An inspiring speaker and entertaining performer, John Claude Bemis is the author of The Wooden Prince, Lord of Monsters, the Clockwork Dark trilogy, The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, and Flora and the Runaway Rooster. His upcoming graphic novel series The Daughters of Mayhem will be released in 2025. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Education for his work in the schools as an author-educator and served as North Carolina’s Piedmont Laureate. John lives with his wife and daughter in Hillsborough, NC.

Nicole Miles has worked with a variety of clients including Adobe, Buzzfeed, Candlewick Press, Google, the New York Times, Penguin Random House, Rebel Girls, Simon & Schuster, and Sisters Letter (AARP). Her comic Barbara (ShortBox, 2017) was nominated for an Eisner award. She has been asked to speak to BA Hons Illustration students at Cardiff Metropolitan University (several times) as well as at the Afro Futures Un-conference (2019) in Birmingham. She has also been a Special Visiting Lecturer for Sheffield Hallam University where she gets great pleasure in doing occasional teaching sessions with first year illustration students.