Zack Smedley was born in 1995 in Southern Maryland. Alongside writing, he has a degree in Chemical Engineering from UMBC and currently works within the field. He spends his free time building furniture, baking, programming, screenwriting, and tinkering with electronic systems. Zack’s 2019 debut DEPOSING NATHAN was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist; a 2020 ALA Rainbow List Selection; a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2019 Selection; and the Winner of the 2019 YA Bisexual Book Award.
Bill Konigsberg is the award-winning author of six young adult novels. THE PORCUPINE OF TRUTH won the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Stonewall Book Award in 2016. OPENLY STRAIGHT won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, was a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and Lambda Literary Award in 2014 and has been translated into five languages. His debut novel, OUT OF THE POCKET, won the Lambda Literary Award in 2009. THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS, released in 2019, received two starred reviews, and has been optioned for a film. His latest novel, THE BRIDGE, was released in the fall of 2020. It has received two starred reviews. In 2018, The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)’s Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) established the Bill Konigsberg Award for Acts and Activism for Equity and Inclusion through Young Adult Literature.
