Jay Asher ‘s first novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list, with foreign rights sold in over 30 countries and more than 1,000,000 copies in print in the US alone. The movie rights sold to Universal Pictures. His next novel, The Future of Us (co-written with Carolyn Mackler), comes out November 2011. Its movie rights sold to Warner Bros.

Josh Berk is the child of two librarians, so his passion for books began in childhood. Though he didn’t major in literature in college, he did take a job as a librarian after graduation, and ended up attending grad school at the University of Pittsburg, where he studied young adult literature. He’s published poems, written for newspapers, and his novel, THE DARK DAYS OF HAMBURGER HALPIN (Knopf) was published in February 2010. He currently lives just outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania with his wife, two little kids, and two completely insane dogs. His second book is scheduled for release in Spring of 2011.

Amy Dominy is a little quirky. She doesn’t like beaches, she thinks chocolate is just okay, and she has an extra bone in both feet. (Ask her—she might show you.) A former advertising copywriter, Amy earned her MFA in playwriting from Arizona State University in 2004. Her plays have been staged across the country and she’s published a number of short stories. OyMG is her first novel. Amy lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her hubby, two teenagers, and various pets.

Sarah Frances Hardy, a Southerner living in Oxford, Mississippi, took an early retirement from practicing law to paint and write full time.

Sarah Frances’s debut picture PUZZLED BY PINK, pitched as “Wednesday Addams meets Fancy Nancy”, which she wrote and illustrated will be published by Viking Children’s Books in 2012. Sarah Frances also writes middle grade novels which are set in the South. She is inspired by her three daughters, who each couldn’t be more different.

Learn more about Sarah Frances Hardy at her website and her blog.

Faith Hochhalter (aka The Book Babe) aka The Book Babe (so dubbed by James Owen and Stephenie Meyer), has been a Children’s Book Buyer for 9 years.
She currently works as a Jr High Librarian and serves as the Chair of the Literature Advisory Committee for Kids Need to Read, a national Literary Non-Profit.

In her spare time, she does freelance content editing in an effort to help bring new amazing authors to the book industry. You can find her online at iamthebookbabe.com or kidsneedtoread.org.

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Tara Hudson graduated with a degree in law, mostly because she believed all the horror stories about English majors and their careers in the food-service industry. Luckily, she soon remembered how much she loved telling ghost stories, particularly to her girlfriends who liked visiting abandoned cemeteries as much as she did. Tara currently lives in Oklahoma with her husband, son, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets.

Jessi Kirby is a former English teacher and librarian. She lives in Crystal Cove, CA with her husband and two children. MOONGLASS, a contemporary YA set on the shores of her home, is her first novel. Her second one, IN HONOR, will be released May 2012 by Simon & Schuster.

Lindsey Leavittgrew up in Las Vegas and now lives in Alabama with her husband and three small daughters. Although she has been a substitute teacher and a homecoming princess, she has never been a substitute princess. Yet. She’s still scanning the Want Ads… Her PRINCESS FOR HIRE (Disney-Hyperion) series, was published in March, 2010 and May 2011. Her first YA novel, SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD was published in March 2011.

A “desert rat” born and raised, YA author Tom Leveen began writing stories in second grade and never stopped. He published approximately 10 short stories in indie magazines and websites before beginning his search for an agent. His first novel, PARTY, was published by Random House in 2010; two additional YA novels are slated for release in 2012 and 2013. Tom has written articles for the Guide to Literary Agents blog as well as WriteOnCon. He frequently teaches classes on creative writing and publishing fiction, and enjoys visiting schools with motivational presentations on life and writing. Tom lives in Arizona with his wife, Joy, and they are expecting their first baby in August.

Jon Samuel Lewis is an American writer best known for the acclaimed Grey Griffins series published by Scholastic’s Orchard Books. After selling nearly a million copies in the original trilogy, Lewis and his writing partner, Derek Benz teamed with Little Brown to produce the Grey Griffins Clockwork Chronicles.

He is also the author of CHAOS Novels, a young adult adventure series that combines supernatural, science fiction, and urban fantasy to create an exciting hybrid of non-stop adventure.

Lewis has written for DC/WildStorm. He is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Broadcasting, and has explored an eclectic career including news reporting, radio production, animation, graphic design, web development, mural painting, speech writing, video game development, voice over work, and marketing.

