Michael Solis is the author of the YA sci-fi novel Deficient, winner of a Reviewers’ Choice Award from YADudeBooks and nominee for the Pushcart Prize, the Stonewall Book Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. For two decades, he worked across Africa and Latin America supporting humanitarian responses and championing locally led solutions. Those experiences, together with his queer identity, shape stories that explore power, belonging, and transformation. He now serves as Executive Director of Writers & Books, a literary arts nonprofit in Rochester, NY, and co-chairs the Middle Grade/Young Adult Committee of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.