Jump to content

Dhonielle Clayton

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 38.100.128.52 (talk) at 16:33, 27 January 2023 (→‎Life and career). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Dhonielle Clayton
Born1983 Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationWriter, librarian, high school teacher, chief operating officer Edit this on Wikidata
Employer
Awards
  • The Ember Award (2021) Edit this on Wikidata
Websitehttps://www.dhonielleclayton.com/ Edit this on Wikidata

Dhonielle Clayton is an American author and chief operating officer of We Need Diverse Books.

Life and career

Clayton was born in Washington, D.C. She went to Our Lady Of Good Counsel in Wheaton Maryland. She graduated with a B.A. from Wake Forest University in 2005, a M.A. from Hollins University in 2008, and a M.F.A. in creative writing from The New School in 2012.[1][2]

She is president and owner of Cake Creative, a boutique book packager. She co-authored the instant New York Times bestselling book Blackout with Tiffany D. Jackson, Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon, and it's currently slated to become a movie and TV show produced by the Obamas for Netflix. She also co-authored the Tiny Pretty Things series with Sona Charaipotra.[3][4] The series debuted in 2015 and follows three teenage dance students at New York's American Ballet Company.[5][6] Kirkus referred to volume one as "a page-turner with heart."[5] In 2020, Tiny Pretty Things made its debut on Netflix as a series.[7][8]

Clayton's interest as a teenager in magazines, beauty and how they affected the way she viewed herself later served as inspirations for her debut novel, The Belles, released in February 2018. The fantasy young adult novel centers a 16-year-old girl and her sisters, tasked with restoring beauty to a colorless grey world.[9][10][11] The book was a New York Times bestseller and was named a Best Book of 2018 by Kirkus.[12][9]

Clayton is Chief Operating Officer of We Need Diverse Books, which seeks to increase representations of marginalized groups in children and young adult literature.[3] She also works as a sensitivity reader for children's literature and works to identify stereotypes or inauthentic portrayals of Black characters.[13][14] She has also advocated for books to better represent people of color.[15][16]

In 2019, Clayton attracted criticism for negative Tweets about a student of Northern State University, who had advocated for the inclusion of three books by persons of colour, including Bryan Stevenson's memoir Just Mercy about racial injustice, instead of a YA novel by Sarah Dessen, in the university's "Common Reads" program. Clayton later deleted the tweets.[17][18]

In 2019, Clayton and Zoraida Córdova started a podcast together called Deadline City. Together they co-host episodes and talk about publishing topics and their own experiences in publishing.[19]

Awards

Year Work Award Result Ref.
2018 The Belles American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection [20]
Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth Selection [21]
Chicago Public Library Best Teen Book Covers of the Year Selection [22]
Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction of the Year Selection [23]
Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction Nominee [24]
Junior Library Guild selection Selection [25]
2019 ALA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Selection [26]
Children's & Teen Choice Book Awards Finalist [27]
Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book Nominee [28]
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book Nominee [29]
The Everlasting Rose Junior Library Guild selection Selection [30]
2020 IGNYTE Award for Best Young Adult Novel Nominee [31]
2021 IGNYTE Award - The Ember Award for unsung contributions to genre Winner [32][33]

Published works

Novels

  • Blackout (2021)
  • The Rumor Game with Sona Charaipotra (2022)
  • The Marvellers (2022)

Tiny Pretty Things series

The Mirror series

  • Shattered Midnight (2022)

The Belles series

Short stories

  • "When the Moonlight Isn't Enough" in The Radical Element, edited by Jessica Spotswood (2018)
  • "The Need for Kisses" in Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, edited by Glory Edim (2018)
  • "The Way We Love Here" in Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet (2018)
  • "You Know Nothing About Love" in Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, edited by Marieke Nijkamp (2018)
  • "Hearts Turned to Ash" in A Phoenix First Must Burn, edited by Patrice Caldwell (2020)
  • "The House of Black Sapphires" in Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite, edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker (2020)