He currently resides in Arizona with his wife and children.

Katie McDee hails from the land of beach and sun, a.k.a. San Diego, where she works as a traditional and digital illustrator for the children’s market. When she’s not drawing super cool stuff, or totally rad things for books, magazines, and video games, she’s playing ultimate frisbee, watching movies and eating sushi … at the same time! Feel free to visit her site, or comment on her blog at www.katiemcdee.com.

Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. INCARNATE, the beginning of The Newsoul Trilogy, will be published January 31, 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers *A Kippy is a cat.

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children, and makes paper for fun. She’s the author of Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine and The Springsweet and the editor of the forthcoming YA anthology Defy the Dark. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.

Shelley Moore Thomas is the author of several picture books for young children including the uplifting SOMEWHERE TODAY: A BOOK OF PEACE and the acclaimed GOOD KNIGHT series (Dutton), the most recent of which, A GOOD KNIGHT’S REST, was released this past June. In addition to writing, Shelley is also a professional storyteller known locally as the Story Queen and a teacher at an International Baccalaureate Elementary School. Recently, Shelley has been expanding her writing horizons by attempting a children’s novel. THE SEVEN TALES OF TRINKET (FSG MacMillan) will be released in the Fall of 2012.

Matt Myklusch has been drawing ever since he could first hold a pencil, and super heroes have always filled up the majority of the pages in his sketchbooks. That lifelong love of comic books spurred him to create the Jack Blank Adventure series from Simon & Schuster, Aladdin. Books I and II, THE ACCIDENTAL HERO (2010) and THE SECRET WAR (2011) are in stores now. Matt has recently left his job at MTV to write full time. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and family, where he is hard at work on the next book in the JACK BLANK series.

Lauren Oliver graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago and subsequently received her MFA degree in fiction at New York University. Her first book, Before I Fall, a New York Times Bestseller, was published by HarperTeen in March 2010 and will be translated into twenty-eight languages. Her second book, Delirium, also a New York Times bestseller, was published in February 2011 and has recently been optioned for film. She has also worked as a freelance editor on projects ranging from best-selling nonfiction etiquette guides to commercial teen novels. She loves to read, run in Prospect Park, buy shoes, and work with fabulous new authors on unstoppable book ideas. She is not, however, necessarily a fan of long walks on the beach.

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. She began working on her debut novel, The Demon’s Lexicon, which received three starred reviews and was an ALA Top Ten best book, while doing a Creative Writing MA and library work in England. Since then she has returned to Ireland to write and use as a home base for future adventures. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it. Her most recent books are The Demon’s Covenant and The Demon’s Surrender; in 2012 she will publish a romantic Gothic mystery called Unspoken. You’ll find her online at: www.sarahreesbrennan.com.

Nova Ren Suman (www.novaren.com) is the author of the YA novel IMAGINARY GIRLS (Dutton, 2011) and the middle-grade novel DANI NOIR (Aladdin, 2009). She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and a BA in writing & photography from Antioch College, and has been awarded fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. She lives in New York City.

Beth Revis lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and dog, and believes space is nowhere near the final frontier. Across the Universe, a YA science fiction, is her first novel and reached #7 on the NY Times Bestsellers list, and the sequel, A Million Suns will be out January 2012 from Penguin/Razorbill. Her website is bethrevis.com.

Corey Rosen Schwartz is the author of HOP PLOP (2006), THE THREE NINJA PIGS (2012) and GOLDI ROCKS AND THE THREE BEARS (2014). Corey constantly tries to use her seven-year-old daughter as a beta reader, but she always gets the same feedback. “Mommy, I love it, but I think it would be a little bit better if the main character was a dog!”

Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Forest of Hands and Teeth series as well as several short stories. Her first novel was chosen as a Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association, named to the 2010 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age List and selected as a Best of the Best Books by the Chicago Public Library. A former litigator, Carrie now writes full time and lives with her husband, two fat cats and one large dog in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can find her online at www.carrieryan.com.

