LAUREL CROZA is the author of the picture book I Know Here, illustrated by Matt James. It won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, among many other accolades. She also wrote the sequel, From There to Here. The Whirlpool is Laurel's first short-story collection. She lives with her husband in Toronto.

KELSEY GARRITY-RILEY grew up in Germany and Belgium before moving to the US to pursue her love of art. She graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2010. She has also illustrated Other-Wordly by Yee-Lum Mak. Kelsey lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.