Desaray Mnyandu was born into a military family. Her travels around the globe as a child led to a passion for world cultures. Her goal is to write books that introduce children to the African continent and help them gain cultural competence at an early age. She hopes her writing will help children discover common affirmations that exist among all people in order to grow their own confidence as global citizens. She is an artist as well as a businesswoman. She is married to her college sweetheart, and they live outside Washington DC, where she homeschools their four children.

Desaray will be featuring her book, Imbila’s Tale, and will be hosting a  “Pin the Tail” game with candy!

Sydelle Pearl is an award-winning author who has published books in various genres, including folktales, biography, and historical fiction. Originally from New Jersey, she now lives in the Washington, DC area.
Sydelle very much enjoys author visits with children and youth in schools. Sydelle is also a storyteller who often incorporates original songs into her presentations.

For more information, please visit her website at www.storypearls.com

Sydelle Pearl will be featuring her book, Hope Somewhere in America: The Story of a Child, a Painting, and a President.

Sydelle Pearl will be creating self-portraits with participants as part of her festival activity.

Pamela Ehrenberg is the author of seven books for young readers, including The See-You-Soon Spice Box and Detour Ahead (co-authored with Tracy López), which was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. Pamela works at the National Association for the Education of Young Children and lives near the National Zoo with her two teenagers and pet rabbit.

Pamela will be featuring her book, Detour Ahead. She will also be offering a community poetry activity at her festival booth.

Carrie Maslen writes and illustrates children’s books (Baking Bread for Jiddo, Stirred Stories, 2024) and poems (published in Cricket Magazine and the UK-based Dirigible Balloon). Carrie’s writing for children often draws on her Arab-American heritage, her work in STEM, and her great interest in the natural world. She is an SCBWI member and enjoys presenting at schools and conferences.

Carrie will be featuring her book, Baking Bread for Jiddo, and will be doing a ‘write your own’ recipe activity at her booth.

Michelle Y. Green is an award-winning author of historical fiction and biography for children and young adults. Her best-known work is A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut”Johnson, a biography about the female Negro Leagues baseball pitcher. It was awarded The Carter G. Woodson Honor Book by The National Council for the Social Studies. Michelle has a Master of Arts in Writing from The Johns Hopkins University and has taught at The George Washington University and Prince George’s Community College, and has twice been a speaker at the Library of Congress. She is also Past President of The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. Raised as an Air Brat Brat, her father was a Tuskegee Airman. She now lives in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Visit her at www.michelleygreen.com

Nancy Johnson James is an author, poet and public school teacher based in Maryland.

Michelyve Allen is a licensed speech-language pathologist that specializes in early language, voice and speech sound disorders. She is a brought alum of Drexel University and received her MA at Louisiana State University in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Michelyve enjoys taking part in research studies to further her learning.

Visit Compass Communication Group’s website to learn more about Michelyve’s books and other work. https://www.ccgspeech.com/bam

Joy Jones is a trainer, performance poet, playwright, and author of several books, including Private Lessons: A Book of Meditations for Teachers; Tambourine Moon, which was selected as one of the best books for children by the black caucus of the ALA and featured on the Bernie Mac Show; and Fearless Public Speaking. She has won awards for her writing from the D. C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities and the Colonial Players Promising Playwrights Competition, plus awards from both the D. C. Department of Recreation & Parks and the D. C. Commission on National & Community Service for outstanding community service.

Joy Jone’s provocative op-ed on marriage trends for The Washington Post, “Marriage is for White People”, went viral. She is the director of the arts organization, The Spoken Word, and the founder of the Double Dutch team, DC Retro Jumpers, which has led exhibitions and classes throughout metropolitan Washington and abroad. Joy often leads workshops on creative writing, communications, and black history.

Joy Jones will be featuring her books, Fearless Public Speaking, Jayla Jumps, and The Sky is Not Blue. Joy will also host interactive table activities featuring manipulatives as well as coloring pages. 

Ginger Park is an award-winning author of children books that reflect her Korean heritage.

Awards for picture books include: The International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award, IRA-CBC Teachers’ Choice Award, Notable Books for a Global Society Award, Capitol Choices Book Award, Bank Street College Book Award, A Junior Library Guild Selection, Paterson Prize Book for Young Readers, Rutgers University “Top Five” Book Award, Joan G. Sugarman Award, among others.

Honors for her middle grade novel The Hundred Choices Department Store:

Administrative Offices of the U.S. Courts & federal judiciary AANHPI selection, Best of Korea Best Books by Korean American Authors, National Women’s History Alliance Book of the Week, Book Riot Twenty Must-Read Korean Novels. The book was also published in South Korea.

When Ginger isn’t writing, you can usually find her spending quality time with her husband, Skip, and their three doodles Madison, Oliver, and Nabi or traveling to the Bay Area to visit their son, Justin.

Ginger will be featuring her books, Suka’s Farm, Grandpa’s Scroll, The HUndred Choices, and Department Store. Ginger will also be teaching the Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, with Korean calligraphy painting at her festival table.

Naaz Khan is an educator, writer, and life long learner with a background in refugee education, curriculum development, and interfaith dialogue. Her debut picture book, Room for Everyone came out November 9, 2021! She is represented by Lilly Ghahremani of Full Circle Literary.

She has lived in a number of places including Jubail, Cairo, Nairobi, Bangalore, Berkeley, San Diego, New York, and currently lives in the city of Washington DC.

Naaz works as an education coordinator at An Open Book Foundation, a literacy organization that connects young people in the DC area with authors, illustrators and books.

Other awesome places she has worked include Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. Church World Service – Resettlement Support Center Africa, The Center for Applied Linguistics, University of Maryland – College Park, Montgomery Community College Refugee Training Center, Lutheran Social Services/Refugee and Immigrant Services and the International Rescue Committee. She has also served on the board of The Interfaith Conference of Washington, DC.

When she’s not reading or writing, Naaz loves exploring new places, going for walks in the woods, and tinkering around on her ukelele.

Naaz Khan will be featuring her book, Room For Everyone. Visit her table to participate in a decorate your own bus craft!