When Moon Blooms: My Living World

Aida Salazar is an award-winning author and arts activist whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the critically acclaimed middle-grade verse novels The Moon Within and Land of the Cranes. Her forthcoming books include the picture book anthology In the Spirit of a Dream: 13 Stories of Immigrants of Color (Orchard Books, 2021), the picture book biography Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter (Scholastic Press, 2022), the middle-grade novel A Seed in the Sun (Dial, 2022), and the middle-grade anthology My New Gift: 16 Period Stories from BIPOC Authors (Candlewick, 2023). Aida is a founding member of LAS MUSAS—a Latinx kidlit debut author collective. Her story "By the Light of the Moon" was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, California.

Caribay Marquina Benavides is an artist from Mérida, Venezuela, and is currently based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a graphic designer and illustrator whose art is influenced by a nostalgia for the nature of her homeland. Caribay’s work spans from commercial to editorial illustration, designing for clients all around the world.