Georgia Conference on Children's Literature

Kirsten Cappy co-founded I’m Your Neighbor Books in 2012. She brings 20 years of experience using children’s books and the companion tools she creates to increase curiosity, empathy, and cultural competency. Kirsten was named one of the Boston Globe’s Everyday Heroes for her work on the Welcoming Library, a traveling collection of acclaimed picture books featuring New Arrival and New Generation families that inspire conversations about immigration.

Reem Faruqi is the award-winning children’s book author of Lailah’s Lunchbox, a book based on her own experiences as a young Muslim girl immigrating to the United States. She’s also the author of Amira’s Picture Day, I Can Help, and two middle grade novels in verse, Unsettled and Golden Girl, which all got starred reviews. Reem Faruqi lives in Atlanta with her husband and three daughters.

Victoria Jamieson grew up in Pennsylvania, where she wrote and illustrated her first book in the third grade. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design, but soon found herself drawn back towards illustration instead of animation. After graduation she began working as a book designer with HarperCollins Children’s Books in New York. Roller Girl (2015) was a Newbery Honor Award Winner and New York Times bestseller. Her graphic novel, When Stars Are Scattered (2020), co-authored by Omar Mohamed, was the 2022 Georgia Children’s Book Award winner.

Omar Mohamed spent his childhood at the Dadaab camp, after his father was killed and he was separated from his mother in Somalia. He devoted everything to taking care of his younger brother, Hassan, and to pursuing his education. He now lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife and five children, and works at a center to help resettle other refugees. He is the founder of Refugee Strong, a nonprofit organization that empowers students living in refugee camps.

Karl Newson is the best-selling author of the 2022 Georgia Children’s Book Award winner I Am a Tiger. His other creations include I Really Really Need a Wee, The Same But Different Too, The Hat Full of Secrets, and most recently the picture books I’ll Be There and The World at Your Feet, plus many more! His stories have been translated in 29 languages around the world. Karl grew up in Norwich, England, and was inspired to write his first story when his children were small; he’s been writing stories ever since.

Anne Sibley O’Brien is a children’s book creator who has illustrated thirty-six picture books. She is the author of fourteen of those books, including I’m New Here (2015) and Someone New (2018), both of which received starred reviews from Kirkus. She has also written three recent picture books which she did not illustrate: Abracadabra, It’s Spring! and Hocus Pocus, It’s Fall! (2016), both illustrated by Susan Gal, and Circle Round (2021), illustrated by Hanna Cha. In addition to creating books, she is a cofounder of two projects featuring diverse books: I’m Your Neighbor Books , and the Diverse BookFinder .

New York Times best-selling author Carole Boston Weatherford recently released R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. Her 50+ books include the Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. She won a Coretta Scott King Author Honor for Becoming Billie Holiday, NAACP Image Awards for Moses and for Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America, and many other awards. Baltimore-born, Weatherford teaches at Fayetteville State University In North Carolina.