MENTOR

Graham Akhurst is an Aboriginal writer hailing from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. He has been published widely in Australia and America for poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction. His debut novel Borderland will be released in 2023 with Hachette Australia. Graham is the recipient of the W.G. Walker Fulbright Scholar to complete an MFA in fiction at Hunter College, CUNY. He has an Honours degree in creative writing and an Mphil in creative writing from the University of Queensland. Akhurst is a lecturer of Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing at The University of Technology Sydney and a Kweli Contributing Editor.

GRAHAM’S MENTEE

Lynn Mitchell is the Passamaquoddy Culture and Language teacher at Calais High School. She’s been teaching Passamaquoddy Culture and Language to Native and non-Native students at Calais for four years. Lynn believes her class bridges divides between Native and non-Native communities, creates a shared experience, and develops empathy and deepens ties between the communities.

MENTOR

Abhi Alwar is an Indian American freelance illustrator/designer based in NYC. She is interested in telling absurd, silly, and deceptively dark stories through comics and picture books. Her debut picture book, Hamsters Make Terrible Roommates, was written by Cheryl Klein (Dial Books, November 2, 2021). Her next picture book, Summer is For Cousins by Rajani LaRocca, is scheduled for a Summer 2023 release by Abrams Books.

ABHI’S MENTEE

Meghana Narayan is an abstract painter and illustrator just outside of Washington, D.C. Her creative practice is in response to the beauty and heartache she’s found in the world. While drawing from her unique experiences as a child of immigrants when creating her stories and art, between the layers there is a sense of universality that helps to create bridges between us all.

MENTOR

Susan Muaddi Darraj is an award-winning writer of books for adults and children. She won an American Book Award, two Arab American Book Awards, and a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. In 2018, she was named a 2018 USA Artists Ford Fellow. Her books include her linked short story collection, A Curious Land, as well as the Farah Rocks children’s chapter book series about a smart, brave Palestinian American girl named Farah Hajjar. She lives in Baltimore.

www.SusanMuaddiDarraj.com

Twitter/Insta: @SusanDarraj

SUSAN’S MENTEE

JP Infante is an award-winning writer, educator and Borough of Manhattan Community College alumni. His debut book of poetry, On the Tip of Your Mother’s Tongue, was the winner of Thirty West’s 2020 Chapbook Contest and his short story, “Without a Big One,” won the PEN Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and appears in PEN America Best Debut Short Stories for 2019. Infante holds an MFA from The New School. He is working on a YA novel and a series of picture books.

MENTOR

Arely Guzmán is a Kweli contributing editor who grew up in the Tijuana/ San Diego border. They have worked as an intern at Writers House and Bloomsbury and as an editorial assistant at Penguin Random House. They are fascinated by stories that navigate in-betweens and intersectional identities, particularly those of Latinx and queer communities. You can often find them reading a good book, obsessing over tea or engaging in deep conversations with her cat.

Social Media: @areliteration
See Arely’s WISHLIST here.

ARELY’S MENTEE

Vina Orden is a writer from New York City who is currently working on her first novel. As an immigrant to the country of her colonizers, she finds herself in adulthood having to unlearn and undo damage, as well as to play a small part in decolonizing and advocating for a more representative canon—whether as a writer documenting her Filipino community, an editor uplifting other emerging Asian American writers, a podcast host introducing other readers to marginalized voices and stories, or as an aspiring YA novelist.

MENTOR

Kirsti Jewel is a former Bay Area school leader who recently accepted a role as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at an independent school in Manhattan. She is a 2020 Kweli Fellow and she enjoys writing nonfiction for both children and adults. Her writing centers Black love, Black joy and Black resistance. Her debut children’s book, What is Juneteenth? was released in April 2022 by Penguin Random House. She currently lives in Biggie’s neighborhood in Brooklyn with her dog, Trini, and their favorite thing to do is to open up the windows and listen to the music their neighbors are playing.

KIRSTI’S MENTEE

Charlotte Watson Sherman has loved words ever since Pippi Longstocking hijacked her imagination in third grade. She grew up, the only girl, with too many brothers, in the Pacific Northwest's Emerald City—Seattle. A lifelong daydreamer, she last published a chapter book—Eli and the Swamp Man—decades ago, but never stopped writing. Her debut picture book, BROWN SUGAR BABE, was published by Boyds Mills & Kane Press, February 4, 2020. She currently lives in southern California.

