Authors

DANIELA RUS, co-author of The Mind's Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI (W. W. Norton & Company) and The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots, is a pioneering roboticist and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where she is the director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. A global leader in robotics and AI, she is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a MacArthur Fellow.

NIKKI RUSSELL is the illustrator for the Dork Diaries and The Misadventures of Max Crumbly series, written by her mother, Rachel Renée Russell. The mother-daughter team has released 19 consecutive New York Times bestsellers which have sold more than 50 million copies and  been translated into 42 languages. Russell graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s in elementary education and taught first grade until landing her dream job as a children's book illustrator. In her free time she enjoys shopping, listening to music, playing computer games, and watching the Home & Garden channel.

RACHEL RENÉE RUSSELL is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dork Diaries series, which chronicles the life and misadventures of middle school student Nikki Maxwell and her best friends. The series has been translated into 42 languages worldwide and garnered such honors as two Kids’ Book Choice Awards, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children, the Milner Award for Children’s Literature, and a Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Book of the Year nomination. Russell is also the author of the New York Times bestselling The Misadventures of Max Crumbly series, which received a Kids’ Book Choice Award. Her daughter, Nikki Russell, is the illustrator for both book series, and the mother-daughter team has released 19 consecutive New York Times bestsellers.

ALOK SAMA is the former president and CFO of SoftBank Group International. He previously served as a managing director at Morgan Stanley, and has worked in finance and technology for more than 30 years in New York, San Francisco, London, and Hong Kong. Sama holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in creative writing from New York University. The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble (St. Martin's Press) is his first book.

FRANCIS SÁNCHEZ (Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, 1970). Exiliado en Madrid. Escritor, periodista y editor. Director del medio digital Árbol Invertido y de la editorial independiente Ediciones Deslinde. Autor de múltiples libros de poesía, narrativa y ensayo, así como de exposiciones de poesía visual.

NARDELIS SÁNCHEZ nació en Cuba el 1ro de octubre de 1951. Cursó la escuela primaria en su provincia natal de Las Villas (Villa Clara). Cursó la escuela intermedia en la Secundaria Básica Rubén Martínez Villena de la provincia de La Habana. A los 14 años emigró a los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica donde se graduó de escuela superior (High School) en el estado de New Jersey. A los 17 años se estableció en Puerto Rico y cursó estudios universitarios en la U.P.R. de Río Piedras y en la Universidad Mundial de Hato Rey. Se certificó en el Método Montessori a nivel primario en 1987 y sirvió como directriz de niñas y niños de 3 a 6 años en la Casa Montessori de Santurce y en la Nueva Escuela Montessori de Río Piedras. Trabajó, a tiempo parcial, como guía de arte en la Escuela del Pueblo Trabajador y en el Programa Sabatino de la Escuela de Artes Plásticas. Desarrolló talleres de arte con mujeres víctimas de violencia doméstica y facilitó la creación y establecimiento del ambiente Montessori en la Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos en Puerto Rico. Obtuvo un bachillerato en Artes de la Educación Temprana de Columbus University, en el estado de Mississippi (2003). Se entrenó y certificó a nivel elemental (AMS 2004) en el Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Educación Montessori en Silver Spring, en el estado de Maryland donde trabajó por diez años como directriz de niñas y niños de 6 a 9 años en el Programa de la Escuela Elemental de Henson Valley Montessori School. Posteriormente, tuvo a su cargo, por tres años, el Programa de la Elemental con niños y jóvenes de 9 a 12 años en el Colegio Montessori de Orlando del estado de Florida. Es creadora del personaje y de la revista Taína Yunqueverde que distribuyó cuando facilitaba talleres de arte en el Programa de las Bibliotecas Públicas de la ciudad de Nueva York. Budas y Maestros es su primer libro en prosa y tres poemarios: Para que no muera la Magia, Soy Una Isla, Razón para mi Canto. Y ahora publica los testimonios del 11-J en colaboración con los familiares y presos políticos de las 15 provincias de Cuba. Actualmente labora en Abuela Dolores y Paraíso Efímero.

