The Creative Team

Authors:

Co-authors Mark Ukra (Child) and Tara Mesalik MacMahon (Gamma) are brother and sister and lifelong best friends. Mark is the author of The Ultimate Tea Diet (HarperCollins), and Tara is North American Review's James Hearst Poetry Prize Winner and author of the award winning poetry collection, Barefoot Up the Mountain, (Open Country Press). A Pushcart-Prize nominee, Tara's poems appear widely in literary journals and anthologies, including those from Red Hen Press, Nimrod International Journal, Poet Lore, Jabberwock Review, among many others. 

Mark and Tara based Closet of Dreams upon their own childhood Closet of Dreams, where the make- believe world of Child and Gamma came to life. Mark was “Child”; Tara was “Gamma.” Book II is already in the works, where Child and his friends  race to rescue Starr, a magical baby elephant in Botswana. 

Illustrator:

Donna Dyer has had a passion for drawing her entire life.  Her favorite medium is pen and ink and she worked for many years as a technical illustrator.

Closet of Dreams is Donna’s debut illustrated fiction book.