MENTOR

Aya Khalil, M.Ed, is an award-winning author and freelance journalist. Her debut picture book The Arabic Quilt was published in February 2020 by Tilbury House & illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan and has won numerous awards and honors. Her next upcoming picture book, The Night Before Eid, will be published in 2023 by Little, Brown/ Christy Ottaviano, about three generations of Egyptian-Americans bonding over a special Eid treat. It will be illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh. Her third book, The Banned Books Bake Sale: A Protest Story is slated to be released in 2023. Aya is represented by Brent Taylor of Triada US Agency.

www.ayakhalil.com
Insta: ayakhalilauthor
Twitter: ayawrites

AYA’S MENTEE

Shadi Kafi is an Iranian-American writer and teacher based in Denver, Colorado. Her early writing can be found in her mother’s bi-lingual children’s magazine. She is currently working on a series of picture books that center Iranian-American/Middle-eastern girls.

MENTOR

Aram Kim was born in Ohio, raised in South Korea, and now lives in New York where she earned her M.F.A. in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts. She currently works as a senior designer for picture books and middle grade nonfiction at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. Aside from designing books, she is a children’s book author/illustrator. Her books includes Cat on the Bus (Children’s Choice Reading List 2017), No Kimchi for Me! (Junior Library Guild Selection, Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Book of the Year 2018, A Baker’s Dozen Award), and Let’s Go to Taekwondo! (April 28, 2020)

ARAM’S MENTEE

Mai Neng Moua is a Hmong-American writer who currently resides in Minneapolis. Moua is interested in writing picture books that center around Hmong children, giving a voice to a community that is woefully underrepresented in literature. Moua has won the Bush Artist Fellowship and the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, amongst others.

MENTOR

Juana Martinez-Neal is the recipient of the 2019 Caldecott Honor for Alma and How She Got Her Name (Candlewick Press), her debut picture book as author-illustrator. She is also a New York Times bestselling illustrator recipient of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Medal for Fry Bread: A Native American Story (Roaring Brook) and the 2018 Pura Belpré Medal for Illustration for La Princesa and the Pea (Putnam).

Juana was named to the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honor list in 2014, and was awarded the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase Grand Prize in 2012. She was born in Lima, the capital of Peru, and now lives in Connecticut, with her husband and three children.

JUANA’S MENTEE

Amberrose Venus-Gordon currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Her interest in working with children and her sensitivity to them is apparent in the way she records moments in their young lives. Amberrose’s profound love of capturing one’s youthfulness seeps into her carefully felt works. It focuses heavily on iconic symbols that are indicative of one’s childhood. It recalls a time of one’s innocence.

MENTOR

Meghan Maria McCullough is an Associate Editor at Levine Querido. Previously, she was an Editorial Assistant at Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. Prior to joining Scholastic, she worked in marketing at Penguin Random House. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School.

levinequerido.com
@meghanmariamcc

MEGHAN’S MENTEE

Rico Pabón has been delivering poetic lyrics bound by themes of struggle and resilience for more than 25 years in the Bay Area. Raised in a home torn apart by drug abuse, Rico grew up moving between various cities in the Bay and New York, with a few stops in Boston, and at an early age discovered that writing helped to ease the pain and anxiety that he experienced daily, so he began writing profusely. Writing made him ask questions and seek answers, and his notebook became a window to a world beyond his own personal woes, politicizing him.

MENTOR

Lissette J. Norman is the author of MY FEET ARE LAUGHING and PLATANOS GO WITH EVERYTHING. She is also co-author of the books, ON THE LINE: The First African-American Rockette (w/ Jennifer Jones) and UNTIL SOMEONE LISTENS (w/ Estela Juarez). Lissette was awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts - 2018 Artist Fellowship in Fiction, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grant, and the Hedgebrook and Martha’s Vineyard writer’s residencies. She was also an Author-in-Residence for the BookUpNYC program through the National Book Foundation. Lissette received her BA in English at SUNY-Binghamton and currently lives in New York City.

