This episode of The Write Time features Don P. Hooper, a writer and filmmaker of Jamaican heritage (and a programmer in a former life). His short story “Got Me a Jet Pack” is part of the New York Times bestselling anthology Black Boy Joy. His directing work has been featured in the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, the NY TV Film Festival (award winner), the New York City Horror Film Festival, the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival (award winner), and more. He does voice-over in video games and documentaries. True True is his debut novel.
Don is interviewed by Abimbola Cole Kai-Lewis who is an Ethnomusicologist and educator with the New York City Department of Education and an adjunct assistant professor at York College–City University of New York.
Ellen Oh is an award-winning author of numerous middle grade and young adult books including The Spirit Hunters series and Prophecy trilogy, and is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books. Melissa Thom is a teacher librarian at Bristow Middle School in Connecticut with 22 years of educational experience and former president of the Connecticut Association of School Librarians.
This episode of The Write Time features Rhode Island's former Poet Laureate Tina Cane and Texas educator Janelle Bence. Tina's poetry has been featured in a variety of publications and her second verse novel for young readers, Are You Nobody Too?, was released in August 2024.
This episode of The Write Time features two dynamic literary voices: Kennedy Center Next 50 fellow Mahogany L. Browne and Columbia University Professor and poet Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D.