Sharon Flake

Sharon G. Flake was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in December 24, 1955 and is the fifth of six siblings. She attended the University of Pittsburgh and graduated in 1978 with a BA in English. In the year after college, Flake worked as a house parent at a youth shelter outside of Pittsburgh. Over the next eight years, she was a counselor for teens at a foster placement agency and wrote for local publications in her spare time. Flake then got a job at the University of Pittsburgh in the PR department and worked there for 18 years while continuing her writing career. She had a daughter, Brittney, in 1991 and wrote her first full-length young adult novel, The Skin I’m In, in 1998. Flake has written nine novels, several short stories, plays, and a picture book. She is the recipient of numerous awards, such as the Coretta Scott King Honor and the YWCA Racial Justice Award. Flake currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.