Chris Baron is the award winning author of ALL OF MET, an NCTE Notable Book, and THE MAGICAL IMPERFECT, a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book & a SLJ Best Book of 2021, as well as THE GRAY (2023) and the forthcoming FOREST HEART (2024), all from Feiwel & Friends / Macmillan. He is a contributor to the YA anthology EVERY BODY SHINES (Bloomsbury, 2021) and the author of LANTERN TREE (poetry, CityWorks Press, 2012), winner of San Diego Book Award. Baron is a Professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center. He completed his MFA in Poetry in 1998 at SDSU. He lives in San Diego with his family.