Cruzita and the Mariacheros

Ashley Jean Granillo is a Mexican American writer and educator hailing from the San Fernando Valley. She has her BA and MA in creative writing from California State University Northridge and holds her MFA in fiction from the University of California Riverside, Palm Desert. She is also a member of Las Musas, a collective of Latinx authors whose gender identity aligns with femininity. Her short story "Besitos" was featured in Where Monsters Lurk & Magic Hides, a Latine/x short story genre anthology. Cruzita and the Mariacheros is her debut middle grade contemporary novel.

EJ Lavery grew up in the dying heartland of Michigan, the adopted daughter of Mexican migrant workers whose well-being was entrusted to the success of the Detroit auto industry. Raised an only child by her loving grandparents, EJ's imagination was fueled by the books they always found the money to buy her. The magic in the pages transformed the rural landscape into an adventure, and her dreamer's heart rewrote her story into something extraordinary. Persistently curious, EJ pursued a bachelor's degree in theater at the University of Michigan, and then a bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Massachusetts. She's explored lava tubes and glaciers in Iceland, wandered in the footsteps of Lord Byron in Croatia, followed the Von Trapp children through the Mirabell Gardens, and fangirled at the final resting place of Beethoven. When not spinning tales for the world, EJ can be found exploring the outdoors with her husband and her Australian Shepherd, Adelaide. With an ever-growing stack of books-to-be-read, she can still be seen perusing bookstores, listening to the beckoning whispers from the shelves of horror, mystery, true crime, and young adult tales. Even when the seconds are spare, EJ will still slip away for some quiet moments with her piano or cello.