Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the 2019 Jerusalem Prize, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Dave Mottram has always loved drawing animals. Even before grade school, Dave spent hours drawing and dreaming of being an artist. Not much has changed. He’s now a full-time illustrator living in Ohio, and some of his recent books include Wordy Birdy and Mighty Tug. He paints traditionally and digitally with color and layers that create a sophisticated style that is both childlike and appealing for adults. Dave enjoys family adventures with his wife, daughter, and Gracie, the black lab.