Joyce Carol Thomas was an African-American poet, playwright, motivational speaker, and author of more than 30 children's books. Thomas was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma, the fifth of nine children in a family of cotton pickers. In 1948 they moved to Tracy, California, to pick vegetables. She learned Spanish from Mexican migrant workers and earned a B.A. in Spanish from San Jose State University. She took night classes in education at Stanford University, while raising four children, and received the master's degree in 1967. For her 1982 novel Marked by Fire, Thomas won a National Book Award in category Children's Fiction and an American Book Award. Thomas has been one of three to five finalists for the Coretta Scott King Award thrice, in 1984 for Bright Shadow, in 1994 for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, and in 2009 for The Blacker the Berry. She also received a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year Award and an Outstanding Woman of the 20th Century Award. Thomas resided in Berkeley, California. She died on August 13, 2016, at the age of 78. Source