Tricia Elam Walker is an award-winning author, educator, and recovered lawyer. Her first novel, Breathing Room, was published by Simon & Schuster/PocketBooks. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Essence, and other publications. She has provided commentary for NPR, CNN, the BBC, and more. Tricia’s short stories are included in the O. Henry Prize Stories, New Stories from the South, and other anthologies, and her essays have been published in Father’s Songs, Dream Me Home Safely, It’s All About Love, and more. Several of her plays have been produced, and her two children’s books (Nana Akua Goes to School, which won a 2021 Children’s Africana Book Award and the 2021 Ezra Jack Keats writer award; and Dream Street, which was a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2021 selection) were published by Random House during the pandemic. She has taught numerous writing workshops around the country and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University. Tricia lives in Maryland, where she is working on more children’s books and a second adult novel.