Blackwood
Lauren Blackwood is a Jamaican American living in Virginia who writes Romance-heavy Fantasy for most ages. When not writing, she’s a musician and a tiramisu connoisseur. Her debut YA Fantasy Within These Wicked Walls was a New York Times Bestseller and the Reese’s Book club Fall 2021 YA Pick. Within These Wicked Walls (2021) follows […]
Blount
Jeffrey is the award-winning author of four novels — Almost Snow White, winner of the 2013 USA Best Book Awards. Hating Heidi Foster, winner of the 2013 Readers Favorite Book Award for young adult literature. The Emancipation of Evan Walls, winner of the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award for African American fiction, winner of the […]
Àbíké-Íyímídé
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is the instant New York Times, International bestselling & Award-winning author of Ace of Spades, billed as ‘Get Out meets Gossip Girl’, Entertainment Weekly has called it “Summer 2021 hottest YA debut.” Her next novel, Where Sleeping Girls Lie, is another YA contemporary romance about a girl new to boarding school who discovers […]
Hemans
Donna Hemans is the author of three novels, River Woman Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. Her first novel, River Woman, was named co-winner of the 2003-4 Towson University Prize for Literature, and […]
Rhodes
Derek Rhodes is a business strategist, community leader, social entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. As a highly accomplished strategist with nearly a decade of experience in the corporate world, he has served as Microsoft’s Chief of Staff, Miami HEAT’s Director of Business Strategy, and Google’s Team Lead. Derek has an innate ability to change systems […]
McBride
Amber McBride is currently an assistant professor at the University of Virginia. She received her BA in English from James Madison University in 2010 and acquired her MFA in Poetry from Emerson College in 2012. She has also taught English Composition, English Literature and Poetry Composition at James Madison University, Strayer University and Northern Virginia […]
Joy
Amanda Joy grew up in a family of readers. Her father first gifted her a set of the Chronicles of Narnia and sparked her unending love of fantasy and children’s literature. Years later, her older brother gave her the Wheel of Time series, which went on to inspire Amanda to create her own worlds. She […]
Nelson
Adiba Nelson is the woman who brings as much truth to power in her writing, as she does in her speaking. Having been referred to as “inspirational” on more than one occasion, Adiba shares her deepest secrets with her audience, at the same time giving them the courage to live their most authentic, purpose driven […]