Jewell Parker Rhodes is an American bestselling novelist and educator. Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director and the Piper Endowed Chair of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University where she also serves as a faculty member and mentor. Her most recent novel, GHOST BOYS, quickly became a New York Times Best Seller and has garnered over 25 awards and honors, including The Walter Award, the Indies Choice/EB White Read-Aloud Award, and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award for Older Readers. Jewell is also the author of TOWERS FALLING, winner of the 2017 Notable Books for a Global Society, and the celebrated Louisiana Girls’ Trilogy: NINTH WARD, a winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award; SUGAR, a Junior Library Guild selection, and BAYOU MAGIC, a We Need Diverse Books Educational Selection. Her newest middle grade novel, BLACK BROTHER, BLACK BROTHER will be published March 3, 2020. Jewell has written numerous children’s and adult books hoping to inspire social justice, equality, and environmental stewardship. She enjoys teaching, walking her Toy Aussie Sheepdogs, theater, dancing, and music. Born in Pittsburgh, she now lives in Seattle.
Life
Rhodes was born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh. As a child, she was a voracious reader. She began college as a dance major, but switched to writing when she discovered African-American literature for the first time. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Drama Criticism, a Master of Arts in English, and a Doctor of Arts in English from Carnegie Mellon University. Her work has been published in China, Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Turkey, and the United Kingdom and reproduced in audio and for NPR's "Selected Shorts." She has been a featured speaker at the Runnymeade International Literary Festival, Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference and Warwick University, among others. Her recent fiction and essays have been anthologized in Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood, In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, Gumbo, and Children of the Night: Best Short Stories By Black Writers, among others.
Jewell Parker Rhodes has been awarded the California State University Distinguished Teaching Award, ASU's Dean's Quality Teaching Award, Outstanding Thesis Director from the Barrett Honors College, and the Outstanding Faculty Award from the College of Extended Education. She is a member of the Arizona/International Women's Forum and a Renaissance Weekend invitee.
