Anika Nailah is the founder and former director of Books of Hope, a Boston-based, youth literacy program that engages young people to write, publish, and sell their own books. She is a Black Writers Alliance Gold Pen Award Nominee, and her book, Free and Other Stories, was chosen as one of the best short story collections of 2002 by Black Issues Book Review and was selected for inclusion in The New York Public Library’s 2003 Books For The Teen Age List.
Another short story, Draggin the Dog, that was included in Gumbo: a Celebration of African American Writing, has been produced and broadcasted by BBC Radio 4 in its Americana series. Her poetry and fiction have also been published in Wild Words, Flare, Reunion, and Cicada. She has taught fiction and creative nonfiction at Wheaton College. She is currently writing an historical novel loosely based on her Pocasset Wampanoag and African American lineage, experimenting with science fiction, touring her illustrated book project about racial microaggressions: Every Day in the USA: 30 Black Moments, and providing social justice and writing consulting.