Anthologies edited

  • A Universe of Wishes: We Need Diverse Books Anthology (2020)
  • Blackout (2021)

References

  1. ^ York, The New School 66 West 12th Street New; Ny 10011 (6 September 2019). "Alumni Sona Charaipotra, MFA Creative Writing '12, and Dhonielle Clayton's MFA Creative Writing '12, Co-Authored 'Tiny Pretty Things' Adapted to Netflix Series". New School News. Retrieved 2020-02-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Dhonielle Clayton." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors, Gale, 2016. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://link-gale-com.unr.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/H1000318714/LitRC?u=reno&sid=LitRC&xid=65e0a8a2. Accessed 2020-02-23.
  3. ^ a b Elam, Bridget (2019-09-12). "Author Dhonielle Clayton discusses the need for diverse books". WS Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2019-09-13. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  4. ^ "Tiny Pretty Things". www.publishersweekly.com. 2015-04-27. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  5. ^ a b TINY PRETTY THINGS. 2015-03-01. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Stevenson, Deborah (2015). "Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 69 (1): 16–17. doi:10.1353/bcc.2015.0668. ISSN 1558-6766. S2CID 145420721.
  7. ^ Petski, Denise (2019-08-06). "Netflix Orders 'Tiny Pretty Things' Ballet Drama Series Based On Book; Sets Main Cast". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2020-09-01.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Tiny Pretty Things". Netflix. 2020.
  9. ^ a b THE BELLES. 2017-12-01. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  10. ^ Quealy-Gainer, Kate (2018-01-17). "The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton (review)". Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 71 (6): 242. doi:10.1353/bcc.2018.0088. ISSN 1558-6766. S2CID 201722028.
  11. ^ "The Belles". www.publishersweekly.com. 2017-11-20. Archived from the original on 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  12. ^ Serrao, Nivea (2017-04-12). "Dhonielle Clayton on How The Belles is Allowing Her to Explore Teen Issues". EW.com. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  13. ^ Shapiro, Lila (2018-01-05). "What the Job of a Sensitivity Reader Is Really Like". Vulture. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  14. ^ Neary, Lynn (2017-02-28). "Experts Or Censors? The Debate Over Authors' Use Of Sensitivity Readers". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  15. ^ Valby, Karen (2019-07-19). "Why Have Novels About Royalty Stormed the Y.A. Best-Seller Lists?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  16. ^ Ettinger, Savi (2019-09-05). "Women of color as artists: Kiran Ahluwalia vs. Dhonielle Clayton". The NC Triad's altweekly. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
  17. ^ Graham, Ruth (2019-11-15). "The 2017 College Grad Who Got Attacked by a Horde of YA Authors Had No Idea What She Was Getting Into". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  18. ^ Wong, Julia Carrie (2019-11-16). "Hey, young adult authors: writing for teenagers is no excuse to act like them". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  19. ^ https://deadlinecity.com/
  20. ^ Best Fiction for Young Adults: 2019. 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2022-01-03. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth, 2018. 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2022-01-03. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ "Best Teen Book Covers of 2018". Chicago Public Library. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  23. ^ "Best Teen Fiction of 2018". Chicago Public Library. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  24. ^ "The Belles". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  25. ^ "The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton". Junior Library Guild. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  26. ^ Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults: 2019. 2019-03-15. Archived from the original on 2019-04-07. Retrieved 2022-01-03. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  27. ^ "The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton". Junior Library Guild. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  28. ^ "2019 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Online. 2019-06-29. Archived from the original on 2019-06-30. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  29. ^ "2019 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. 2019-07-28. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  30. ^ "The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton". Junior Library Guild. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  31. ^ Tejada, Andrew (2020-10-17). "Announcing the Winners of the Inaugural Ignyte Awards!". Tor.com. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  32. ^ "2021 Ignyte Awards Results". FiyahCon2021. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
  33. ^ "2021 Ignyte Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. 18 September 2021. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dhonielle_Clayton&oldid=1135908601"