Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts's first book, Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America (Little, Brown & Company), was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Awards. She is also a recipient of a 2012 Whiting Writer's Award.

Her 2015 book for young readers, Jake Makes a World: Jacob Lawrence a Young Artist in Harlem (commissioned by MoMA and illustrated by Christopher Myers), was named by Booklist among the year's top books about art for children. She received her A.B. from Harvard College and is an assistant professor in the writing department at Pratt.