Tomi Adeyemi

Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil, where she discovered her inspiration for her novel, Children of Blood and Bone.

Her debut West African YA Fantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone, was named a 2019 YALSA Morris Award Finalist and has spent over a year on the New York Times Bestseller list. It was also recently awarded the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize for 2018. A Children of Blood and Bone movie is currently in development with Rick Famuyiwa attached to direct. 

Heralded by Entertainment Weekly as "the new J.K. Rowling," she has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America, and BBC Breakfast and she has been featured in Elle, Essence and O Magazine.

Adeyemi seeks not only to inspire readers through her work, but to help people of all races, ethnicities, and orientations understand that they matter and that their dreams are achievable. When she’s not watching BTS and Seventeen music videos, she can be found teaching creative writing to her 12,000 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com, named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.  Get details and add to your schedule.

This session's moderator is Dr. Rose Brock, professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Library Science at Sam Houston State University. She is the author of Young Adult Literature in Action: A Librarians Guide and editor of Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration. A veteran educator and advocate for using audiobooks as tools for literacy, Dr. Brock is one of the co-founders of the North Texas Teen Book Festival, winner of ALA’s John Cotton Dana Award.