In her latest novel, Douglass’ Women, Jewel Parker Rhodes travels back in history to the antebellum and Civil War era to examine the loves of Frederick Douglass. When she’s not writing, she’s visiting schools to talk about her books with the kids who read them, or teaching writing at Arizona State University, where she is the Piper Endowed Chair and Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Jewell has received numerous honors including the American Book Award, the National Endowment of the Arts Award in Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. She has also published six adult novels, two writing guides, and a memoir. Her other books include Paradise on Fire, Towers Falling, and the Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic. Now she is the author of seven books for children including the New York Times bestsellers Ghost Boys and Black Brother, Black Brother. She wrote six novels for adults, two writing guides, and a memoir, but writing for children remained her dream.

She began college as a dance major, but when she discovered there were novels by African Americans, she knew she wanted to be an author.

Born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh, she was a voracious reader as a child. Jewell Parker Rhodes has always loved reading and writing stories.

Bayou magic by jewell parker rhodes