A lifetime lover of books, Elisabeth Saake has devoted most of her working life to publishing. She began her career as an editorial assistant at a New York literary agency before realizing the Big Apple was just a bit too big for her small-town heart. She’s been lucky to remain in various roles within book publishing while moving to progressively smaller towns ever since. She is the co-author of Houseplants and Their F*cked-Up Thoughts and the author of Tchotchkes and Their F*cked-Up Thoughts and P is for Perimenopause. Elisabeth is a creek lover and a podcast devotee. She lives in Chico, CA, with her husband, two sons, and an assortment of disturbed tchotchkes and disgruntled houseplants.

Holley Maher is an artist in the broadest sense: an illustrator, graphic designer, and editorial art director, as well as a songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist. Holley’s illustration career began with her stationery line, Wink Wink Paper Co., and soon she was invited to illustrate her first children’s book series, Little Kid, Big City—a milestone she’d dreamed of since her own childhood (which was quite a while ago now). Holley and her partner, Joe Clemons, reside in Nashville, TN, and are the minds behind The New Athenian, an altruistic creative agency. Together, they publish community-focused magazines and have branded new and legacy arts organizations like IndigeNash, Nashville Design Week, and the Wedgewood/Houston Arts District. Holley has a mild (read: nearly all-consuming) obsession with tabletop games and hopes one day to design her own—her favorites are Dungeons & Dragons, her own house rules version of Dominoes, and Chinese Mahjong.