Saritza Hernández

ADULT NF: Coauthor of WELCOME TO DRAGON TALK and cohost of Dragon Talk, the official Dungeons & Dragons podcast Shelly Mazzanoble's HOW TO DUNGEON MASTER PARENTING: A GUIDEBOOK FOR GAMIFYING THE CHILD REARING QUEST, LEVELING UP YOUR SKILLS, AND RAISING FUTURE ADVENTURERS, pitched as for the gamer, fantasy-loving parent, or parent-to-be ready to master the role of a lifetime, to Meredith Stabel at University of Iowa Press, for publication in fall 2024.

PB: PEN/Faulkner Award-longlisted author and Latinx Kidlit Book Festival cofounder Mayra Cuevas's WE'RE GOING ON A PARRANDA!, a bilingual picture book about the Puerto Rican Christmas caroling tradition of the parranda as a child travels with family and friends trying to discover their own unique rhythm, illustrated by Monica Paola Rodriguez, to Catherine Laudone at Paula Wiseman Books, for publication in fall 2025.

PB: Angela Quezada Padron's FROM THE FIELDS TO THE FIGHT: THE STORY OF LABOR ACTIVIST JESSICA GOVEA THORBOURNE, a biography of the Latina labor activist whose family worked alongside Cesar Chavez to bring attention to the plight of migrant farmworkers and whose role in the California Grape Boycott was pivotal in its success, illustrated by Sol Salinas, to Sophia Jimenez at Atheneum, with Kristie Choi editing, in a nice deal, for publication in 2026.

PB: PEN/Faulkner Award-longlisted coauthor of DOES MY BODY OFFEND YOU? Mayra Cuevas's MY ABUELA IS A BRUJA, about the magical relationship between a young girl and her abuela on her grandmother's finca in Puerto Rico, illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gomez, to Michelle Frey at Knopf Children's, in a very nice deal, at auction.

ADULT SF: Queer author-illustrator Venessa Vida Kelley's WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON, pitched as The Shape of Water meets The Greatest Showman, in which an Afro-Boricua migrant in 1911 is pressed to kidnap and care for an ocean-eyed merman on display at a Coney Island sideshow, but when he falls in love with the merman in the tank, he must reckon with the forces that have held him captive and realize there's more than one way to be trapped, to Diana Pho at Erewhon.

PB: Author-illustrator Diana Castillo's debut, an early reader pitched as inspired by her Cuban immigrant family's experiences, to Holiday House.

GN: Author-illustrator Venessa V. Kelley's debut MANU FACES THE MUSIC, in which a young queer Puerto Rican woman at the height of a lucrative music career learns she is the last in a line of powerful mediums capable of channeling vast spiritual energy and must use her power to defend the NYC community she left behind from a dark threat to Oni Press.

YA: Louangie Bou-Montes's debut TILL THE LAST BEAT OF MY HEART, pitched as CEMETERY BOYS meets UNDEAD GIRL GANG, in which the 16-year-old, Afro-Latinx son of the local mortician accidentally reanimates the dead body of the boy he had more than friendly feelings for and has to uncover the truth about his family's necromantic abilities to keep him alive for good, to Harper Children's.

ILLUSTRATOR: MzVee's NATURAL ME, a celebration of self-love and beauty, inside and out, inspired by the author's song Natural Girl, illustrated by Lisbeth Checo, to Clarion.

NF PB: Author-illustrator Angela Quezada Padron's PB debut AS THE SEAS RISE, about the environmental scientist and activist Nicole Hernandez Hammer, who was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2015 State of the Union address for her passionate efforts to educate people about climate change and its disproportionate impacts on communities of color, to Atheneum.

YA: CNN special projects producer Mayra Cuevas and founding cochair of El Refugio Marie Marquardt's DOES MY BODY OFFEND YOU?, a coming-of-age story told in two points of view, about a Puerto Rican teen who seeks justice after running afoul of her school's sexist dress code, and the white girl who wants to help her lead "the bra-bellion" but must first learn how to become an effective ally; exploring themes of implicit bias, social activism, and female friendship, in a two-book, six-figure deal, to Knopf.