Lin Oliver is a writer and producer of movies, books, and television series for children and families.  She has created over one hundred episodes of television, four movies, and fourteen books.  She co-writes the Hank Zipzer books with Henry Winkler.  She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alan. They have three sons named Theo, Ollie, and Cole, one fluffy dog named Annie, and no iguanas.

Lin is also the cofounder and Executive Director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.  www.hankzipzer.com/ & www.linoliver.com & www.scbwi.org

Alexandra Penfold is an Associate Editor with Paula Wiseman Books at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers where she works on hardcover trade picture books, middle-grade fiction, and young adult novels.  She works closely with Paula Wiseman editing the Amelia's Notebook series by Marissa Moss in addition to editing her own list of books including City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy, and the forthcoming Reindeer Christmas by Mark Kimball Moulton, illustrated by Karen Hillard Good, Seabiscuit  written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy, and The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer among others.  Prior to becoming an editor Alexandra was a children's book publicist.  She worked on media campaigns that appeared in USA Today, Newsweek , US News and World Report, and NPR's All Things Considered, among other national and local media outlets.  www.simonsayskids.com

Brad Sneed grew up near Newton, Kansas.  An artist from an early age, what he really wanted to be when he grew up was a cowboy or a football player.  Somewhere along the way, he decided his odds of making a living were better as an artist, so he went to Kansas University to study illustration.  After graduation, Brad began illustrating his first picture book.  Nearly two years crept by before the UPS driver delivered a box of brand new copies of Grandpa’s Song.  It was official…he was now a REAL Illustrator!  Twenty years later, his heart still flutters when the UPS man comes to his door with a big box from the publisher!

Brad Sneed has illustrated more than twenty picture books. Titles include: Smoky Mountain Rose, The Bravest of Us All, When Wishes Were Horses, The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians, and Big Bad Wolves at School.  He authored Lucky Russell, and Deputy Harvey and the Ant Cow Caper, and retold Thumbelina, and Aesop’s Fables. 

Brad lives in Prairie Village, Kansas with his wife and daughter.  He can’t imagine a better job than writing and illustrating picture books….although sometimes he still day dreams of being a cowboy or a football player! www.bradsneed.com/index.html

Jane Kurtz is the award-winning author of 25 books—picture books, novels for young readers, books for teachers, and ready-to-reads, both fiction and nonfiction.  She has lived (and now speaks) in any number of places—in the U.S. and overseas—but recently relocated to Lawrence, Kansas. 

She is on the faculty for the MFA program in children's literature at Vermont College though will not be teaching fall semester because she has too many books to write!  www.janekurtz.com

Lynne Polvino has been with Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for nearly ten years. She edits a wide range of projects, from picture books and poetry to fiction and nonfiction, for infants through grade twelve. Lynne is currently building her own list, which includes You’ll Be Sorry by Josh Schneider; The Amethyst Road by Louise Spiegler; Nikki and Deja by Karen English, illustrated by Laura Freeman; She Touched the World: The Story of Laura Bridgman by Sally Hobart Alexander and Robert Alexander; and Painting the Wild Frontier: The Art and Adventures of George Catlin by Susanna Reich.

Prior to her arrival at Clarion, Lynne worked for several years at a small literary agency, where she was introduced to the ins and outs of the publishing business. In the world beyond children’s publishing, she plays bass in a female-fronted garage rock/punk band, and is involved in her local arts scene in Brooklyn, New York. www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/clarion/

Stephen Fraser is a literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City, a full-service agency which handles both children’s and adult books. At Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, Stephen has edited such creative talents as Mary Engelbreit, Gail Gibbons, Michael Hague, Ann Rinaldi, Kathryn Lasky, Brent Hartinger, Stephen Mitchell, Dan Gutman, Gregory Maguire, and Daniel Pinkwater.

A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, he has a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature from Simmons College in Boston, MA and has written children’s book reviews for The Christian Science Monitor, Five Owls, and Publishers Weekly. Stephen is a popular speaker at writer’s conferences throughout the country.  www.jdlit.com

Susan Clymer has written twelve books for young readers, including: Scrawny, the Classroom Duck, Llama Pajamas, Nine Lives of AdventureCat, and There’s a Hamster in My Lunchbox.  Her nonfiction articles have appeared in publications as varied as Cricket Magazine, Cat Fancy, and Berkeley Monthly. 

A firm believer in the active workshop approach, Clymer teaches Children’s Writing at the Community School of the Arts, and is a popular speaker and workshop leader at writing and education conventions.  Clymer is committed to working with young people and conducts one to four-week residencies in classrooms for ten to twelve weeks during each school year. 

Suzanne Cruise – an accomplished artist whose career includes a staff position as an illustrator at Hallmark Cards, Inc. – founded her company 17 years ago. A well-established veteran of the design industry, Cruise has directed her company to be one of the top licensing agencies in the country, featuring many highly acclaimed artists.  She is doing artist portfolio reviews at our conference.
http://www.cruisecreative.com/index.html

Vicki Grove has been a freelance writer for 29 years, and has had about 300 articles and short stories published.  She was part of a team of writers commissioned to put together Word Publishing’s Youth Study Bible, and has won two “Higher Goals” awards for magazine writing from the Evangelical Press Association.  She won the SCBWI National Magazine Merit Award for the best short story published in 1996, and in 1998 was inducted into the Missouri Writers’ Hall of Fame.

In 1988 she won the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Fiction Prize for a  first novel for young readers, and since then has written ten middle grade and young adult novels for Putnam.  Her 8th book, Destiny, was chosen by the Society for Midland Authors as the best novel written for young people by a Midwestern author in 2001.

Her most recent novel, Rhiannon, is a murder mystery sent in Medieval England.  She’s just finished her 2nd historical novel, The Red Dove, which is also set in Medieval England and will be published by Putnam in 2009.