Marvelous Midwest

Foyinsi Adegbonmire is an Editor at Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. She acquires Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction, from contemporary to mystery to grounded science-fiction, and enjoys lighthearted stories with conversational narrative voices. She was named a 2021 PW Star Watch Honoree and her acquisitions include New York Times-bestseller Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. When not reading or thinking about her very large TBR pile, she can be found watching Black sitcoms from the 90s/early 2000s, obsessing over bullet journaling, or being sucked into Twitter (@Foyinsi_Pub).

Laurie Keller is an author and illustrator of many books including Arnie the Doughnut, The Scrambled States of America, Do Unto Otters, Open Wide: Tooth School Inside, Potato Pants! and Theodor “Seuss” Geisel Award recipient, We Are Growing! She has illustrated books for other authors including the Marty Frye Private Eye books by Janet Tashjian, I Am the Shark! and Bears Are Best! by Joan Holub and Pluto Gets the Call by Adam Rex. When Laurie isn’t making books, she enjoys traveling, reading, hiking, camping, playing with her cats and playing the banjo…not at the same time. Her cats HATE her banjo. So do her neighbors.

Zeke Peña is a Xicano storyteller and cartoonist from El Paso, TX. His work is a mash-up of political cartoon, border rasquache and Hip Hop culture that addresses identity, politics, ecology and social justice. He recently illustrated the NY Times Bestselling book Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel by Jason Reynolds. He has received several awards for his book illustrations in My Papi Has a Motorcycle (Kokila, 2019) and Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide (Getty Publications, 2017). He received a degree in Art History from the UT Austin in 2005 and is self-taught in the studio. His work is in several collections of American and Latine art including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of Mexican Art, and The Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum. Zeke is currently writing and illustrating a picture book about growing up in the Chihuahuan desert.