Kalisha Buckhanon is a writer, speaker and commentator creating stories and media about African-Americans, women, love, and justice.

Winner of an American Library Association ALEX Award and Friends of American Writers Award, Kalisha Buckhanon is most known for her trilogy of novels on Black youth in America: SOLEMN, CONCEPTION and UPSTATE. Her next novel, SPEAKING OF SUMMER, pulls readers into a woman's quest for answers and justice about her twin sister's disappearance from Harlem, leading to revelations about their past and history in a Midwest small town. She is also seen on ID Channel, BET and TV One as an expert in true crime cases involving women. UPSTATE's audiobook won an Audie Award in Literary Fiction for Buckhanon and its actors Chadwick Boseman and Heather Simms. Icon Terry McMillan gave Kalisha a Young Author Award at the National Book Club Conference for this modern classic, which remains a favorite of teachers, librarians and youth nationwide. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Hurston-Wright Foundation Legacy Award, Buckhanon's works are seen in Fiction International, Oxford American, Black Renaissance Noire, The Root, SheKnows, Kweli, pluck!, Per Contra, Michigan Quarterly Review and more. In 2005 she was introduced in such media as The Guardian/Observer and Essence, which named her one of "Three Writers to Watch," and featured on the cover of Mosaic Literary Magazine in 2008. She has a B.A. and M.A. in English from University of Chicago with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City.