Faculty

Alan Gratz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of a number of novels for young readers, including Prisoner B-3087, Refugee, Ban This Book, Allies, Ground Zero, Heroes, and War Games. A Knoxville, Tennessee native, Alan and his family now live in Portland, Oregon. Visit him online at www.alangratz.com.

Mary Reaves Uhles has created illustrations for numerous books and magazines and has received a Kirkus star for her title, A TUBA CHRISTMAS. Her piece, EAT, was a finalist in the 2014 Bologna Book Fair Gallery. Prior to beginning her career as a freelance illustrator, Mary worked as an animator on projects for Warner Brothers and Fisher-Price Interactive. Since creating characters and stories is her favorite thing in the world (even more than perfect iced tea) she feels mighty lucky to do it every day in her Nashville hilltop studio.

Andrea Colvin founded Andrea Colvin Creative Agency in 2025 after three decades in the publishing industry. For the past 15 years she has held a variety of editorial leadership roles. She founded Little, Brown Ink, the graphic novel imprint from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, was editor in chief at the inclusive comics publisher Lion Forge, and spearheaded Andrews McMeel Publishing’s push into children’s books. She is best known for having acquired and published the graphic memoir Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, one of the most banned books in the US for the past half decade, and for her development role in Jerry Craft’s New Kid, the first graphic novel to win the prestigious Newbery Award. Andrea’s list focuses on books and illustration for young people, from picture books through new adult.

Rebecca Eskildsen is a literary agent at Writers House, representing middle grade, young adult, and adult novels. Prior to joining Writers House in 2017, she was a Children’s Lead Bookseller at Barnes & Noble and then a Foreign Rights Associate at JABberwocky Literary Agency. She is actively building her list, and her current clients include Newbery Honor winner Andrea Beatriz Arango. Rebecca currently lives in Brooklyn with her toothless and VERY demanding cat, Violet.

Jonah Heller (he/him) is a senior editor at Peachtree Publishing Company Inc. The talented authors and illustrators he has partnered with have garnered numerous accolades across picture book, middle grade, and young adult audiences. Jonah actively seeks empathetic, literary voices with commercial appeal and gravitates toward narratives that feature cathartic arcs of change. When he’s not fine-tuning language and character, he can be found gallivanting through the wilderness or pretending to have a green thumb.

Spanish Harlem born and bred, Saribel graduated from Kalamazoo College with a B.S in Anthropology, an embarrassingly long to be read list, and a passion for children’s literature. This passion led her to positions at Penguin Random House and W.W. Norton, where she learned about the different sides of the publishing industry. Now at Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency, she is excited to work with a team so dedicated to uplifting marginalized voices. When not reading, you can find her playing various tabletop roleplaying games or explaining roller derby to her friends.

Tracy Shaw has been in publishing for over 25 years at Little, Brown and Company, currently an art director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (LBYR). She studied Illustration at RISD which led her to book design, and has worked on everything from board books to adult nonfiction. For 7 years she led the art direction of James Patterson’s children’s imprint, Jimmy Patterson Books, and is now back to doing what she loves best - picture books.

Jennifer March Soloway is a cofounder and agent with Starling Literary + Media. She enjoys laugh-out-loud picture books and middle-grade adventures, but her sweet spot is young adult. She adores action-packed thrillers, mysteries and psychological horror. Throw in a dash of (bad) romance, and she’s hooked! But regardless of genre, her favorite novels focus on characters who feel like real people and explore themes of family, relationships, identity, sexuality, mental health, and/or addiction. She is actively seeking fresh literary voices. To learn more about Jennifer, follow her on Bluesky, @marchsoloway, and find her full wish list at www.starlingliterary.com.