Over the past seven years, Nina and Elana have worked together as teachers, co-writers, and readers for one another’s work. Some of our most fulfilling times are spent talking together about writing. 
 
We know from sharing our enthusiasm, our setbacks, and our discoveries how gratifying and joyful writing can be, even when it’s also often difficult and solitary. We want to create a space where others can experience this feeling of connection.

Nina LaCour is the bestselling, Lambda Award-winning and Michael L. Printz Award-winning author of picture books, a chapter book series, young adult novels, and adult literary fiction. Her novel We Are Okay was named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 YA Novels of All Time and among Kirkus Review's Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far). Her adult literary debut, Yerba Buena, was a Book of the Month Club selection, Target Book Club selection, and Indie Next Pick. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nina received her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Her graduate thesis became her first novel, Hold Still, which received a William C. Morris honor from the American Library Association and won the Northern California Book Award. Nina loves cooking, gardening, and daytripping through the ever-inspiring regions of Northern California with her wife and their daughter. She lives in San Francisco.
 
Elana K. Arnold is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels and young adult novels, including The Blood Years, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and Sydney Taylor Book Award, named as one of Kirkus Review's Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far), as well as a Boston Horn/Horn Book Award and California Book Award honoree; the Printz Honor winner Damsel; the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of, and Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat and its sequels. Born in Long Beach, California, Elana spent her childhood and teen years in many parts of southern and central California. She received her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine and her master’s degree in English and Creative Writing from UC Davis. Now back in Long Beach, Elana loves spending time with her family of humans and other mammals. 

Both Nina and Elana teach, guest lecture, and appear at conferences and conventions around the country and internationally. Garnering starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, The Horn Book, Booklist, School Library Journal, and others, their books have been translated into over a dozen languages. Additionally, their novels and books for younger readers are frequent Junior Library Guild selections. Their young adult novels have been named among the best books of the year by the American Library Association, School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Rise: A Feminist Book Project, Seventeen, Bustle, The Horn Book, The Boston Globe, Boston Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and New York Public Library, and more.