Author Spotlight: Fred Crump, Jr.

Hello my lovely readers!

Welcome to the third installment of  Author Spotlight, where I highlight the authors who have had an impact on myself and my reading journey.

Say hello to author and illustrator Fred Crump Jr.!

He's more of an obscure author, but for those who know the children's books he's written, they LOVE him.

It's funny that they love him, despite not knowing much about him. They probably, like myself, love what he did for Black children in the 1980s and 1990s who wanted to see themselves represented in picture books.

Author Spotlight: Sharon G. Flake

Hello my lovely readers!

Welcome to the third installment of Author Spotlight where I talk about the life and works of authors who've had an impact on my life.

Today, I'm highlighting author Sharon G. Flake.

As I mentioned in my Books that Shaped Me series, her first novel, The Skin I'm In had a profound impact on me as a nine-year-old Black girl.

Sharon G. Flake is a Pennsylvania native, born in Philadelphia and later residing in Pittsburgh. She grew up in a large family with three brothers and two sisters in an inner-city neighborhood in Philadelphia.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pittsburgh in 1978. After graduating she  worked in foster care and family and community services and then went on to work in public relations at the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Author Spotlight: Kim McClarin

Hello my lovely readers! 

In this second installment of Author Spotlight, I want to introduce you to the author whose book shaped me as a young Black woman in her early 20s navigating the journalism industry.

Say hello to Kim McLarin!

Kim McLarin is a former staff writer for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Associated Press. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Duke University and is also a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy.

She is the author of three novels, Taming it Down, Meeting of the Waters and Jump at the Sun. McLarin co-authored the book Growing Up X by Ilyasah Shabazz and is the author of several essay collections and memoirs.  Her work has also appeared in several publications including Glamour, the Washington Post, The Root and The Boston Globe to name a few.

Author Spotlight: Dorothy Koomson

 Hello my lovely readers! 

Welcome to the first ever Author Spotlight. I have a list of authors/writers that I'll highlight every so often on this blog. Of course, we're starting with one of my favorite authors, Dorothy Koomson. Let's get into it!

Dorothy Koomson is an English novelist of Ghanaian descent born in London.

She's often referred to as the "queen of the big reveal."

Koomson loved writing and reading at an early age.

"My mum taught me-and my siblings- to read and write when I was in nursery," she said. "As I got older, I used to go to the library everyday after school to read books and I used to write short descriptive passages all the time."

When she was just 13 years old, Koomson wrote her first novel, though unpublished, "A Thin Line Between Love and Hate."

"I used to write a chapter every night in my exercise books then pass it around to my fellow convent school pupils the next morning," she said. "They seemed to love it."

Koomson attended university at Trinity and All Saints College in Leeds before returning to London to get her masters degree in journalism from Goldsmiths University. During her career as a journalist, Koomson would regularly write short stories and novels whenever she had the chance. In 2003, it all paid off when her first novel The Cupid Effect  was published.