Ibi Zoboi was born in Haiti and immigrated to New York with her mother when she was four-years-old.
Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times Bestselling author of AMERICAN STREET, a National Book Award Finalist; PRIDE, a contemporary remix of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; and MY LIFE AS AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH, her middle-grade debut. She is also the co-author of the Walter Award and L.A. Times Book Prize-winning PUNCHING THE AIR with prison reform activist Dr. Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five, which was also shortlisted for the U.K.’s Yoto Carnegie Medal. Ibi is the editor of BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG & BLACK IN AMERICA. Her debut picture book, THE PEOPLE REMEMBER, received a Coretta Scott King Book Honor Award. Her most recent books are STAR CHILD: A BIOGRAPHICAL CONSTELLATION OF OCTAVIA ESTELLE BUTLER, and OKOYE TO THE PEOPLE: A BLACK PANTHER NOVEL for Marvel.
Ibi has appeared on CBS This Morning and The Reid Out alongside Yusef Salaam, and on PBS’s Book View Now. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Book Review, the Horn Book Magazine, and The Rumpus, among others. As an educator, she received several grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council for her community-based programs for teen girls in both Brooklyn and Haiti. She’s worked for arts organizations such as Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Community Word Project as a writer-in-residence and teaching artist in New York City public schools.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in New York City, Ibi lives with her husband and three children in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Photo credit: Nicole Mondestin Photography
awards & Honors
National Book Award Finalist (American Street, 2017)
New York Times Notable Book (American Street, 2017)
Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (American Street, 2018)
Muriel Becker Award from the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English (American Street, 2019)
The Walter Award, Teen Category (Punching the Air, 2021)
L.A. Times Book Prize, Young Adult Literature (Punching the Air, 2021)
Boston Globe - Horn Book Award Honor, Fiction (Punching the Air, 2021)
Lee Bennett Hopkins Honor Award for Children’s Poetry (Punching the Air, 2021)
Coretta Scott King Book Award Honor (The People Remember, 2022)
Yoto Carnegie Medal, shortlist (Punching the Air, 2022)
The Walter Award Honor, Young Readers Category (Star Child, 2023)
Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor (Star Child, 2023)
Children & YA Literary Award from the Black Caucus of ALA, Non-fiction (Star Child, 2023)
Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner (Nigeria Jones, 2024)