CRISTINA SÁNCHEZ-ANDRADE es escritora, profesora universitaria y traductora. Licenciada en Ciencias de la Información y en Derecho, es natural de Santiago de Compostela. Algunas de sus obras son La nostalgia de la Mujer Anfibio (Anagrama, 2022), el libro de relatos El niño que comía lana (Anagrama, 2019) o Las Inviernas (Anagrama, 2014), traducidas a varios idiomas. Ha sido galardonada con, entre otros, los premios Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Feria del Libro de Guadalajara, México), el Premio Julio Camba de Periodismo (2019), o el Premio Setenil al mejor libro de relatos publicado en España. La nostalgia de la Mujer Anfibio (Anagrama), novela que transcurre en Galicia y relata la vida de tres mujeres marcadas por un naufragio, una obra que se convierte en una reflexión sobre la memoria en la que intervienen secretos y celos, la culpa colectiva y el deseo femenino; un desafío al lector, escrito con una destreza técnica y una prosa excepcional, capaz de crear un juego hipnótico que no concluye hasta la última página.

MARIANA SÁNDEZ (Buenos Aires, 1973) vive en Madrid. Es escritora, periodista y gestora cultural. Licenciada en Letras de Argentina, realizó estudios en Literatura Inglesa en Manchester y un posgrado en Teoría Literaria en Barcelona. Colabora con notas literarias para los diarios La Nación y Clarín, de Argentina, y El Periódico de España. Es autora del libro de entrevistas El cine de Manuel (Capital Intelectual, 2010), el libro de relatos Algunas familias normales (2016, reeditado por Compañía Naviera Ilimitada, 2020) y las novelas Una casa llena de gente (Compañía Naviera, 2019; Impedimenta, 2022), y La vida en miniatura (Impedimenta, 2024), que presenta este año en la Feria. La vida en miniatura es una novela con trazas de libro de viajes, en el que el camino se recorre por dentro: Dorothea, la protagonista, va cruzando los campos de Inglaterra mientras desanda episodios clave de su pasado y aprende a vivir su presente. Con una escritura a la vez exquisita y natural que fusiona ternura y humor, Mariana Sández nos brinda una sátira social en la que encontramos lo más mordaz y lo más bello de la vida.

RAMSÉS SANDOVAL Narrador y comentarista deportivo bilingüe. Bilingual Sports Play by Play Broadcaster. Participa en la presentación de Messi, 10 miradas sobre el 10.

MELODY SANTIAGO CUMMINGS is the executive director of O, Miami. A Miami native, she is an alumnus of the National YoungArts Foundation, studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, and holds a BFA from Massachusetts College of Fine Art. Recognized as a 2019-20 “Miami Leader” by The Miami Foundation, she received a certificate from Indiana University – The Fundraising School in 2019. In addition to contributing to more than 700 projects and events at O, Miami, Santiago Cummings has been a creative strategist specializing in cultural programming for Apple and Pérez Art Museum Miami.

MAYRA SANTOS FEBRES, escritora afro-puertorriqueña de Carolina, Puerto Rico, ha ganado becas internacionales y premios literarios como el Premio Radio Francia Internacional y el Premio Primavera de Novela. Fundadora del Programa de Escritura Creativa de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, ha enseñado en prestigiosas universidades como Harvard y la Universidad Complutense. Creó el Festival de la Palabra y el programa #Quenoseacabenlaspalabras, y en 2016 fundó "Las ancestras", un colectivo que ofrece talleres de escritura creativa en cárceles y albergues. Sus obras han sido traducidas al inglés, francés, italiano, portugués, coreano y rumano. Llega este año a la Feria con La otra Julia (Vintage Español), obra que narra la corta e intensa vida de la poeta puertorriqueña Julia de Burgos García, en la voz de una escritora que lidia con sus propios conflictos y dificultades. Esta novela es la historia de ambas.

