At the 25th annual National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson (B.A. '04) recalled the first time she told someone she wanted to be a writer. As a Howard film student in 2000, Jackson’s friends dragged her to an on-campus writers conference for a book signing of Sister Souljah’s acclaimed novel “The Coldest Winter Ever.” 

“It was the first author that I ever met, and as soon as I walked up to her, I just blurted out ‘I want to be an author too!’” Jackson said. “I don’t know where that came from, I was a full-fledged film major. She said ‘okay’ and she wrote a note in my book and gave me her number.”  

Although Jackson, now a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award winner and NAACP Image Award nominee, never called the number, she held on to meeting Souljah, saying that the encounter changed her perception of being an author and not just a “starving artist.” 

The now-author of 15 young adult novels and children’s stories shared this memory of her time at Howard during the panel discussion, “It’s Gonna Get Scary In Here: Eerie Reads with Tiffany D. Jackson and Paul Tremblay.” She was one of three Bison writers at the festival — including alumnus Kwame Mbalia (B.S. '05) and current graduate student Maika Moulite.  

‘Blood in the Water’ and Writing Horror for Everyone  

Jackson was at the festival promoting her latest novel, “Blood in the Water,” a thrilling murder mystery that follows 12-year-old Brooklyn native Kaylani McKinnon as she investigates the murder of a teenager in Martha’s Vineyard, deals with the culture shock of class differences, and learns about the rich Black history of the area.  

Much of the inspiration for the novel came from Jackson’s own life, having grown up in Brooklyn and frequently visiting Martha’s Vineyard with family.  

“It was just this place where you go and it’s so magical and beautiful,” she said. “And me being the horror lover I am, every night I would think ‘How do I make this place scary? How do I mess things up?’” 

Jackson described herself as a lifelong horror fan, starting from when she read R.L. Stine (also a featured speaker at the festival), and consciously tries to broaden the genre to include Black children through her books. 

“I didn’t see anyone that looked like me in the stories I was reading,” Jackson added. “I make a point to always write kids who look like me, because I know there are more ‘Tiffanys’ out there.” 

Exploring Haitian Zonbi Lore and Capitalism in ‘The Summer I Ate The Rich’ 

Sisters and writers Maika and Maritza Moulite similarly drew from their own lives for their latest novel, “The Summer I Ate The Rich,” which follows Brielle Petitfour, a young Haitian immigrant with dreams of being a chef, as she supports her chronically ill mother through her cooking. From the synopsis: “The rich families who love her cooking praise her use of unique flavors and textures, which keep everyone guessing what’s in Brielle’s dishes. The secret ingredient? Human flesh.” 

For the book — which uses Haitian lore and culture to explore deep-rooted inequalities in everything from housing to health care — Maika and Maritza looked back to their own lives growing up in a Haitian household, not only drawing on the memories of food they enjoyed, but going deep into the origins of Haitian folklore.  

“It was an opportunity to really lean into Haitian zonbi lore,” explained Maika. “The idea originated from Haiti, and it was essentially the fears of the enslaved African people who were forcibly brought from the continent to the island that their servitude would continue even in the afterlife.” 

For Maika, the book is a chance to explore “who is the real monster here? Is it this person who wants to eat your brain or the person who has this amount of money to cure world hunger, but hoards it for themselves?”  

The sisters also drew more personally from their family, particularly their mother who has a similar chronic back condition to Brielle’s.  

“There have been moments in the past where there’s a health insurance issue, and the pain pump is empty, it will go off every hour on the hour as a reminder to the person that the medication is empty, as if they themselves are not aware of their pain,” said Maika. 

“We were certainly inspired by the frustrations of real-world health insurance issues,” Maritza added.

‘On Again, Awkward Again’ and the Next Generation of Readers 

Kwame Mbalia, co-author of the young adult rom-com “On Again, Awkward Again” along with Erin Enrada Kelly, took inspiration in the opposite direction. The book follows nerdy high school freshmen Pacy Mercado and Cecil Holloway, throwing readers into the deep end of a hilarious, cringe-inducing first romance, from a meet-cute interrupted by IBS to awful dating advice from friends, to being caught googling “how to kiss.”  

Mbalia, perhaps best known for his Tristan Strong fantasy series, freely admits to basing a lot of Cecil on his own “experience in nerdom,” he said during the panel, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Awkward.” But he also relied on his four children, particularly his 14- and 17-year-old daughters, to authentically find the voice of the characters and the real-world problems they face.  

“They have shaped my career as a writer,” Mbalia said during an interview before the event. “Because I see the issues that they’re dealing with, they bring them home. I see them, we deal with them, and I understand that if they’re going through them, other kids out there in that age range similar to them are going through them as well. And so, I get as many influences from them as I get ideas from any other place.”  

Along with being a prolific writer and father (two jobs he said forced him to compromise and finally give up sleep), Mbalia is also the founder of Freedom Fire Imprint, a collaboration with Disney to uplift young Black writers and readers. The project was born out of Mbalia’s work as editor for “Black Boy Joy,” the New York Times No. 1 bestselling anthology.  

“I’m a reader before I’m a writer” he said. “As a reader, you want to do nothing more than shout about how good this book is that you're reading. That has been my mantra and my driving purpose for such a long time. When we were doing the ‘Black Boy Joy’ anthology, we did a call for short story submissions for unpublished writers. There are so many good stories from so many good authors who do not have agents, who are not published.”  

Mbalia is passionate about promoting young writers, evidenced in both his work on Freedom Fire and his “Let’s Build a Story! Writing Workshop With Kids” event, which he also hosted at the festival this year. But equally important to him is helping to cultivate the next generation of young readers. 

“I think the mission of Freedom Fire is just to shout about Black storytelling as loudly and as frequently as possible,” he said, “Because we’re going to make a reader out of you. Whether you want to or not, you are going to become a reader.”