Tammi Sauer has sold ten picture books to a number of major publishing houses: Bloomsbury, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon & Schuster, and Sterling. One of her latest books, Mostly Monsterly, illustrated by Scott Magoon, was named a Scholastic Parent & Child Best Book of 2010 and won the 2011 Oklahoma Book Award and the 2011 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award. Her book Chicken Dance, illustrated by Dan Santat, was also recently released in French, which makes her feel extra fancy. Tammi is represented by Laura Rennert, Senior Agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. To learn more about Tammi and her books, please visit her online at www.tammisauer.com.

Lisa Schroeder is a native Oregonian and has fond memories of visiting the Salem Public Library and borrowing many, many books when she was a child. She never imagined one day she’d grow up and write
books that can now be found in that library as well as many others.

She’s the author of four young adult novels including Chasing Brooklyn, a 2011 Texas Tayshas selection and 2011 RWA Rita finalist, and her most recent release, The Day Before (both with Simon Pulse). She’s also published two middle grade novels, It’s Raining Cupcakes and Sprinkles and Secrets (Aladdin). Her web site is www.lisaschroederbooks.com.

Alan Silberberg is a writer/cartoonist whose career started with the note he wrote in 2nd grade announcing his plans to run away from home. He has written numerous kids’ TV shows and is the author of POND SCUM (Hyperion). His second book, MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE (Aladdin) won the 2011 Sid Fleischman Humor Award and was just published in paperback. He has a B.A. in “Cartoon Communication Education” and a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard.

Every Stages on Pages author can point to a pivotal arts experience from his or her teen or tween years. Many of us are still involved in the performing and visual arts. We believe that all young people should have opportunities to act, dance, sing, draw and, of course, write creatively. Beyond sharing our books, we want to spread the word that, even in these tough economic times, it is vital that we support arts organizations. To learn more, visit www.stagesonpages.com.

Brandi Stewart has been in love with books her whole life. Her first job was as an clerical assistant to the president of a self-publishing company.

Followed by a few years with Hallmark, a brief stint in the medical field to get through school, and finally back to books after graduating from ASU with a BA in English. After college she worked 2 1/2 years at Barnes & Noble as a lead bookseller in the children’s department. Currently, she is the Children’s Book Buyer for Changing Hands Bookstore and has been with the company for 4 years. In addition to 6+ years working with children’s and young adult literature, Stewart has been a freelance copy and content editor for over a year. You can contact her through her website, www.editorgenie.com.

Tiffany Strelitz Haber is the author of two forthcoming, rhyming picture books: The Monster Who Lost His Mean (Holt/Macmillan, 2012) and Ollie and Claire (Philomel/Penguin 2013).

She has eaten fried bugs, jumped out of airplanes and lives for adventures in general. Tiffany grew up in NYC, but is now located in central NJ, and available for workshops everywhere. Find her at www.itsrhymetime.com and www.facebook.com/tshauthor.

Scott Tracey‘s debut novel, WITCH EYES, comes out September 8th with Flux Books. He’s lived for a month on a Greyhound, wrote an illustrated autobiography at the age of six, and barely survived Catholic school. He’s represented by Ginger Clark at Curtis Brown, Ltd. You can insult him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/scott_tracey, or on his blog at http://www.scott-tracey.com.

Emma Walton Hamilton is a best-selling children’s author, editor, arts educator and arts and literacy advocate. She has co-authored over twenty children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, six of which have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including the The Very Fairy Princess and The Very Fairy Princess Takes the Stage (#1 NY Times Bestsellers), Julie Andrews’ Collection Of Poems, Songs And Lullabies (illustrated by James McMullan); the Dumpy The Dump Truck series of picture books, board books and Early Readers (illustrated by Tony Walton); Simeon’s Gift; The Great American Mousical and THANKS TO YOU – Wisdom From Mother And Child (#1 New York Times Bestseller).

Emma’s own book for parents and caregivers, Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment, premiered as a #1 best-seller on Amazon.com in the literacy category and won a Parent’s Choice Gold Medal, and silver medals from the Living Now and IPPY Book Awards, respectively. It also received Honorable Mention from ForeWord Magazine’s Best Book of the Year.

Emma is a faculty member for Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Writing and Literature Program, where she serves as Director of the annual Southampton Children’s Literature Conference, and Executive Director of YAWP (the Young American Writers Project), an inter-disciplinary writing program for middle and high school students on Long Island. She is also the creator and host of the “Children’s Book Hub” online writer’s salon (http://childrensbookhub.com) and “Just Write for Kids!” (http://www.justwriteforkids.com), a home-study course for aspiring children’s book authors.

