Author Deborah Wiles will share background and insights about her Trumbull County Reads 2023 books Kent State and Anthem at this presentation for the community. Wiles is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including the beloved Love, Ruby Lavender and two National Book Award finalists – Each Little Bird That Sings and Revolution. Her first picture book, Freedom Summer, received the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. She is the pioneer of the documentary novel, in a trilogy about the 1960s that includes Countdown, Revolution, and Anthem. Her young adult novel Kent State is an exploration of the May 4, 1970 National Guard shooting of college students protesting the Vietnam War. Wiles holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. For the past 20 years, she has spoken at national, state, and regional conferences and literary festivals, and has taught writing workshops at writing conferences, retreats, and in schools around the world. She is an NAACP Book Award finalist, E.B. White Award winner, Golden Kite Award winner, Jane Addams Peace Award Finalist, and recipient of a PEN Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. You can visit her on the web at deborahwiles.com.