Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, Golden Kite, Walter, Jane Addams, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate.  She is a three-time U.S. nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Book Award. Her most recent books are Your Heart, My Sky, A Song of Frutas, Light for All, Rima’s Rebellion, and Singing With Elephants. Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island.  She studied agronomy, botany, and creative writing, and now lives in central California with her husband.

Cecilia Puglesi was born in Mendoza, Argentina, where she first studied agronomy, then later design. She got her master's degree in Barcelona and, with a Fulbright grant, she got her MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her graduation short film allowed her to travel around the world, where she won several international awards. She has worked in Spain, Austria, Ireland, New York City, and Paris, where she lives with her lovely family and works in animation and as an illustrator.