Born in the final year of the baby boom generation, Jiton sees herself as a bridge between the Black Power/Black Arts movements of the late 1960s and the hip hop generation. As a literary historian and activist, Jiton has sat at the knee of Black literary legends such as Sam Greenlee, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, and so many others. Today, Jiton nurtures her revolutionary spirit by seeking and promoting the stories of those who are not a part of the mainstream literary canon but whose contributions to society helped to transform the consciousness of a generation with poetry, plays, and literary works of revolution.

Jiton has been a writer/scholar for most of her life. She received her MA in African American Literature from Howard University and pursued further graduate studies in African American Literature at Penn State University. Jiton then earned her MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was reborn. Her love of children led her to teach creative writing to students from second grade through high school and to become a certified children’s yoga instructor. As a literacy advocate, Jiton’s mission is to ensure that children of color see themselves reflected in both “Own Voices” and mainstream books with a range of diverse characters. Jiton believes that all children’s books have the potential to spark young minds and inspire organic change.

Jiton is a children’s book author and aspires to be a recovering OH (Original Hermit).

What She’s Looking For:

She’s looking for children’s literature in all genres (middle-grade, young adult) with a special interest in own voices. She also has an interest in adult afro and african futurism, Black science fiction/fantasy, commercial fiction and literary fiction, and nonfiction and narrative nonfiction with a special interest in African American memoir.