LISSETTE’S MENTEE

From publishing to teaching to arts administration, Metta Sama has excelled at bringing diverse artists to the forefront, including mission overhaul to strategically align with inclusive programming. She is an award-wining author of 6 poetry books, numerous scholarly articles, book reviews, creative nonfiction essays & short stories. Sama is currently working on a series of picture books.

MENTOR

Laura Obuobi was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, but has been living in the United States since 2003. She is fascinated by pre-colonial West African history and how it connects with the Black diaspora and Black history. Laura loves to explore these themes, elements, and cultural connections in her stories. Before she was a children’s author, Laura was a preschool teacher. Her time in the classroom birthed the desire to write for children. Laura is a graduate of the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut picture book, Black Gold, illustrated by London Ladd releases in Fall 2022.

lauraobuobi.com

Instagram: @lauraobuobi

LAURA’S MENTEE

Darius Phelps is an educator, writer, poet, and illustrator. He is currently earning a PhD in English Education at Columbia University. He has spoke at TEDxUGA and won the GAEYC 2016 Childcare Giver of the Year Award.

MENTOR

Laura Pegram, Kweli’s founder, is a multidisciplinary artist who is influencing a new generation of aspiring writers. Author, educator, and a jazz vocalist whose cabaret performance teamed her with jazz pianist, Donald Smith, Ms. Pegram is also a painter. Her richly hued vibrant murals are part of several private collections. She has worked as a Development Associate at Scholastic Productions, Inc., as an Instructor at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center and as an Acting Director / Instructor at the John Oliver Killens Young Writers Program. In 2020, she received the CBC Diversity Outstanding Achievement Award.

LAURA’S MENTEE

Andrea Petifer is an assistant principal currently residing in Durham, North Carolina. Her passion for writing led her to Kweli. Attending Kweli’s Color of Children’s Literature Conference sparked her desire to keep writing, and from there, it manifested into her now writing the first of many books for children.

MENTOR

Brittany J. Thurman is the author of Fly, illustrated by Anna Cunha, the forthcoming Forever and Always, illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice, and is co-author of Fearless: Boulevard of Dreams by Mandy Gonzalez. Brittany holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a graduate of Kingston University, London, England, where she studied theater. Brittany is a former children’s specialist and museum educator, where she advocated for representation in early literacy. Brittany lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she holds tight to her elders, her family, and her childhood home.

www.brittanythurman.com
Twitter: @janeebrittany
Instagram: @britjanee
TikTok: @brittanyjthurman

BRITTANY’S MENTEE

Judy Allen Dodson is a librarian, archivist, and children’s book author. Through her lens of an authentic and experienced voice, Judy’s purpose is to teach young children about Black History through the stories of unsung heroes. Her passion is to give Black children books where they see characters that look like them and know that they too can aspire to be great. Her recent book, Escape From Hurricane Katrina ( Little Bee Book, July 2021) is a 2021 Junior Library Guild selection. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and two children.

MENTOR

Irene Vázquez is a Black Mexican American poet, journalist, and editor (and now burgeoning publicist) born and raised in Houston, Texas. Irene graduated from Yale with a BA in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and English. Irene gravitates to voice-driven stories that are firmly rooted in a sense of place (whether real or imagined). Mostly Irene likes drinking coffee, impulse-buying books, and reminding people that the South's got something to say.

www.irenevazquez.com
Twitter: @capaciousmood

IRENE’S MENTEE

Anna Lapera is a Latinx-Asian writer from Maryland. Her writing aims to highlight the diversity within the Latinx community, focusing primarily on Central American and other Latinx immigrants and the diversity within that community. Her collection spans multiple geographies, histories, identities and experiences within the Latinx experience and within a Central American immigrant community often stereotyped and seen as homogenous. Through her own work, she hopes to inspire young people to speak up for themselves at school and in the world.

MENTOR

Author and filmmaker, Brian Young won the American Indian Youth Literature Award at ALA for his middle grade novel Healer of the Water Monster (Heartdrum, HarperCollins, 2021). His next book, Guardians of the Water Monster will be released in 2022. Young is a graduate of both Yale University with a Bachelor’s in Film Studies and Columbia University with a Master’s in Creative Writing Fiction. An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, he grew up on the Navajo Reservation, but now currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

BRIAN’S MENTEE

AJ Eversole is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She is working on a novel. Eversole currently resides in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband.