Heather Lynn Harris

Illustrator and Author

Heather Lynn Harris is on a quest to share lost literary treasures with today’s young readers by bringing them to life with her illustrations. This award-winning illustrator hopes that the power of wonder is stirred in all who read her books. Educated at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California, she now lives in Orchard Park, New York, with her husband and three children.

Elizabeth Leader

Artist and Author

Mixed-media artist Elizabeth Leader is drawn to places and objects that most of us pass by on the street without even a glance.  She creates art out of artifacts, bringing these stories to life. Leader has a BFA from the Massachussetts College of Art and an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her mixed-media art has been exhibited across the nation.

Nancy Turgeon

Author

Nancy Turgeon’s vivid imagination started early. Seeds for The Alekizou and His Terrible Library Plot! were sown by her second grade teacher who challenged the class to find words without any vowels. Now retired following a long, star-studded career in advertising, Turgeon continues to nurture her creative side. In addition to writing children’s books, she has her own puppet theater and more than 100 puppets!

Brigette Atlas-Callahan and Kristin Madej-Warham

Co-Authors

Brigette Atlas-Callahan and Kristin Madej-Warham have been writing together since 2002. They are friends, mothers, and literacy specialists in the Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District in Western New York, as well as proud Buffalonians! Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, they share a passion for writing, which led them to highlight for children what a phenomenal place Buffalo is to live.

Jennifer Stanonis

Author

Meteorologist and Mom Jennifer Stanonis has covered and forecasted tornadoes, major snow storms, forest fires, floods, polar vortexes and more during her decades of meteorological TV weather reporting. The seeds that grew into Willy and Lilly’s Adventures with Weather were sown while taking her twins on walks in all sorts of weather. A native of northern California, Stanonis has a degree in meteorology from SUNY at Brockport and degree in broadcasting from San Francisco State University. She now resides in Buffalo, New York, with her husband and three young children.

Linda MacRitchie Graf

Linda MacRitchie Graf is a passionate artist and educator. She has been helping her Upstate New York art students flex their creative muscles since 1974, often working alongside them to create murals. She hopes that Treasure in the Trunk will inspire children to create and to tell their own stories.