JULIE SATOW is the author of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion (Doubleday), and, previously, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel. She’s a regular contributor to The New York Times, and her work has also appeared on National Public Radio, Bloomberg Businessweek, Travel + Leisure, and elsewhere.

SAM SAX is a queer Jewish writer and educator. They are the author of Madness (Penguin Books), winner of The National Poetry Series, and Bury It (Wesleyan University Press), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Sax is a two-time Bay Area GrandSLAM Champion, with poems published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Granta, and elsewhere. They have received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Poetry Foundation, and Yaddo, and are currently serving as a lecturer in the ITALIC program at Stanford University. Their first novel, Yr Dead (McSweeney’s) was published in 2024.

ANALEIGH SBRANA is a writer and visual artist. She lives outside of San Francisco with her husband, daughter, and a chonky kitty. Her favorite things to do include wandering through forests looking for the fae, trying new cafés, and scouring used bookstores for hidden gems.

ERNEST SCHEYDER is a senior correspondent for Reuters covering the green energy transition and the minerals that undergird it. He previously covered the U.S. shale oil revolution, politics, and the environment, and held roles at The Associated Press and Bangor Daily News. A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine and Columbia Journalism School.

GESI SCHILLING is a Miami-born photographer. Her work regularly appears in print including in The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Complex, Vogue, and the Miami Herald, where she began her career in photojournalism in 2010. She has documented more than 200 weddings and a decade of the O, Miami Poetry Festival. She is also the creator of The Sunny Project, a photography-based fundraising platform that provided funds to organizations supporting vulnerable populations during the pandemic. Schilling holds a degree in visual anthropology from the University of Florida. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

DAVID LERNER SCHWARTZ is the recipient of the Robert Day Award for Fiction from New Letters. His work has been published in Ecotone, Witness, Literary Hub, Rumpus, New York Magazine, and other publications. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida. Learn more about him at davidlernerschwartz.com.

UNCLE SCOTCHY, aka Eric Garcia, is a storyteller and blues musician who performs as both a one-man band and with his group, Juke. He’s also the composer and performer of The Blues Opera, a one-man autobiographical immersive theater experience.

DONNA SEAMAN is the adult books editor at Booklist. A recipient of the Louis Shores Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing and the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, she is a member of the Content Leadership Team for the American Writers Museum and an adjunct professor for Northwestern University’s graduate creative writing program at the School of Professional Studies. Seaman is also the author of Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists and River of Books (Ode Books).

LISA SEE is the New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at No. 1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. See is a recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named a National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women. Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel (Scribner) is her most recent book.

JOEY SEEMAN is a graphic designer, painter, DJ, and co-author of Punk Under the Sun: ‘80s Punk and New Wave in South Florida (Neon Books), a second edition of which was published in 2024. In the 1980s, Seeman played bass in several local Miami bands, including Fade II Gray and Naughty Puritans. During the burgeoning South Beach art scene of the early 1990s, he collaborated with artist Tomata du Plenty, lead singer of the seminal Los Angeles punk band The Screamers, staging numerous exhibitions in alternative spaces. His artwork has been published nationally in Spin, Art Alternatives, Ocean Drive, and Juxtapoz Magazine, and has been shown in galleries in Portland, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Miami, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. A Miami native, he currently lives in Dallas.

ALEX SEGURA is the bestselling and award-winning author of Secret Identity: A Novel (Flatiron Books), which was a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller, a New York Times "Editor’s Choice," and an NPR "Best Mystery of the Year." He's also the author of the Pete Fernandez series, as well as the Star Wars novel Poe Dameron: Free Fall (Disney Lucasfilm Press), and the Spider-Verse adventure Araña/Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow (Marvel Press). He lives in New York City with his family.

