Tricia Elam Walker, is an award-winning author, attorney and educator.  Her first novel, Breathing Room, was published, after an auction for the rights, by Simon & Schuster/PocketBooks in 2001.  It was also published in Italy by Neri Pozza Editore and was nominated for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

Tricia’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Essence and other publications.  She has provided commentary for NPR, CNN, the BBC and more. Tricia’s short stories are included in the O. Henry Prize Stories, New Stories from the South and other anthologies. Her essays are found in Father’s Songs, Dream Me Home Safely, It’s All About Love and more.

As the venue’s 2017-18 visiting playwright, her plays, “Bold Moves” (4 short plays) and “With Glittering Eyes”, were produced by Hibernian Hall in Boston in 2017 and 2018.

Her first children’s book, Nana Akua Goes to School, was published by Random House in June 2020. Dream Street, her second picture book, will be released in the fall of 2021.

Tricia received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and her MFA  in Fiction from the University of Maryland.  She practiced law for 16 years but “recovered” and is now an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University in Washington, DC.  Tricia resides in Takoma Park, MD with her husband.