Ann Petry was born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut on October 12, 1908. She received a degree in pharmacy from the University of Connecticut in 1931. After working in the family business for three years, she wrote for the Amsterdam News and later for other publications. From 1944 to 1946, she studied creative writing at Columbia University. Her first novel, The Street, was published in 1946 and became the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies. Her other works include Country Place, The Narrows, The Drugstore Cat, Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, and Tituba of Salem Village. She died on April 28, 1997 at the age of 88.
Jason Reynolds is crazy. About stories. After earning a BA in English from The University of Maryland, College Park, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where you can often find him walking the four blocks from the train to his apartment talking to himself. Well, not really talking to himself, but just repeating character names and plot lines he thought of on the train, over and over again, because he's afraid he'll forget it all before he gets home. He is the author of the critically acclaimednbsp;When I Was the Greatest and The Boy in the Black Suit. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.