This week, we're chatting with em dickson, author of Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary and Gender-Diverse People You Should Know, illustrated by Cameron Mukwa.

Turns out em went to college with our Podcast's cohost Mary Grahame, over at Simmons University in Boston; you'll get a lot of their charming history together, including Mary Grahame's path to becoming a Youth Librarian and em's journey to become a published Children's Author!

em dickson (e/em/eir/she) holds an MA in Children's Lit, along with an MFA, both earned from her time at Simmons; along with er recently published book, e is a school librarian, authenticity reader, competitive sailor, and sea shanty enthusiast. Like Peter Pan, e has a strong emotional attachment to eir shadow, a fluffy black muppet of a dog called Luna. When not reading or writing, e can be found harmonizing to random sounds, collecting trinkets in eir pockets like a dragon, or promoting the color teal. E feels most at home by the sea, which is convenient, since e spends most of eir time in coastal Massachusetts. You can find em on Instagram @mlereads

Along with some overdue catching up, em and Mary Grahame mention another excellent book that em contributed to, Athlete is Agender. We also discuss a lot of other noteworthy authors, including ND Stevenson, Esme Symes-Smith, Maia Kobabe, and more! We also give some shout-outs to our librarian programming, including our Reading Rainbow social-hour/book club, and our Rainbow Club at Ferndale Middle School! Tune In!