A former attorney, Jean Alicia Elster is the award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults including How It Happens, The Colored Car, Who’s Jim Hines? and the “Joe Joe in the City” series. Her essays have appeared in Ms., World Vision, Christian Science Sentinel and Black Child. She was awarded a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellowship in Literary Arts from the Kresge Foundation and three residencies at the internationally acclaimed Ragdale Foundation.