Alscess Lewis-Brown has a BA in English, secondary education from the former College of the Virgin Islands, and a master’s degree in education with a concentration in Integrative Learning and Leadership from Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Read MoreAnnette Pérez was born in New York City to a family of Puerto Rican origin. Annette was diagnosed with hydrocephalus as an infant. Growing up with this disability was not easy. Annette graduated from Borough of Manhattan Community College (City University of New York) with an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish from York College.
Read MoreAshley-Ruth Moolenaar Bernier is a sixth-generation Virgin Islander. She wrote her first story at four, and has been writing stories and poems ever since.
Read MoreCharlene Abramson Joseph was born in New York City of parents from the US Virgin Islands. At age twelve, the family returned to St. Croix. She began writing poetry and plays in high school, but it was at the former Georgian Court College that she realized she was a writer.
Read MoreCristina Kessler is an award-winning author of nine children’s books set in Africa, where she lived for 19 years. She’s received the Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award from the ASPCA for Excellence in Humane Literature for Young Readers; the Africana Honor Book Award, from the African Studies Association, honoring outstanding books about Africa for children and young adults; and has been included many times on The Notable Books for a Global Society list.
Read MoreCristina Louise was born in Puerto Rico and lived until she was seven years old in the United States Virgin Islands.
Read MoreEnrique Peréz Díaz (Havana, 1958) is a writer, critic, editor and researcher of literature for children and young adults. From 1993 to 2008 he served as president of the Children and Young Adults Section of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and is currently a member of the Cuban Committee of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) as well as associate editor of Bookbird magazine.
Read MoreEudora Esdaille-Richardson was born and raised on the island of St. Thomas, USVI. She is married to Cyrus Richardson and is the mother of two beautiful children, Deron and Marleta.
Read MoreJoanne C. Hillhouse is from Ottos, Antigua. She is the author of The Boy from Willow Bend and Dancing Nude in the Moonlight (the latter since reissued as part of a collection entitled Dancing Nude in the Moonlight 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings); the children’s picture book Fish Outta Water; the novel Oh Gad!; and the teen/young adult novel Musical Youth which placed second for the inaugural Burt Award for YA Caribbean literature.
Read MoreDr. Lois Hassell-Habtes has served in many capacities in the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Education, including as teacher, music supervisor, coordinator of arts and culture, assistant principal at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School, and principal of the Joseph Sibilly Elementary School and the Emanuel Benjamin Oliver Elementary School.
Read MoreMara Etienne-Manley studied Journalism and English at the London School of Journalism and the prestigious University of London, respectively. As a writer, Manley has worked in Radio, Television and Publishing for several years, dividing her creative hours between writing magazine articles, radio plays, documentary scripts- and books for children.
Read MoreAuthor and publisher Mario Picayo was born in Cuba. As a child he and his family moved to Puerto Rico and later to the United States Virgin Islands. He now resides in New York, but continues his close relationship with the Virgin Islands, spending part of the year on St. Thomas and publishing the work of Virgin Islands writers and illustrators, as well as the work of other Caribbean authors and illustrators.
Read MorePhillis and David Gershator live on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Phillis Gershator worked for years as librarian in the Virgin Islands for the St. Thomas school system and Enid Baa public library and is the author of over twenty-five children’s books, including Time for a Hug (Sterling, 2012); Listen, Listen (Barefoot Books, 2007); and The Babysitter Sings (Holt, 2004).
Poet, artist and musician David Gershator taught creative writing over the years at various universities, including Rutgers, Brooklyn College, Long Island University, and the University of the Virgin Islands.
Rafael Landrón is an emerging poet, performer, and writer. His works include The Bruised Mango, a collection of poems, and Rafi’s Antiwar Expressions, a Nuyorican response to the Iraq war.
Read MoreBorn on St. Kitts, and raised on Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Rick S. Grant is now a resident of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Rick has always loved three things: creative writing, children, and the sharing of knowledge.
Read MoreTiphanie Yanique is the author of Land of Love and Drowning and How to Escape from a Leper Colony . She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the Kore Press Fiction Prize, The Academy of American Poets Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship in writing, the Rona Jaffe Prize, the Boston Review Fiction Prize and the fiction award for Caribbean writing from BOCAS.
Read MoreTregenza A. Roach was born in Sandy Point, St. Kitts and moved with his family to St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands when he was eight years of age. His writing is in many ways a celebration of each island, the people and cultures which have altogether shaped his life.
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