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Although I grew up in a family of professional photographers in Jackson, Mississippi, I preferred drawing and writing to the camera. So instead of taking over the family business, I moved to New York to attend Pratt Institute. After graduating, I held brief stints as a busboy, a scanner operator, and a vintage movie poster dealer before I found work that suited me as a designer and illustrator of educational toys. On nights and weekends I also worked as a freelance illustrator until I accumulated enough clients to set out on my own.

Since 1996, I’ve lived in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where I’ve had the honor of illustrating many New York Times best selling middle grade novels and also award-winning picture books. I’ve also enjoyed teaching  a book club after school for The National Book Foundation.

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In 2015 I earned my Masters in Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I’m the author and illustrator  of  Flying Lessons and the non-fiction picture books  The Marvelous Thing That Came From A Spring and How The Cookie Crumbled, both published by Atheneum. I’m also the author and illustrator of my debut middle grade novel, The Mysterious Messenger, scheduled to be published by Macmillan/Ottaviano in July, 2020.

I’m currently editing my second middle grade novel, teaching, and working on my Certificate in Art Education at City College of New York.

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Some of my clients include Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Disney/ Hyperion, Abrams, Random House, Delacourt, Dial, Penguin, Aladdin & Atheneum of Simon and Schuster, Chronicle Books, Bloomsburry/Walker Books, Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan, FSG, Harper Collins, Sterling, Storey, Lerner, Source Books, Holiday House and others.

My artwork has been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration Chosen,3×3, and The Society of Publication Designers. My educational toys won Parenting Choice and Openheimer awards and my books have been selected by The Junior Library Guild, The Society of Illustrators’ Original Art Silver Medal, Bank Street Cook Prize Honor, Bank Street Irma Black Honor, Orbis Pictus Honor, NSTA Best Stem Book, and others.