Named the 2025-2026 Young People's Poet Laureate, Carole Boston Weatherford earned a BA from American University, an MA from the University of Baltimore, and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her more than eighty books have won the NAACP Image Award, a Coretta Scott King Award, and a Newbery Honor. She often writes about African American history, traditions, families and music. Weatherford is the winner of a Ragan-Rubin Award for Literary Achievement from the North Carolina English Teachers Association and the North Carolina Award for Literature. Formerly an English professor, she lives in Maryland.Ashleigh Corrin is an award-winning children's book illustrator and graphic designer. Her debut illustrated book, Layla's Happiness, written by Mariahdessa Ekere Tallie, received the 2020 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award, as well as the Writer Honor.

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Named the 2025-2026 Young People's Poet Laureate, Carole Boston Weatherford earned a BA from American University, an MA from the University of Baltimore, and an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her more than eighty books have won the NAACP Image Award, a Coretta Scott King Award, and a Newbery Honor. She often writes about African American history, traditions, families and music. Weatherford is the winner of a Ragan-Rubin Award for Literary Achievement from the North Carolina English Teachers Association and the North Carolina Award for Literature. Formerly an English professor, she lives in Maryland.Ashleigh Corrin is an award-winning children's book illustrator and graphic designer. Her debut illustrated book, Layla's Happiness, written by Mariahdessa Ekere Tallie, received the 2020 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award, as well as the Writer Honor.

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