Cris Beam is the author of I Am J, a young adult novel about a runaway transboy in New York City (Little, Brown, 2011). Her first book, Transparent: Love, Family and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers (Harcourt, 2007) won a Lambda Literary Award and was a Stonewall Honor Book. Cris teaches creative writing at Columbia University, New York University, and Bayview Women’s Correctional Facility in New York. She’s currently working on a book about foster care in the U.S. for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Visit her website at http://www.crisbeam.com.

Cris will be joining Diversity in YA in New York on May 13.

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, The Good Neighbors graphic novel trilogy (with Ted Naifeh), and her new Curse Workers series, which begins with White Cat. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award. She currently lives in New England with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret door. Visit Holly at http://www.blackholly.com/.

Holly will be joining Diversity in YA in Boston and San Diego.

Bestselling YA author Cinda Williams Chima grew up with kick-butt Barbies. She began writing romance novels in junior high school. She authored the Heir Chronicles contemporary fantasy series (The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir,) and the Seven Realms high fantasy series (The Demon King, The Exiled Queen and The Gray Wolf Throne. Chima’s books have been named Booksense and Indie Next picks, an IRA Young Adult Choice, an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, to the Kirkus Best YA list, and the VOYA Editors’ Choice, Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and Perfect Tens lists. There are more books to come in both series. Find Chima online at www.cindachima.com or http://cindachima.blogspot.com/.

Cinda will be joining Diversity in YA in San Diego.

Matt de la Peña has written four novels: Ball Don’t Lie (soon be a major motion picture starring Ludacris, Nick Cannon, Emelie de Ravin and Grayson Boucher), Mexican White Boy, We Were Here and I Will Save You. His books have received many awards including ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults (Top Ten Pick), ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Notable Book for a Global Society, Junior Library Guild Selection, Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Literature Blue Ribbon List and NYC Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age list. In January 2011 his first picture book, A Nation’s Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis (Illustrated by Kadir Nelson) will be released by Dial Press. Visit Matt online at http://mattdelapena.com/.

Matt will be joining Diversity in YA in New York on May 14.

Deva Fagan is the author of Fortune’s Folly, The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle and the forthcoming Circus Galacticus.

She lives in Maine with her husband and her dog. When she’s not writing she spends her time reading, doing geometry, and dressing up as imaginary people. She believes stories have the power to change the world. Visit Deva online at http://devafagan.com.

Deva will be joining Diversity in YA in Boston.

Karen Healey is a Pākehā New Zealander living in Australia. She is the author of urban fantasy novel Guardian of the Dead, which was a 2011 William C Morris Award Finalist, a NZ Post Children Book Awards Finalist, an Aurealis Award finalist and a Best Fiction For Young Adults listee. Her next book, supernatural adventure The Shattering, will be released in July in Australia/New Zealand and September in the USA. Karen likes purple coats, red umbrellas, and cooking with butter. You can learn more about at her at her website, karenhealey.com.

Karen will be joining Diversity in YA in San Diego.

Bethany Hegedus’s second novel Truth with a Capital T debuted recently at the 2010 Texas Book Festival. Forthcoming, with Atheneum/Simon & Schuster is the picture book Grandfather Gandhi, co-authored with Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma. Bethany’s first novel Between Us Baxters was named a Bank Street Books, Best Books of 2010 (starred) and a Top 40 Fiction Books for Young Adults by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association. A feature article on Bethany’s joint school visit presentations with Kekla Magoon appeared in the summer issue of The Multicultural Review, a national subscription journal to schools and libraries. Bethany continues to serve as co-editor of the Young Adult & Children’s page for the VCFA literary journal Hunger Mountain and to speak at schools and libraries across the country. She writes from her home in Austin.

Bethany will be joining Diversity in YA in Austin.

Varian Johnson is the author of Saving Maddie (Delacorte / Random House, 2010), My Life as a Rhombus (Flux / Llewellyn, 2008) and A Red Polka Dot in a World Full of Plaid (Genesis Press, 2005). He was born and raised in Florence, South Carolina, and attended the University of Oklahoma, where he received a BS in Civil Engineering. Varian later attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Visit Varian online at http://www.varianjohnson.com/.

Varian will be joining Diversity in YA in Austin.

Cheryl Klein is a senior editor at Arthur A. Levine, a Scholastic imprint. Among the books she has edited or co-edited are A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, winner of the inaugural William C. Morris YA Debut Award; Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award for Teens; Millicent Min, Girl Genius, by Lisa Yee, winner of the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor; and 8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Cheryl’s book Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults was just recently released. Visit her website at CherylKlein.com.

