Angie Thomas

Angela “Angie” Thomas was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She was inspired to write when she was six years old: after witnessing a shootout, her mother took Thomas to the library to introduce her to the world beyond what she witnessed. She went on to receive a BFA in creative writing from Belhaven University, the first Black student to graduate from the program. Thomas's work is greatly influenced by the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, and the Black Lives Matter movement as a whole. And she was influenced to write Concrete Rose after seeing the Black Lives Matter movement reignite in the wake of the May 2020 death of George Floyd. Initially, these influences led to Thomas's first book The Hate U Give, which was an immediate bestseller when it was released in 2017. To write it, Thomas received a grant from the organization We Need Diverse Books in 2015. The Hate U Give has won a number of prizes and awards, including the Coretta Scott King Award and the William C. Morris Award.