Maria Russo is the Editorial Director of mineditionUS, an international publisher of picture books and board books. She is the co-author of How to Raise a Reader (Workman, 2019) and a former Children's Books Editor of the New York Times. Previously, she was a writer and editor at publications including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Observer, and Salon.com. She holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.