FERNANDO SEGURA MILLAN TREJO Nacido en Ciudad de México, creció en Argentina. Doctor en Sociología por la Escuela de Altos Estudios en Ciencias Sociales de París. Ha realizado investigaciones de campo sobre diferentes aristas del fútbol en Argentina, Brasil, Francia, Inglaterra, México, Australia, Rusia, Colombia y recientemente Qatar. Ha seguido con atención la carrera de Lionel Messi desde sus inicios. Condujo la serie Tertulias desde Qatar sobre el Mundial 2022 para el Canal 14 de México. Ha sido profesor en la Universidad Federal de Goiás en Brasil, el CIDE en México, investigador visitante en las universidades de Sheffield y Leicester, y el Centro Internacional de Estudios del Deporte (CIES) en Suiza.

SUSAN SEIDELMAN is an alum of New York University's Graduate Film School and began her career in the 1980s when Smithereens became the first American independent film to be accepted into the Cannes Film Festival. Her next movie, Desperately Seeking Susan, starred Madonna and Rosanna Arquette and was a critical and commercial success. Seidelman has directed dozens of other films starring actors such as Meryl Streep, Brooke Shields, and Sally Field since then, as well as the first four episodes of Sex and the City. She lives in New Jersey.

PEDRO SEVCEC Nacido el 14 de julio de 1954, es un periodista y personalidad de la televisión uruguaya, mejor conocido como el ex presentador de Noticiero Telemundo en los Estados Unidos, de 2000 a 2009. Sevcec se desempeñó anteriormente como reportero de Ocurrió Así antes de presentar su propio programa de entrevistas. En la red. Actualmente presenta Sevcec a Fondo en AmericaTeVe desde 2011 y tiene su propio programa de radio vespertino en WSUA Miami- Radio Caracol 1260 AM llamado La Ventana con Pedro Sevcec. Participa este año en la feria dialogando con el autor uruguayo Pablo Vierci.

JEFF SHAARA is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of 17 novels, including Rise to Rebellion and The Rising Tide, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure – two novels that complete his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, The Killer Angels. His latest book is The Shadow of War: A Novel of the Cuban Missile Crisis (St. Martin's Press). Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

ANGELA SHANTÉ is an author and former New York City K-12 teacher by trade. In addition to her writing, she is a multihyphened artist who consults on creative, educational, and culturally relevant projects. She lives in California with her dog, Blue.

DANI SHAPIRO is the author of 11 books and the host and creator of the hit podcast Family Secrets. Her most recent novel, Signal Fires, was named a best book of 2022 by NPR, Time, The Washington Post, Amazon, and others, and is a national bestseller. Her most recent memoir, Inheritance, was an instant New York Times bestseller and named a best book of 2019 by Elle, Vanity Fair, Wired, and Real Simple. Both Signal Fires and Inheritance were winners of the National Jewish Book Award. Shapiro's work has been published in 14 languages and she’s currently developing Signal Fires for its television adaptation. Her book on the process and craft of writing, Still Writing, has just been reissued on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.

FLORENCE SIMMONS co-founded the book review blog "Book Nerds Across America" in 2010. The blog remains active and has expanded to social media, where you can still find her and her friends sharing book reviews, recaps of bookish events, and more. She is a book reviews editor for School Library Journal and an author; her debut novel, The Summer Scrapbook, will be published in the spring of 2026 by Lerner Publishing Group.

STACEY ALBA SKAR-HAWKINS completó su doctorado en literatura latinoamericana en la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison (1997). Ha publicado traducciones de memorias latinoamericanas con la University of Wisconsin Press y Duke University Press, así como ediciones bilingües de poesía nicaragüense en México, Nicaragua, España y Estados Unidos. Sus traducciones publicadas incluyen obras de varios autores nicaragüenses, como Sergio Ramírez, Gioconda Belli, Francisco de Asís Fernández, Rubí Arana y William González Guevara. Enseña lengua, cultura y traducción en Western Connecticut State University. Este año participa en la presentación del libro Agua sagrada de Rubí Arana en su versión bilingüe, con el cual se dará un homenaje póstumo a la vida y obra de la poeta nicaragüense, con la participación de escritores cercanos a la artista, que compartirán sus poemas y anécdotas más preciadas.