Amber Keyser is an evolutionary biologist who loves to write about science and adventure for children.  Before becoming a freelance science writer, she did research on wild birds, marine copepods, and fruit flies.  Her articles for children have appeared in Odyssey Magazine and at Globio.org, an online biodiversity resource.  Her books include An Algonquin Heart Song: Paddle My Own Canoe and two graphic novels from Capstone Press, Cells with Max Axiom and Genes with Max Axiom (due out in 2010). 

Addie Boswell is an artist and writer in Southeast Portland, and spends much of her time traveling to schools and libraries to share her passions through art residencies and readings.  She is one of the artists featured in the new Tualatin Library for her children’s mural entitled “Turning the Page.”  The Rain Stomper! is Boswell’s first picture book, published by Marshall Cavendish. 

Elizabeth Rusch writes both fiction and nonfiction for children and adults in the areas of science, art, humor, the environment, the outdoors, travel, and social issues — anything that catches her fancy. She has published five children's books and more than 100 articles in magazines such as Muse, Read, American Girl, Harper’s, Mother Jones, and Backpacker. Her children's books -- Generation Fix, A Day with No Crayons, The Planet Hunter, and Will it Blow? -- have been honored by Smithsonian magazine, the International Reading Association, Natural History magazine and the Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award in Children’s Literature. Visit her website to learn more about her writing and her presentations and workshops for children and adults.

Ruth Tenzer Feldman is a writer, editor, song parodist, and former legislative attorney. Ruth’s nonfiction books include a biography of Thurgood Marshall, How Congress Works, and Don’t Whistle in School, as well as several other histories and biographies. Her articles for children have appeared in Cobblestone, Odyssey, and Highlights. When writing fiction, she draws on the imagination that helped her to play President Clinton’s dog.

Melissa Dalton has worked as a children's shoe saleswoman, an adventure trip guide, a barista, and more recently, a magazine editor. Her nonfiction articles for adults have appeared in salt:telling Maine Stories and Portland Spaces magazine. She is currently at work on her first novel for children, as she makes a very poor saleswoman.



Sabina I. Rascol is an author, poet, and storyteller.  Her first book, The Impudent Rooster, was illustrated by award-winning illustrator Holly Berry and published by Dutton Children's Books, part of the Penguin Group.  She was born in Romania and lives in Portland, Oregon.

Nicole Marie Schreiber is a writer of historical fiction and fantasy for children and young adults.  She earned an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, won numerous writing awards from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) at their annual Writer’s Days in both Los Angeles and Ventura County, and taught elementary school for nine years.  Currently, Nicole is working on raising a middle grade novel set in 1548 in the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium), a fantasy novel based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, as well as a preschooler, a toddler, and a lab/cocker spaniel puppy, all at the same time!