30 minute call with author Angie Thomas

Winning bidder will receive a AMA 30-minute phone call with Angie Thomas to discuss writing, publishing, and finding your voice.

Angie Thomas was born and raised in Mississippi, but now calls Atlanta her home. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She can also still rap if needed.

Angie is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel, THE HATE U GIVE, started as a senior project in college. It was later acquired by the Balzer+Bray imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in a 13-publisher auction and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, winning the ALA's William C. Morris Debut Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (USA), the Waterstones Children's Book Prize (UK), and the Deutscher Jugendliterapreis (Germany). THE HATE U GIVE was adapted into a critically acclaimed film from Fox 2000, starring Amandla Stenberg and directed by George Tillman, Jr.

Angie's second novel, ON THE COME UP, is a #1 New York Times bestseller as well, and a film is in development with Paramount Pictures with Angie acting as a producer. In 2020, Angie released FIND YOUR VOICE: A Guided Journal to Writing Your Truth as a tool to help aspiring writers tell their stories. In 2021, Angie returned to the world of Garden Heights with CONCRETE ROSE, a prequel to THE HATE U GIVE focused on seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter that debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

30 Minute Call with Publisher Namrata Tripathi

Winning bidder will receive a 30-minute phone call with Namrata to discuss manuscripts, answer queries about the industry, or workshop ideas.

Namrata Tripathi is Founder and Publisher of Kokila Books. She is the editor of New York Times bestsellers Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Vashti Harrison, and Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi and Ashley Lukashevsky; the Newbery Honor-winning middle grade novel The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani; and the National Book Award Finalists Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley, Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay, and The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor. Namrata grew up in Afghanistan, India, Canada, Pakistan, Germany, and Poland, and has happily called New York City home for the last twenty-five years.

30 minute call with author Margaret Stohl

Winning bidder will receive a 30-minute phone call with Margaret Stohl for advice on the business and art of books, comics, video games and IP.

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Margaret Stohl is a #1 New York Times bestselling nerd, world-builder, video game creator, comic book writer and festival founder.

A former game designer and writer who went on to become the co-founder of the game developer 7 Studios, Margaret is now best known for her career as a novelist. As an award-winning young adult author, she has published more than fifteen novels and graphic novels, in fifty countries and thirty-two languages, and has sold more than ten million books worldwide. Beautiful Creatures debuted as the Amazon #1 Teen book of the year and was released as a feature film from Warner Brothers and Alcon Entertainment; seven of Margaret's books have reached bestseller lists around the world.

Margaret often collaborates with Marvel, where she is known for her bestselling Black Widow YA novels, as well as her ongoing comic Mighty Captain Marvel, and the mini-series Life of Captain Marvel, where she established a new origin story for Carol Danvers ahead of the theatrical debut of Brie Larson as "Captain Marvel" for the MCU. Currently, Margaret is writing the Spider-Man Noir miniseries, Spider-Man Noir: Twilight in Babylon, as well as other unannounced Marvel projects.

Margaret still regularly works as a creative consultant for the videogame industry, where her clients have included Activision/Blizzard, Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, EA, Dice, Bungie, 2K, Firaxis, and Marvel Games. She is also the former Head of IP Incubation at Bungie.

When not building books or games or comics, Margaret can often be seen at a Comicon or at one of the teen and youth book festivals she co-founded, YALLFEST (Charleston, SC) and YALLWEST (Santa Monica, CA), the largest in the country. Wherever she goes, you can find out more about her at @mstohl on twitter or margaret_stohl on instagram or margaret_stohl on snapchat or at mstohl.com.

Artist: Thyra Heder

Material: Watercolor on Watercolor Paper

Size: 5" x 7"

Framed: No

Winning bidder will receive a watercolor and pencil portrait of up to two dancers of your choosing!

Dance Portraits! are small watercolor paintings, based on a dance videos you send to the artist Thyra Heder (author and illustrator of How Do You Dance?). A good resolution, full body video in good light is necessary.

Thyra Heder is an author and illustrator of many more picture books for children, including Fraidyzoo, The Bear Report, Alfie, and the forthcoming Sal Boat: (A Boat by Sal).

Partial Manuscript + Query Critique with Agent Eric Smith

Winning bidder will receive a critique of their manuscript's first 50 pages, as well as a query critique. Please note, pages are expected to be in New Times Roman 12-point font and double spaced.

Eric Smith is a literary agent with P.S. Literary and a Young Adult author living in Philadelphia. He's worked on New York Times bestselling and award-winning books. In his author life, his novels include Don't Read the Comments (a YALSA 2021 Best Fiction for Young Adults selection), You Can Go Your Own Way, and Jagged Little Pill: The Novel, written with Alanis Morrissette, Academy award-winner Diablo Cody, and Glen Ballard.

30 Minute Call with Publisher Stacey Barney

Winning bidder will receive a 30-minute phone call with Stacey to discuss manuscripts, answer queries about the industry, or workshop ideas.

Stacey Barney joined Nancy Paulsen Books for Young Readers as Associate Publisher in 2021. She edits a diverse list of award-winning and bestselling young adult and middle grade fiction as well as select picture books and nonfiction. Her list includes New York Times bestselling authors Krystal Sutherland, Renée Ahdieh, Katherine Arden, Ellen Hopkins, and American Ballet Theater principal dancer Misty Copeland, as well as Caldecott Honor-winning The Cat Man of Aleppo by Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-Basha, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.

30 Minute Call with Artist Cátia Chien

Winning bidder will receive a 30-minute phone call with Cátia to discuss anything related to the children's book industry. Bidder could choose to a portfolio consultation, an industry question and answer session, or simply to talk shop.

Cátia Chien is a picture book illustrator of such titles as The Bear and the Moon, which was a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal for Original Art winner and a Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration winner, A Boy and a Jaguar, an ALA Notable Book and recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award. She is also the founder of A THOUSAND WORLDS - a free curated picture book directory celebrating BIPOC kidlit creators. Her newest book is The Longest Letsgoboy.

30 Minute Call w/ Agent Sarah Burnes

Winning bidder will receive a 30-minute phone call with Sarah to discuss manuscripts, answer queries about the industry, or workshop ideas.

Sarah began her career on the editorial side of publishing, first at Houghton Mifflin, then in the Knopf Group, and last at Little, Brown. She became an agent in 2001, joining The Gernert Company in 2005. As an editor, she acquired and edited literary fiction and non-fiction, and as an agent, she has added children's fiction to her list. Sarah sits on the board of non-profit progressive publisher the New Press and her writing has appeared on The Paris Review's blog. She lives with her husband and three children in Brooklyn.