Tonya Bolden author page

Tonya Bolden biography

Tonya Bolden is an American author and editor who writes fiction and nonfiction for children, teenagers and adults. Her books examine African American history, civil rights, social change and the lives of historical figures. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University.

Bolden’s nonfiction book Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (2005), published by Harry N. Abrams, tells the story of Maritcha Rémond Lyons, a free-born African American woman who lived through the American Civil War and Reconstruction. It received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor in 2006 and won the James Madison Book Award. Her biography M.L.K.: Journey of a King (2007) received the National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.

Bolden edited 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History (2002), a collection examining women’s achievements and the campaign for equal rights, including the suffrage movement. Her young adult historical novel Saving Savannah, published by Bloomsbury YA in 2020, follows Savannah Riddle, a young African American woman from a wealthy Washington, D.C. family who becomes involved in suffrage lectures and socialist meetings during a period of political and social upheaval.

Her other young adult novels include Crossing Ebenezer Creek (2017) and Inventing Victoria (2019). She also collaborated with historian Carol Anderson on We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide, a young adult adaptation of Anderson’s White Rage, published in the UK by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in 2020.

In 2016, Bolden received the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C.’s Nonfiction Award for her contribution to children’s nonfiction. Her later publications include Going Places: Victor Hugo Green and His Glorious Book, illustrated by Eric Velasquez and published by Quill Tree Books in 2022. The picture book explores the creation of the Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans during segregation.