Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a historian and professor of African American studies at Emory University. Her first book was A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. Her second book, Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and a winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Award. She is also the author of She Came to Slay, an illustrated tribute to Harriet Tubman; coauthor of Susie King Taylor, Ida B. Wells, and Harriet Jacobs; and the co-executive producer of the HBO series The Gilded Age.

Candace Buford has always been drawn to stories with strong and complex people of color. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in German literature and holds a law degree from Penn State Law, as well as a business degree from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Kneel and Good as Gold and coauthor of the Rise. Risk. Remember Incredible Stories middle grade nonfiction series. Follow her on Instagram and X @CandaceBuford.