Founders of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival
Mayra Cuevas is the author of Salty, Bitter, Sweet (Blink/HarperCollins), a foodie romcom for young adults, named a “Best Books of Winter 2020” by Hypable, and “YA Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2020” by BuzzFeed. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mayra is a professional journalist and fiction writer who prefers love stories with a happy ending. Her debut fiction short story was selected by best-selling author Becky Albertalli to appear in the Foreshadow short-story anthology. She is a member of Las Musas Books authors collective, and a member of the Latinx KidLit Book Festival’s Steering Committee.
Ismée Williams is the critically-acclaimed author of the YA contemporary #OwnVoices Water in May (2017) and This Train Is Being Held (2020), a Junior Library Guild selection, published by Amulet Books. Ismée has been an invited speaker at The Virginia Festival of the Book, The NYC Teen Author Festival, The Southern Kentucky Book Festival, and The Bronx Book Festival among others. Ismée is a pediatric cardiologist who trained and worked in New York City for over 20 years. She is the daughter of a Cuban immigrant and was partially raised by her abuelos.
Alexandra Villasante has always loved telling stories—though not always with words. She has a BFA in Painting and an MA in Combined Media (that’s art school speak for making work out of anything). Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, Alex has the privilegio of dreaming in both English and Spanish. When she’s not writing or painting, Alexandra plans conferences and fundraisers for non-profits. She lives with her family in the semi-wilds of Pennsylvania. Her debut Young Adult novel, The Grief Keeper, was an Indies Next, Indies Introduce and Fall 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection. The Grief Keeper is on ALA’s Rainbow Book List 2020 and is the winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Children’s Literature/Young Adult Fiction.