Christine A. Jenkins is associate professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a PhD and MS in library and information studies and an MA in children's literature. Jenkins is recipient of several teaching awards and has a decade of experience as a school librarian/media specialist. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature (2011), and co-author (with Michael Cart) of Top 250 LGBTQ Books for Teens (2015).

Michael Cart is a columnist and reviewer for ALA's Booklist magazine, and has also written countless articles that have appeared in The New York Times, Parents Magazine, American Libraries, School Library Journal, and elsewhere. The former president of both YALSA and ALAN, Cart is the recipient of the 2000 Grolier Award and the first recipient in 2008 of the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Award. He appointed and chaired the Task Force that created the Michael L. Printz Award and subsequently chaired the 2006 Printz Committee. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism, Third Edition (2016).

Jenkins and Cart are co-authors of The Heart Has Its Reasons: Young Adult Literature with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2004 (Scarecrow Press, 2006).