Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia is an American author known for her middle grade and young adult novels, particularly the Gaither Sisters trilogy beginning with One Crazy Summer (2010). She has won the Coretta Scott King Award three times, for One Crazy Summer (2011), P.S. Be Eleven (2014), and Gone Crazy in Alabama (2016). One Crazy Summer was also a Newbery Honor book and a National Book Award finalist. The Gaither Sisters trilogy follows three young sisters who travel to Oakland in 1968 to meet their estranged mother, a Black revolutionary poet. The series is celebrated for its depiction of Black family dynamics, the Black Power movement, and the complicated bonds between mothers and daughters. Williams-Garcia was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, and grew up in Seaside, California. She has worked in marketing and has been a dedicated advocate for diverse books in education. She lives on Long Island.