Since Brynne Barnes was a child, she was determined to fly; reading and writing has always made her feel like she could. In classrooms all over the country—and the world—she likes to remind young readers that they, too, have wings. Her debut book, Colors of Me, is a 2012 Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award winner, a 2012 Friends of American Writers Literary Award winner, and an award-winning finalist in the hardcover fiction category of the 2011 Best Books Awards sponsored by USA Book News. Her book Black Boy, Rise! received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Literary Work for Children. Brynne is also the author of Books Do Not Have Wings, When I See You, and Color Me a World.

Brianna McCarthy is a mixed media visual communicator working and living in Trinidad and Tobago. She is a self-taught artist and aims to create a new discourse examining issues of beauty, stereotypes, and representation as well as documenting the process—particularly poignant in an ever smaller, digitally-connected world. Her form takes shape through masking and performance art, fabric collage, traditional media, and installation pieces.