OELMA Welcomes Keynote Author and Illustrator

Sharee Miller on Friday, November 14th

Sharee Miller is an award-winning author and illustrator. Her debut graphic novel Curlfriends: New in Town won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel for Older Readersand was nominated for an NAACP award. She is the creator of many critically acclaimed picture books including Don't Touch My Hair, Princess Hair, and Michelle’s Garden: How the First Lady planted seeds of Change. She is also the illustrator of Sam’s Super Seatsby Keah Brown, Be, Black Girl, Be by Taylor Darks (June 2024), the graphic novel adaptation of One Crazy Summer by Rita Willams-Garcia(Summer 2025), and more.

Sharee grew up in St. Thomas where the bright colors and sunshine of the Caribbean inspired her to create colorful and bright artwork. She is known for her fresh and cheerful characters. Sharee loves creating picture books, graphic novels, and illustrations that depict black joy.

Illustration clients include Highlights, DC Comics, Captial One, Amazon Photos, Starz, Skip Hop, The Children’s Place, Carters, The Met, Lily News, The Washington Post, and more. 

Rafael Rosado

OELMA is thrilled to present author Rafael Rosado to our Author Showcase! 

Born in Puerto Rico and based in Columbus, Ohio, Rafael Rosado is a seasoned writer, director and storyboard artist for the animation industry. He began his career at Character Builders in Columbus, Ohio as an assistant animator. He quickly worked his way up to become a character designer, storyboard artist and commercial director. During his tenure there he worked on such shows as Fox's Emmy Award-winning Life With Louie, HBO's Happily Ever After and Fox's Where in The World Is Carmen San Diego.

After leaving Character Builders in 1994, Rafael went to work for Warner Brothers Animation, storyboarding on Pinky and The Brain and Emmy nominated Animaniacs, for which he also wrote two episodes.

He was then recruited by the newly-founded Sony Television Animation division, where he worked on eleven shows including directing episodes of CBS's Project GeeKeR and NBC's Sammy. He was promoted to Supervising Director on Extreme Ghostbusters and Producer on Men In Black: The Animated Series.

After 5 years honing his skills in Los Angeles, Rafael moved back to Ohio to raise his family. He is now one of the most highly sought-after storyboard artists, working for major studios such as Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Company, Sony, Universal and the Cartoon Network. Highly diverse, he has storyboarded on action, comedy and pre-school shows, shows as diverse as Boondocks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Batman, The Venture Brothers and Curious George.

Rafael's first graphic novel, Giants Beware!, was published by First Second Books in early 2012. His short film The Tortured Clown was acquired by and featured on the Sundance Channel.

OELMA Welcomes School Librarian Amanda Jones on Saturday, November 15th

Amanda Jones is currently the school librarian at the same school she attended as a child, where she has worked for the past twenty-three years. Amanda made national headlines in 2022 when she was targeted by extremists in her town for speaking out at a public library board meeting. She decided to fight back and took her harassers to court, while continuing to speak out at both the local and national level against the pro-censorship movement. Amanda chronicles what it is like being the target of white Christian nationalists and the importance of standing up for intellectual freedom, in her upcoming book That Librarian: Fighting Book Banners in Today’s America which will be published in fall of 2024.

Amanda was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana Librarian of the Year. She enjoys presenting at the national and international level on the importance of certified school librarians, book joy, and why every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the books on library shelves. Amanda has received numerous intellectual freedom awards from the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Louisiana Library Association for her dedication to eradicating censorship and promoting libraries in Louisiana.

She is the Executive Director of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, a group comprised of citizens in her town dedicated to the importance of preserving the freedom of the library to provide services to all patrons no matter their ethnicity, religion, gender identity, education status, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or any other diversity of life and thought. She is also a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, a grassroots organization fighting censorship in the bayou state. Amanda currently resides in Louisiana with her teenage daughter, husband she’s known since first grade, and their cat Juno Mars. When not presenting and fighting the good fight, Amanda enjoys reading, obsessively watching Tiktok, and a good Louisiana crawfish boil.

Website: https://theauthorvillage.com/presenters/amanda-jones/