College media instructor Karl Beckstrand is the best-selling and award-winning author/illustrator of 30 multicultural/multilingual titles and more than 65 ebooks. He’s lived abroad and interned for a Massachusetts publisher and for Congress in D.C. He earned a B.A. in journalism, an M.A. in international relations and conflict resolution, and a broadcast/film certificate. He’s been a technical recruiter in Silicon Valley, a Stanford Hospital chaplain, a Spanish interpreter for Angel Flight (aviator nonprofit), and a rock band front man. He’s won multiple publishing awards, including a 2016 International Book award for his Y.A. western survival thriller, To Swallow the Earth, and his works have been lauded by Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, The Horn Book, and School Library Journal. Raised in Silicon Valley, he has worked with people from all continents (except Antarctica). His work reflects cultural diversity—not only in protagonists, but in collaborators (his illustrators hail from Latin America, Europe, and Asia). Since 2004, he has run Premio Publishing. Beckstrand has presented to Taiwan’s Global Leadership for Youth, city and state governments, festivals, and schools. His Y.A. stories, self-help, ebook mysteries, nonfiction, Spanish/bilingual, career, and STEM books feature ethnically diverse characters—and usually end with a twist. His work has appeared via: Amazon, Apple/iBooks, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Costco, Deseret Book, Follett, Ingram, Kobo, Papercrafts Magazine, Everand, Target, The U.S. Congressional Record, Walmart, and KidsWorldBooks.

Jordan C Brun grew up in the Greater Detroit area, by way of Rural Ohio, and started his freelance art career at 14 – once he found out he could be paid for drawing, he was hooked. Jordan was educated at Michigan State University, earning a BFA in Art Education, his MA in Art Education at Eastern Michigan University, and his MFA in Illustration at Savannah College of Art and Design.

He has worked in a variety of schools throughout the United States as a Visual Arts Teacher, from Elementary to Higher Education, teaching Foundations, Drawing, Painting, Calligraphy, Graphic Design, Photography, Ceramics, Sculpture, Sequential Arts, and Illustration. Jordan illustrates a combination of satirical wit and dark humor, with a variety of mixed traditional media and digital alterations, what he likes to call "Tradigital". He has worked as an art director, storyboard artist, concept artist, actor, stunt coordinator, and spokesman for such companies such as SEGA of America, Midway Games, Nether Realm Studios, College for Creative Studies, Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts, Critical Moves, Premio Publishing, M-1 Studios, and Next Stage Productions, as well as a number of independent contractors and individuals.

Jordan currently lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and two children, where he divides his time between teaching art, freelance illustration, and serving on the Arts and Culture Advisory Board for Salt Lake County. He can be found on the web at www.JordanCBrun.com and social media @JordanCBrun.