brazilian-Cuban American grandkids, I can’t resist to fill my stories with laughs and aventuras, stories such as Bella’s Recipe for Success (Beaming Books 2021), If Your Babysitter is a Witch (Simon&Schuster 2022), Abuela’s Super Capa (HarperCollins 2023), Boitata the Fire Snake (Capstone 2023), Our World: Brazil (Barefoot Books 2023), La Mala Suerte is Following Me (Charlesbridge 2024), and other ones coming soon such as Sticky Hermana, Mami’s Heart, If Your Abuelo is un Astronauta. I’m also a global educator, a PBS media innovator and the co-founder of LatinxPitch #representationmatters. anafiction.com
Mentoring: Board Book or Picture Book
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Alexandra Van Belle (they/them) Under pen names, A.J. Van Belle has published more than a dozen books with small presses. Their kidlit publications include two YA novels published under the pen name Ellie Greene: Kali and the Geekettes, from Jupiter Gardens Press, and Shapeshifting for the Win, co-written with J.J. Carrera, also from Jupiter Gardens Press; and a YA short story, A Door in the Dark, from Voyage YA. They’ve worked as an editor, taught undergraduate courses in writing and natural science, and penned short stories that have appeared in journals and anthologies from 2004 to the present. A scientist with a Ph.D. in biology, they draw on their expertise in environmental science to inform the world building in their fiction. They currently have two YA novels and a MG novel on sub to major publishers via their agent, Lauren Bieker of FinePrint Literary. www.ajvanbelle.com
Mentoring: Young Adult
Person outside sitting on a rock with mountain behind him. Light skinned wearing a baseball hat, shorts, tshirt, and hiking boots
Gordy Wright (he/him) Gordy Wright is a freelance illustrator, printmaker and picture book maker from the UK who grew up painting and drawing in a very creative household by the edge of the North Yorkshire moors. He later moved to Bristol to study illustration at the University of the West of England and graduated in 2014 with a first class honours. He has published with Walker books, Candlewick Press, Abrams, Nosy Crow, Holiday House, Hachette Children's Group and Quarto. Recent titles include 'The Great Carrier Reef' with Jessica Stremer about a man made coral reef, 'Secrets of the Dead' with Matt Ralphs which is a history of mummies from around the world and 'Bugs! A skittery-Jittery History' with Miriam Forster which is a big oversized book of Bugs. Gordy loves bringing these projects to life and creating something kids will be really excited to read and playing with narrative throughout his work and try to evoke a natural, textured feeling to his illustrations which are painted by hand in gouache and acrylic and then scanned in, cut out and assembled together digitally to create the final illustrations. Outside of his work Gordy enjoys reading, film, video games and my houseplants. He loves all things nature themed and being outside whether it be just walking through parks with his dog, cycling around, climbing up mountains or just seeing birds in the garden. ​www.gordywright.com
Mentoring: Board Book or Picture Book Dummies or Illustrator Portfolio