Joyce carol thomas biography

Joyce Carol Thomas Biography

Joyce Carol Thomas (born May 25, ) is 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 they moved to Tracy, California, to pick vegetables.

Joyce carol thomas poems

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 For her novel Marked by Fire, Thomas won a National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback)[a] and an American Book Award.

Thomas has been one of three to five finalists for the Coretta Scott King Award thrice, in for Bright Shadow, in for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, and in for The Blacker the Berry in Part of the American Library Association program, the King Award annually recognizes the "