Kalisha Buckhanon writes novels, plays and short stories. Her first novel, Upstate (St Martin’s Press, January 2005), won the 2006 American Library Association’s ALEX Award and was nominated for the Zora Neale Hurston/Ruchard Wright Legacy Award in the category of Debut Fiction. The Upstate Audio CD won the 2006 Audie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literary Fiction. Kalisha’s second novel, Conception, was published in the U.S. in February 2008.


Her articles, essays and stories have appeared in such publications as The London Independent, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Black Issues Book Review, The University of Chicago’s Otium Literary Journal and Chicago State’s Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas. She has taught literacy, creative writing and the humanities throughout Chicago, New York City and her birthplace of Kankakee, Illinois. She has also served as a writing mentor with the PEN American Center’s Prison Writing Program, working with previously incarcerated women. Kalisha is also a sought-after speaker. Just some of the institutions she has addressed include: the American Library Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of Arkansas. She has been a featured writer for the New York, Chicago and Philadelphia Public Libraries. She has also appeared in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport Museum’s Literary Series as well as in a benefit for Books Behind Bars, an organization that provides reading materials to incarcerated men and women.


Kalisha is an advocate for education, reading and literacy for all. She graduated magna cum laude and was elected into Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago. Kalisha recently completed her Master’s Degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago, where she completed her English undergraduate degree, and is continuing work there towards a PhD. Her focus is uncovering and discovering the affirmative legacies of Black women writers, historical figures, political activists and pop-culture icons. She is also interested in discovering Black women playwrights.  Previously, she earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New School University in New York City. At the New School, she received Departmental and Presidential Scholarships. She is currently continuing writing and active at the ETA Creative Arts Foundation, one of Chicago’s oldest Black theater and drama institutions.


Writing since the age of six, Kalisha has been the recipient of writing awards and humanities fellowships from the Andrew Mellon Fund, Illinois Arts Council, NAACP and the Illinois Young Author’s Commission. Terry McMillan personally selected her to receive the first Terry McMillan Young Author Award at the 2006 National Book Club Conference.  Chicago State University awarded her the 2002 Zora Neale Hurston/Bessie Head fiction award at the 12th Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Black Writers Conference for her short story "Card Parties." 
In America, Kalisha has been profiled in such publications as Essence, Colorlines Magazine, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Chicago Magazine, The New York Daily News and mediabistro.com. Abroad, she has been featured in such publications as The London Observer, New Nation, Pride and Fresh Direction. She has appeared on radio shows for WVON Chicago, NPR Chicago, BBC London, Saga Radio and Paul Blezard’s OneWord Radio Writer’s segment, London’s only half-hour program devoted exclusively to writers.


Kalisha enjoys speaking on the following topics. Please contact her publisher if you are interested.
Her novels, Upstate and Conception, and their related themes:
Black women's history, literature and culture
Black female writers, playwrights and filmmakers
The Spirit of Writing Reading and Literacy as Empowerment
Black Women and Spiritual Empowerment
Black People and Holistic Living
Youth Talk: The Power of Dreaming