Cheryl will be joining Diversity in YA in New York on May 14.

David Levithan is the author of several books for teens and adults. His first novel, Boy Meets Boy, won the 2003 Lambda Literary Award. His novel Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, co-written with Rachel Cohn, was made into a film. His novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson, co-written with John Green, was a 2011 Stonewall Honor Book. His most recent novel, and his first about post-teenagers, The Lover’s Dictionary, was published in January 2011. David is also the editorial director of Scholastic, and the founding editor of the PUSH imprint, which is devoted to finding new voices and authors in teen literature. Visit him online at www.davidlevithan.com.

David will be joining Diversity in YA in New York on May 13.

Malinda Lo was born in China and moved to the United States as a child. She grew up in Colorado and has since lived in Boston, New York, London, Beijing, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and has master’s degrees from Harvard and Stanford Universities. She now lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog. Ash (Little, Brown, 2009), her first novel, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the Lambda Literary Award. Her second novel, Huntress, a companion to Ash, will be published in April 2011. Visit her website at www.malindalo.com.

Malinda will be at all Diversity in YA tour stops!

Kekla Magoon is a New York City-based author, editor, speaker and educator. Her debut novel, The Rock and the River (Aladdin, 2009), won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, in addition to being named an ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. Her second novel, Camo Girl, releases in January 2011. Kekla is Co-Editor of YA and Children’s Literature for Hunger Mountain, the arts journal of Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also leads writing workshops for youth and adults, and writes nonfiction titles for the educational market. Kekla holds a B.A. in History from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. For more information, visit www.keklamagoon.com.

Kekla will be joining Diversity in YA in New York on May 14.

Claudia Guadalupe Martinez grew up in El Paso, Texas, where she learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns with her father. She now lives and works in Chicago where she penned her debut novel, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (Cinco Puntos, 2008), winner of the 2009 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People and the 2008 Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award. Her website is www.claudiaguadalupemartinez.com.

Claudia will be joining Diversity in YA in Chicago.

Guadalupe Garcia McCall was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. Her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was six years old. She grew up in Eagle Pass, a small, border town in South Texas. Eagle Pass is the setting of her debut novel in verse, Under the Mesquite, released in the fall of 2010 from Lee a& Low Books. After high school, she went off to Alpine in West Texas to study to become a teacher. She has a BA in Theatre Arts and English from Sul Ross State University. In Alpine, she met her husband, Jim. They have 3 sons, a dog, and a cat.

To learn more about Gudalupe and her books, visit http://www.guadalupegarciamccall.com/.

Guadalupe will be joining Diversity in YA in Austin.

Neesha Meminger‘s first novel, Shine, Coconut Moon, made the Smithsonian’s list of Notable Books for Children in its debut year and was listed on the New York Public Library’s Stuff for the Teen Age-Top 100 Books for Teens. The book was also nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults, and for the online CYBILS award. Neesha’s second novel for young adults is Jazz in Love (January, 2011). Find out more about Neesha on her website, www.NeeshaMeminger.com.

Neesha will be joining Diversity in YA in New York on May 14.

Nnedi Okorafor is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Who Fears Death (a Nebula Award Nominee and Tiptree Honor Book). Her other novels include Zahrah the Windseeker (winner of the Wole Soyinka Prize), The Shadow Speaker (winner of the CBS Parallax Award) and Long Juju Man (winner of the Macmillan Prize for Africa). Her latest novel Akata Witch is a story juju and destiny set in present-day Nigeria. It was released in April 2011. Okorafor holds a PhD in literature and is a professor at Chicago State University. Her website is nnedi.com.

Nnedi will be joining Diversity in YA in Chicago.

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, will be published in March 2011. A children’s picture book with her Chinese brush art is also in the works. Visit her website at cindypon.com.

Cindy will be at all Diversity in YA tour stops!

Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland by the sea,where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it’s not called Gaelic) but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it. The Demon’s Lexicon, her first novel, was published in summer 2009 and received three starred reviews, was one of Kirkus’ Best Books, ALA’s Top Ten Best Books, a Best British Fantasy book, shortlisted for the Cybils and longlisted for the Carnegie medal. It was followed by The Demon’s Covenant in 2010, and the trilogy concludes with The Demon’s Surrender in 2011. Her next book, a co-written secret project, comes out in 2012. Visit her website at http://www.sarahreesbrennan.com/.