Say Her Name, a young adult poetry collection, was published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in January 2020 A Place Inside of Me from FSG was published in July. Its sequel, The Dragon Thief, was named a Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 by CBC Books. Dragons in a Bag, a middle grade fantasy novel, was published by Random House in 2018 the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) named it a Notable Children’s Book. I received the Children’s Literature Association’s Article Award for my 2014 essay, “The Trouble with Magic: Conjuring the Past in New York City Parks.” I am an advocate for greater diversity and equity in publishing, and I have self-published numerous illustrated books for younger readers under my own imprint, Rosetta Press 3 were named Best of the Year by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature, and Benny Doesn’t Like to Be Hugged is a first-grade fiction selection for the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee. My YA novel, The Door at the Crossroads, was a finalist in the Speculative Fiction category of the 2017 Cybils Awards, and my picture book, Melena’s Jubilee, won a 2017 Skipping Stones Honor Award.
My short story, “Sweet Sixteen,” was published in Cornered: 14 Stories of Bullying and Defiance in July 2012. My young adult novel, A Wish After Midnight, has been called “a revelation…vivid, violent and impressive history.” Ship of Souls was published in February 2012 it was named a Booklist Top Ten Sci-fi/Fantasy Title for Youth and was a finalist for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award. My picture book, Bird, won the Honor Award in Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Contest and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers. My essays have appeared in School Library Journal, The Huffington Post, and Publishers Weekly. My novella, Plastique, was excerpted in T Dot Griots: an Anthology of Toronto’s Black Storytellers, and my plays have been staged in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago. My poetry has been published in the Cave Canem anthology, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Check the Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, and Coloring Book: an Eclectic Anthology of Fiction and Poetry by Multicultural Writers. Each new event is told after a family member asks a question about his 'pet.' Craig's use of the question is a powerful and funny pretext to the telling of the story. I earned my PhD in American Studies from NYU in 2003 I have taught at Ohio University, Louisiana State University, Mount Holyoke College, Hunter College, Bard High School Early College, and Borough of Manhattan Community College. Joshua is a young boy who uses an alarm clock box and his imagination to create a story sequence involving an egg and then the birth of a dragon. I was born and raised in Canada, but have lived in the US for 20 years. I’m a Black feminist writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels, and stories for children.