About author Alicia D. Williams 

Alicia D. Williams is an award-winning author of four books for young readers. She graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York and received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University. Williams is a highly acclaimed storyteller of folktales, a writer, and star of one-woman shows, including A Time to Remember. She is a Master Teaching Artist of arts-integration and lives in Charlotte, NC.

Williams’ debut middle-grade novel, Genesis Begins Again won a Newbery Medal Honor Award, the Coretta Scott King—John Steptoe for New Talent Award, and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Prize as well as the Kirkus Prize. It was also an NPR Favorite Book of 2019 and a School Library Journal Best Book. In addition, the audiobook for Genesis Begins Again, which Williams recorded herself, was an Audie Awards Finalist.

Her first picture book, Jump At The Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston, was named an NEA Read Across America Book. While Williams’ latest picture book, The Talk, won a Coretta Scott King Honor Award and a Golden Kite Honor Award. Her nonfiction picture book, Shirley Chisholm Dared, The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress, won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award.

Publications

Mid-Air, by Alicia D. Williams, Hamline MFAC alumni

Mid-Air

Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff (middle grade) Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2024

Longlisted for the 2024 National Book Awards

A tender-souled boy reeling from the death of his best friend struggles to fit into a world that wants him to grow up tough and unfeeling in this stunning middle grade novel in verse from the Newbery Honor–winning author of Genesis Begins Again.

Read more about Mid-Air
The Talk, by Alicia D. Williams

The Talk

Illustrated by Briana Mukodin Uchendu (picture book) Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2022

  • 2023 Coretta Scott King Honor Award
  • 2023 Golden Kite Honor Award
Read more about The Talk
Shirley Chisholm Dared, by Alicia D. Williams, graduate of Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults (MFAC) program

Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress

illustrated by Jane Harrison (non-fiction picture book) Anne Schwartz Books (Random House)

  • 2022 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award
Read more about Shirley Chisholm Dared
Jump at the Sun, by Alicia D. Williams, graduate of Hamline MFA in writing for children and young adults (MFAC) program

Jump At The Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston

illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantara (nonfiction picture book), Antheneum/Simon & Schuster, 2021

  • Named an NEA Read Across America March 2022
Read more about Jump at the Sun
Genesis Begins Again, by Alicia D. Williams, graduate of Hamline's MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults (MFAC) program

Genesis Begins Again

(middle-grade), Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2019

  • 2020 ALA Newbery Medal Honor Award
  • 2020 ALA Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent
  • 2020 ALA/William C. Morris Prize Finalist
  • An NPR Favorite Book of 2019
  • A School Library Journal Best Middle Grade Book of 2019
  • 2020 ALA Newbery Honor Award
  • 2019 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers Literature, Finalist
  • 2021 Audie Award Finalist For Best Middle Grade Audio Book
Read more about Genesis Begins Again

How to stay up to date with Alicia D. Williams

If you would like to stay up to date with Alicia D. Williams’s work and events, visit her website: www.aliciadwilliams.com.

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