Amber McBride
Bio
Amber McBride is an award-winning author and poet who writes for both children and adults—often referring to herself as a folklorist.
She is also an herbalist and practices Hoodoo (an African American folk-magick practice). McBride was an assistant professor for a decade at The University of Virginia and James Madison University before she started writing full time.
McBride’s poetry has been published in several literary magazines including Ploughshares, Blackbird, Willow Springs Magazine, On Being, Rust & Moth and many others. Her debut young adult novel, Me (Moth) was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the 2022 Coretta Scott King/ John Steptoe Award for new talent, among many other accolades. Her sophomore novel, We Are All So Good At Smiling, was critically acclaimed garnering 5 starred reviews. McBride’s middle grade debut, Gone Wolf, was also well received and went on to win the LA Times Book Award in Children’s Literature. Her adult poetry collection, Thick with Trouble, was called, “a beautiful web of interconnected pieces relating to her identity as a Black woman in the modern era,” by the Harvard Crimson.
McBride earned her MFA with a concentration in poetry from Emerson College in Boston and went on to intern at the Furious Flower Poetry Center where she helped to put on programs honoring Black poets and writers like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou.
Amber McBride believes in magick, Hoodoo, ghosts and all the things you can’t see, but most of all she believes in you!