How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity

Past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, Michael Cart was a columnist and reviewer for Booklist magazine. He was also the author or editor of nineteen books, including the gay coming-of-age novel My Father’s Scar and—with Christine Jenkins—The Heart Has Its Reasons, a critical history of young adult literature with gay/lesbian/queer content. His anthologies include Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth and Necessary Noise: Stories about Our Families as They Really Are. In 2008 he was the first recipient of the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award, and in 2000 he received the Grolier Foundation Award for his contribution to the stimulation and guidance of reading by young people.

Francesca Lia Block, winner of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award, is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling books, including Weetzie Bat; the book collections Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books and Roses and Bones: Myths, Tales, and Secrets; the illustrated novella House of Dolls; the vampire romance novel Pretty Dead; and the gothic werewolf novel The Frenzy. Her work is published around the world.

David Levithan is the critically acclaimed author of eight books for teens, many of which have appeared on ALA's Best Books for Young Adults list, including Boy Meets Boy, for which he won a Lambda Literary Award.

Ron Koertge is the author of many acclaimed novels for young people, including Stoner & Spaz and Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, and most recently is coauthor, with Gary D. Schmidt, of Styx and Stones. A two-time winner of the PEN Award, Ron lives in South Pasadena, California, where he is currently the city’s poet laureate.

Julie Anne Peters lives in Lakewood, Colorado.

Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of more than a dozen books, including a bestselling memoir, a collection of short stories entitled Remind Me to Murder You Later, and three novels for adults. Her novel Getting In won the Alex Award from the American Library Association in 1998 for an adult novel with special appeal to young adult readers. Since 1988 she has been a professor of English at Colby College. Jenny Boylan lives at the end of a dirt road in Maine with a Sasquatch, a wind elemental, two weredogs, and a leprechaun.

Born in Dublin and now living in Canada, EMMA DONOGHUE writes fiction as well as drama for stage and screen. Her novel Room was shortlisted for the Booker, Commonwealth and Orange Prizes and sold nearly three million copies in forty languages. Donoghue was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Room the film, starring Brie Larson. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of her novel The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh, and adapted Room and The Pull of the Stars for the stage. Donoghue’s most recent novel, The Paris Express, was a finalist for the 2025 Giller Prize. Her other novels include Learned by Heart, Haven, Akin and Frog Music.