Kelly J. Baptist is the inaugural winner of the We Need Diverse Books short-story contest. Her story is featured in the WNDB anthology Flying Lessons & Other Stories and inspired her first full-length novel, Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero, which received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly, and which the New York Times praised as “ inventive and heartfelt, ” and its sequel, Isaiah Dunn Saves the Day. Her middle-grade novel The Swag Is in the Socks received starred reviews from The Bulletin and Booklist, which called it “ an excellent read-alike to Jacqueline Woodson’ s Harbor Me or Janae Marks’ From the Desk of Zoe Washington. ” Kelly is also the author of the picture book The Electric Slide and Kai and the middle-grade novel in verse Eb & Flow. Kelly lives in southwest Michigan with her five amazing children.
