Summer Edward is a Ginkgo Prize-longlisted author who writes for all ages. Summer has written several books for young readers, amongst them The Wonder of the World Leaf (Heinemann), Renaissance Man: Geoffrey Holder's Life in the Arts (Heinemann), and First Class: How Elizabeth Lange Built a School (Heinemann). Her works have been called "refreshing", "heartwarming" and "emotionally captivating."
She earned a master of education at the University of Pennsylvania. A former college writing instructor, she studied fiction at the Kelly Writers House and received writing residencies from the Highlights Foundation and the Cropper Foundation. Summer created Anansesem, an online magazine covering Caribbean literature for young readers. When she isn't writing, she works as a children's fiction editor at Heinemann and reviews children's/YA books for The Horn Book Magazine. She is a lifelong Roothbert Fellow, and has served on the juries of the Golden Baobab Prizes for African children's literature, OpenIDEO's Early Childhood Book Challenge, and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. A dual citizen of America and Trinidad and Tobago, she divides her time between the two countries.
Her writing appears or is forthcoming in The Millions, The Columbia Review, Horn Book Magazine, The Missing Slate, Nat. Brut, Matatu: Journal for African Culture and Society, Anomaly, The Punch Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, Bim: Arts for the 21st Century, Moko Magazine, sx salon, The Caribbean Writer, Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora, Duende, Negative Capability Press, Waxwing Literary Journal, Re-Markings, tongues of the ocean, PREE, Interviewing the Caribbean and others.
She is a Small Axe Fiction and Poetry Prize shortlistee, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and was selected for the NGC Bocas Lit Fest’s New Talent Showcase, spotlighting the best emerging Caribbean writers. Her work has been anthologized in Bookmarked: New Caribbean Writing (PREE Ink, 2021), New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent (Amistad/HarperCollins), New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean (Peepal Tree Press), 1789: Twelve Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change (Candlewick Press), and Whaleheart: Journey into the Night with Maya Christina Gonzalez and 23 Courageous ArtistAuthors (Reflection Press).