In addition to writing and editing children’s books, both for the Julie Andrews Collection and independently, Emma works as a freelance children’s book editor. Her blog, Emmasaries: Raising the Next Generation of Readers and Writers, can be found at http://www.emmawaltonhamilton.com/blog.

Kiersten White is the NYT Bestselling author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally. She has one tall husband and two small children and lives near the ocean, where her life is perfectly normal. This abundance of normal led her to a fascination with all things paranormal, including but not limited to vampires, faeries, and pop culture. Kiersten was chosen as a 2010 Publishers Weekly Flying Start author, and Paranormalcy is a YALSA Teen Top Ten nominee among other accolades. Visit her at www.kierstenwhite.com.

Erik Wright is the author and illustrator of FRANKIE PICKLE, a hybrid chapter book/graphic novel series published by Simon & Schuster. Prior to that, he was an animator for almost ten years for such companies as Walt Disney, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network. Wight’s comic book adaptation of the AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY helped garner both the Harvey and Eisner Awards for Best Anthology, as well as the Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and his debut graphic novel MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND was listed among the 2008 Great Graphic Novels for Teens by YALSA. His artwork has also been prominently featured on such television series as THE O.C. and SIX FEET UNDER.

The YA Muses met in critique groups at a writing conference. Despite writing different genres, we recognized kindred souls and began reading each others’ work online, ultimately becoming beta readers. We now blog together, brainstorm and critique, support and celebrate, and try to meet in person a couple times a year. The Muses are: Donna Cooner, Katy Longshore, Talia Vance, Veronica Rossi and Bret Ballou.

Sara Zarr is the acclaimed author of three novels for young adults: Story of a Girl (National Book Award Finalist), Sweethearts (Cybil Award Finalist), and Once Was Lost (a Kirkus Best Book of 2009, Utah Book Award winner, INSPY winner). Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Image, Hunger Mountain online, Response, and several anthologies. Sara’s fourth young adult novel, How to Save a Life, will be published in October 2011. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband, and online at www.sarazarr.com.

The Class of 2k12, Fiction that Rocks! We’re a group of debut middle grade and young adult authors working in concert to promote our books and reading. Whatever your taste–dystopian, paranormal, realistic, fantasy, verse, or historical fiction–we’ve got something for you. Team 2k12 Authors: AC Gaughen, SCARLET, Caroline Starr Rose, MAY B., Corrine Jackson, IF I LIE and TOUCHED, Daniel Marks, VELVETEEN, Debra Driza, MILA 2.0, Eve Marie Mont, A BREATH OF EYRE, Gina Rosati, AURACLE, J. Anderson Coats, THE WICKED AND THE JUST, Jennifer Shaw Wolf, BREAKING BEAUTIFUL, Joanne Levy, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE, Kathryn Burak, THE DRESS, Katy Longshore, GIRL IN A DIAMOND COLLAR, Kimberly Sabatini, TOUCHING THE SURFACE, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, Lynne Kelly, CHAINED, Megan Bostic, NEVER EIGHTEEN, Patrice Lyle, LETHALLY BLONDE, Robin Bridges, THE GATHERING STORM, Sarah Tregay, LOVE AND LEFTOVERS, Sarvenaz Tash, THE MAPMAKER AND THE GHOST, Suzanne Lazear, INNOCENT DARKNESS

Find us on the web at: http://classof2k12.com/wordpress
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Classof2k12
And Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ClassOf2k12

The illustrators of Studio Five are:

J.H. Everett is a visual storyteller, writer, and creativity expert. He earned a Ph.D in Early Modern History from the University of California, Irvine. He speaks at numerous conferences and writes and illustrates for the L.A. Times, and national on-line magazines. He is also a regular contributor to the Children’s Book Insider’s, “Illustrator’s Corner.” He holds research credentials at major museums and libraries around the world. He is a Phi Beta Kappa and holds honors in many academic societies and has won numerous awards for his academic work and his teaching. Ev has created concept art for Scholastic Books and the Jim Henson Company. He is currently co-writing and co-illustrating the middle-grade non-fiction series, Haunted Histories, for Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt with Marilyn Scott-Waters. He is also currently writing and illustrating the picture books Stop Hugo Stop!, Good Night Too Tight and the middle-grade, Gen. George Washington is a Vampire. His current illustration project is Izzy and The Candy Palace, for the MMJ Foundation and the Second Harvest Food Bank. He is represented by Jamie Weiss Chilton of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc.

