Patricia C. McKissack, recipient of the third annual Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, has been credited with having changed the face of children's literature with deep, rich, and poignant writing that celebrates the expressions of African American people, both real and imaginary. A former teacher and editor, Ms. McKissack traces her love of books and language to the oral storytellers in her family and the many childhood hours spent in the Nashville Public Library, one of the few places in her hometown that wasn't segregated. About her career she has said, "I write because there's a need to have books for, by, and about the African American experience and how we helped to develop this country."
She has received a Newbery Honor and numerous Coretta Scott King awards for her fiction, biography, and nonfiction, including The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural;Black Hands, White Sails: The Story of African American Whalers; Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters; and Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?, the latter three written with her husband, Fredrick L. McKissack. Many of the McKissacks' works have been selected as notable books of the year by the American Library Association. The McKissacks 
have also received the National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction for Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman?. With her son, Fredrick L. McKissack Jr., Ms. McKissack has written Black Diamond: the Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues and Black Hoops: the History of African Americans in Basketball. Current and forthcoming books include, Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba Angola, Africa 1595; Paul Robeson: a Voice to Remember; and The Honest To Goodness Truth, illustrated by Giselle Potter.

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