Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Esther Hamilton (1936–2002) was an American children's book author renowned for her "Liberation Literature" exploring the African-American experience. Born in Yellow Springs, Ohio, she wrote over 40 books across genres including realistic fiction, mysteries, sci-fi, folktales, and biographies, with major works like The Planet of Junior Brown and The People Could Fly. She won nearly every major award in children's literature, including the Newbery Medal and National Book Award for M.C. Higgins, the Great (1975), the Hans Christian Andersen Award (1992), and a MacArthur Fellowship (1995) as the first children's author recipient. VirginiaHamilton.com, Library of America