Bob Singer entered the animation industry in 1956, working for such studios as Shamus Culhane, Warner Cartoons, U.P.A. Pictures, Hanna-Barbara and Marvel. Bob has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for over forty years. In the course of twenty-seven years at Hanna-Barbera while working on such productions as the Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo and Yogi Bear, Bob headed the layout department, founded the character design department and later became art director for publicity. During this period he also taught evening classes in layout, character design and storyboard and was a guest lecturer for film classes at the University of Southern California and several local elementary and high schools. In 1988 Bob established his own company, Singer/Bandy Group and for the next two years designed greeting cards, cassette covers, coloring books, plush dolls, picture puzzles and illustrated storybooks for such clients as Hamilton Projects, Schmidt-Cannon and MCA. In 1990 Bob returned to Hanna-Barbera as a storyboard director and designer of animation cel art.

Alice and Martin Provensen enjoyed a more than forty-year career in writing and illustrating children’s books. She and Martin won the Caldecott (1983) for The Glorious Flight and the Caldecott Honor for Nancy Willard’s Newbery Medal-winning, A Visit to William Blake’s Inn. Their work has appeared on the New York Times list of Ten Best Illustrated Books eight times. Alice started her art education at the Art Institute of Chicago, and then transferred to UCLA. She worked for Walter Lantz Studios, as Martin began his work at Walt Disney Studios. Alice spent a great deal of her free time in libraries – a favorite haunt, no matter where they lived. After marrying, Alice and Martin moved to New York in 1945 and started creating children’s books. Alice is well known for traveling all over Europe and the world, collecting material for illustrations, filling sketchbooks everywhere she went. Today, in her nineties, she still works on publishing projects on a weekly basis and attends regular meetings of the studio group.

Andrew Mitchell is a writer / illustrator of children’s books. His how-to art book, Draw 50 Magical Creatures, is published by Random House. In 2008, he was awarded the Tomie De Paola award for kid’s literature illustration. He has become a teacher of art and story telling, and speaks around the country. He became the first cartoonist in the world to be published on cell phones with his comic strip Hot Rock, finding an audience of readers around the globe. He is the president of the Cartoonists of Orange County and his illustrations and cartoons have appeared in newspapers, magazines, books and videogames. He is also the writer / artist of the graphic novel Hector Impala, P.V., Headcase, and the AJ Mitchell Sketchbook.

JR Johnson earned a BFA degree in illustration at CSULB. He has been a freelance illustrator for over 20 years now. His education as an illustrator is ongoing. Gag comic writing has been a passion for his entire career. Currently, he writes a human interest/humor column for the RV Journal. He has also written ad copy, corporate instruction and technical manuals, as well as a humor column on the subject of radio controlled aircraft. As an illustrator he has created airbrush poster work, technical illustration, advertising illustration, medical rendering, cartooning, cartoon illustration, book cover, map and process illustration, and product rendering. As a graphic artist he has done everything from pre-press film stripping, basic layout and paste-up to designing point of purchase displays, brochures, posters, newsletters, booklets, websites, packaging, building graphics, newspaper and magazine ads and vehicle graphics. As assistant art director for the Penske Corporation, he was responsible for setup and maintenance of the Mac network, evaluation of new software and new versions of software, and training and workflow management of several company artists.

Marilyn Scott-Waters, together with J. H. Everett, is co-creator of the middle grade nonfiction series Haunted Histories, forthcoming from Henry Holt. Her recent work includes the series The Search For Vile Things (Scholastic, Fall ’08), and the paper engineering for Pop & Sniff Fruit (Piggy Toes Press, Spring ’08). Her paper toy book series, The Toymaker’s Christmas and The Toymaker’s Workshop, is forthcoming from Sterling in Fall ’10. Marilyn’s award winning website, www.thetoymaker.com, receives 3,000 to 7,000 visitors each day, who have downloaded more than five million of her easy-to-make paper toys. Marilyn is the winner of the 2005 SCBWI Picture book award as well as an Edunet Choice and ALA Great Website award.