Krystal Howard is an Associate Professor of Children’s Literature & Childhood Studies in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies & Liberal Studies at California State University, Northridge. She holds a PhD in English Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University, as well as a BA in English Writing, Women’s Studies, and Religion from Drake University. Her research interests include children’s and young adult literature, childhood studies, comics studies, multicultural children’s and young adult literature, literary theory, and contemporary American poetry. She serves as The Lion and the Unicorn Poetry Award Editor and Associate Editor of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, The Lion and the Unicorn, Bookbird: An International Journal of Children's Literature, Graphic Novels for Children and Young Adults, Critical Insights: Neil Gaiman, and Critical Insights: The American Comic Book. Her poems have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Quarterly West, iO: A Journal of New American Poetry, Barn Owl Review, and PANK, among others. Her current book project is entitled “Voices in Verse: The Artist’s Coming of Age in Contemporary American Poetry for Young Readers.”