University of Redlands
Full Festival Schedule coming soon
Mac Barnett is the bestselling author of more than 50 prize winning books for children including, "The Great Zapfino" illustrated by 2023 Festival illustrator Marla Frazee and "Oh No!: (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World)" illustrated by 2024 Festival illustrator Dan Santat. A California native, his work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. For more about Mac and his work visit his website here.
Tami Charles is the bestselling author of books for children, middle grades, and young adults. Titles include "All Because You Matter," illustrated by Bryan Collier; "Like Vanessa," a middle school novel, and "Muted," a YA novel in verse. When Tami isn’t writing she can be found presenting at schools in the US and abroad. For more about Tami and her books go to her website here.
Gennifer Choldenko was born in in Santa Monica and currently lives in San Francisco. Selling her first book manuscript to a publisher at age thirty-three, she has gone on to become an award-winning author of both picture books for young children and fast paced novels for middle-grade readers. She is best known for the Tales from Alcatraz series. Her newest novel with Katherine Applegate, illustrated by Wallace West is the first book in an illustrated series for middle school (A Dogtown Book, 1) For more about Gennifer and her work visit her website here.
Dan Santat is the author and/or illustrator of over a hundred books for young people. His most recent books include graphic novels, "The Aquanaut and A First Time for Everything" and "Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend," won the 2015 Caldecott Medal. Dan created The art for the 90th anniversary edition of The Little Engine that Could. For more about Dan, his books, and his art visit his website here.
Sylvia Vardell first met Janet Wong during a conference signing for Janet’s book, "A Suitcase of Seaweed." Sylvia was a fan of Janet’s work and the feeling was mutual, as Janet was aware of Sylvia’s scholarship in the field of children’s poetry. Twenty years after they first met, they now sign books together including the dozen books they have created in The Poetry Friday Anthology® series for both teachers and students, as well as the Poetry Friday Power Book series for young writers.
Sylvia recently retired as Professor at Texas Woman's University where she taught graduate courses in children's and young adult literature writing. Janet writes for children and teens on a wide variety of subjects,including diversity and community with "Apple Pie 4th of July,"chess with "Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club," and yoga "Twist: Yoga Poems." Learn more about Sylvia Vardell here and Janet Wong here.
