"Mary-Alice Daniel's family moved from West Africa to England when she was a very young girl, leaving behind the vivid culture of her native land in the Nigerian savanna. They arrived to a blanched, cold world of prim suburbs and unfamiliar customs. So began her family's series of travels across three continents in search of places of belonging. A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing ventures through the physical and mythical landscapes of Daniel's...

A brief biography of African American poet Amanda Gorman, discussing her childhood, education, and work as a poet and activist.

"A lyrical picture book biography that tells the story of one of America's most celebrated children's book authors, Virginia Hamilton, the first African American to win the Newbery Medal"--

"Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring...

"In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message "Hello Everybody!" Known for shooting with her beloved Land 250 Camera, Smith started posting selfies with her phone, portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith's world, her daily coffee, the books...

""Miss Lou" is widely credited as having helped Jamaican Patois recognized as a "nation language." Thanks to her writing and her work in TV and radio, Jamaican Patois was embraced internationally and she created spaces for poets like Mutabaruka and Linton Kwesi Johnson and singers like Bob Marley and Harry Belafonte to centralize and popularize Jamaican English, Creole, patois in their work. This picture book manuscript focuses on a young Miss Lou...

The first time Lynn Melnick listened to a Dolly Parton song in full, she was 14 years old, in the triage room of a Los Angeles hospital, waiting to be admitted to a drug rehab program. Already in her young life as a Jewish teen in the 1980s, she had been the victim of rape, abuse, and trauma, and her path to healing would be long. But in Parton’s words and music, she recognized a fellow survivor. In this powerful, incisive work of social and self-exploration,...