Christine Taylor-Butler – Toastmaster

Christine has been writing full-time for close to two decades. A graduate of MIT, she's authored more than eighty books for children and young adults. Her photo essay, "Sacred Mountain" received praise from Kirkus Reviews and the Smithsonian's Asian Pacific American Program.

Her shift in career was predicated by her role on MIT's Educational Council where she met teens too shy to admit they read fantasy and science fiction. As a result of her advocacy she received MIT's George B. Morgan award for excellence. Her current project is the The Lost Tribes, a speculative series about teens who discover their lives may be a lie. The series is illustrated by Patrick Arrasmith, who is a genius.

Christine and her husband, Ken, live in Kansas City, part of Tornado Alley, where they serve as personal servants to several cats and fish in a brick house that can't easily be blown away.