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Nic Stone

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Nic Stone
Stone in 2017
Stone in 2017
Born (1985-07-10) July 10, 1985 (age 39)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Alma materSpelman College
GenreFiction for young adult
Years active2017-present
Notable worksDear Martin
Website
nicstone.info

Andrea Nicole Livingstone (born July 10, 1985), known as Nic Stone, is an American author of young adult fiction and middle grade fiction, best known for her debut novel Dear Martin and her middle grade debut, Clean Getaway. Her novels have been translated into six languages.

Personal life

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Stone was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia.[1] She has a degree in Psychology from Spelman College. She is African-American[2] and is openly bisexual.[3] After college, she worked in teen mentoring. She moved to Israel for a few years.[4]

Career

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During a trip to Israel in 2008, Stone discovered that she wanted to become a writer when encountering a family with a story that fascinated her.[5] Stone wrote her first novel for young adults in 2017, inspired by American young adult novelist Veronica Roth's Divergent series because it was the first series featuring black characters that she encountered that live until the end.[5] That same book later landed her a literary agent.[5]

Dear Martin

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Her debut novel Dear Martin, about a high school senior in a predominantly white school who starts writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after he has a dangerous encounter with racist police officers, was sold as a proposal in a two-book deal[6] and published in 2017 by Crown Books for Young Readers. Stone has stated she began writing her debut novel Dear Martin after the death of Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old black high school student who was fatally shot by a white man in a hate crime in 2012.[7] The book debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at #4.[8] It was also chosen as a finalist for the William C. Morris award in 2017[9] and received a starred review from Booklist.[10] It has been published and translated in Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, The Netherlands, UK, Turkey, and Romania.[11] Two years after it was first published, Dear Martin again hit the New York Times bestseller list, for Young Adult Paperbacks and at #1, in February 2020.[12]

A sequel, Dear Justyce, about an incarcerated teen who is on trial for murder charges, was published in October 2020. Stone says she was not planning on writing a sequel. but encouraged by her publisher, and decided to write a book about a "black boy that everybody is afraid of."[5]

A sequel, Dear Manny, set to be published in 2025.

Clean Getaway

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Her Middle Grade debut, Clean Getaway, illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile, was published by Crown in January 2020.[13] It tells the story of an 11-year-old Scoob, who goes on a roadtrip with his grandmother.[14] It received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly[15] and Booklist,[16] and debuted on the Children's Middle Grade Hardcover New York Times bestseller list, at #5.[17] Stone says the inspiration for the novel was a Twitter headline about a shoplifting grandma in Atlanta who turned out to be an international jewel thief.[14]

Other works

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Her second young adult novel, Odd One Out, is about three queer teenagers of color in a love triangle and explores themes of gender, sexual fluidity and identity.[18] It was published in 2018 by Crown Books for Young Readers.[19][20] It also received a starred review from Booklist.[21] In 2019, her third novel, Jackpot, following a gas station clerk that she sold a winning lottery ticket to, was published by Crown.[5] Stone originally wrote the novel in 2015.[22]

In September 2019, it was announced that Stone would write a novel focused on Shuri, from Marvel's Black Panther.[23] It was published by Scholastic in 2020.[23] Two more books were published in the Shuri series in 2021 and 2022.

Stone wrote a young adult novel Blackout, released in June 2021, which she co-authored with Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon.[24]

Aside from young adult fiction and middle grade, Stone also writes essays, and her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies.

Beginning in February 2022, Stone hosted a six-episode podcast series with Marvel and Sirius XM podcast.[25][26] The podcast series was titled, The History of Marvel Comics: Black Panther.[25][26]

Stone was the keynote speaker at the AASL National Conference in 2023.[27]

Bibliography

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Young Adult fiction

Middle Grade fiction

Cowritten Books

References

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Wikiquote has quotations related to Nic Stone.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nic Stone.
  1. ^ "Nic Stone Books, Author Biography, and Reading Level | Scholastic". www.scholastic.com. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
  2. ^ Stone, Nic. "This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Remember He Was Disobedient". Bustle. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  3. ^ "Nic Stone keeps it real". ajc. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  4. ^ "Bestselling Novel 'Dear Martin' Addresses Racial Profiling & Killings of Unarmed Black Teens". WritersDigest.com. October 23, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e Nelson, George (February 20, 2019). "'Dear Martin' Author Shares Her Story With Students". Business Journal Daily. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  6. ^ Foley, Maddy. "How This Author Is Challenging The YA Status Quo With Her #BlackLivesMatter Novel". Bustle. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  7. ^ Green, Adrienne (November 1, 2017). "The Teen Protagonist Writing Letters to Dr. King". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  8. ^ "Young Adult Hardcover Books - Best Sellers - November 5, 2017 - The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  9. ^ "Morris Award". Young Adult Library Services Association. February 27, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  10. ^ "booklist dear martin - Google Search". www.google.de. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  11. ^ "DEAR MARTIN - The Deborah Harris Agency". www.thedeborahharrisagency.com. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  12. ^ "Young Adult Paperback Books - Best Sellers - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  13. ^ CLEAN GETAWAY | Kirkus Reviews.
  14. ^ a b "Crown Picks Up Nic Stone's Debut Middle Grade Novels". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  15. ^ "Children's Book Review: Clean Getaway by Nic Stone, illus. by Dawud Anyabwile. Crown, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-984892-97-3". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  16. ^ Clean Getaway, by Nic Stone.
  17. ^ "Children's Middle Grade Hardcover Books - Best Sellers - Jan. 26, 2020 - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  18. ^ "Writing Tips & Insights from Author Nic Stone | WritersDigest.com". WritersDigest.com. June 2, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  19. ^ "Children's Book Review: Odd One Out by Nic Stone. Crown, $17.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-101-93953-6". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  20. ^ ODD ONE OUT by Nic Stone | Kirkus Reviews.
  21. ^ Odd One Out, by Nic Stone.
  22. ^ "Nic Stone: How I Write". The Writer. January 23, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  23. ^ a b "Exclusive: An original 'Black Panther' novel centered on Shuri will publish next year". EW.com. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  24. ^ Reich, Hannah (March 9, 2021). "Writing Black Lives Matter: Maxine Beneba Clarke and Angie Thomas on their latest books for children and young people". ABC News. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  25. ^ a b "Tune Into the First Episode of 'The History of Marvel Comics: Black Panther' Podcast". www.marvel.com. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  26. ^ a b "Marvel's New Podcast Takes Fans Through the History of Black Panther". The Root. February 14, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  27. ^ "Nic Stone to Keynote AASL National Conference General Session | ALA". www.ala.org. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
  28. ^ "Read an excerpt from 'Dear Martin' author Nic Stone's LGBTQ-themed 'Odd One Out'". EW.com. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
  29. ^ "Nic Stone Is Writing for Young People Who Don't Normally See Themselves in Fiction". Shondaland. October 2, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
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