Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as the young adult novels, American Street and Pride, and co-author of Punching the Air with prison reform activist, Dr. Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. Her most recent book is Star Child: A biographical constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler.

She will be receiving the 2022 Maplewood Literary Award.

Ibi Zoboi was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and  currently lives in Maplewood. She holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her YA novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist and her debut middle grade novel, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, was a New York Times bestseller. She is the author of Pride, a contemporary YA remix of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and editor of the anthology, Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America.

Copies of Ibi’s books will be for sale and signing.

Free and open to the public. The Ideas Festival is made possible by the Essex County Division of Cultural Affairs, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts AND The Maplewood Library Foundation, the Friends of the Maplewood Library, and [words] Bookstore.

Please note new date and venue.