Kalisha Buckhanon is the author of RUNNING TO FALL, SPEAKING OF SUMMER, SOLEMN, CONCEPTION and UPSTATE as well as numerous stories, essays, articles and blogs on her site negression.com. She was a true crime TV commentator on BET, ID Channel and TV One. She and her work featured also in such media as Essence, O Magazine, People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmo, Marie Claire, Elle, The Guardian/London Observer and more. UPSTATE is an American Library Association ALEX Award winner, Audie Award in Literary Fiction winner, Terry McMillan Young Author Award winner, Hurston-Wright Foundation Debut Fiction Finalist and National Book Foundation "Literature for Justice" title. Kalisha has an M.A. and B.A. in English from University of Chicago, where she was elected into Phi Beta Kappa. Her Creative Writing M.F.A. is from The New School in New York City.