Born in Trinidad on September 1st, Rosa Guy is the author of more than fifteen novels for young adults. Her parents died when she was young and Ms. Parks grew up in Harlem, in New York City. She worked in factories but soon became involved in union efforts to improve conditions for workers. She next moved to the theater to express her feelings about the struggle for African American freedom. Not pleased with the prejudice that existed in the theater, she turned her efforts to writing. She and writer John Oliver Killens founded the Harlem Writers' Guild. In 1982, her Mother Crocodile; an Uncle Amadou Tale from Senegal (Delacorte) won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for John Steptoe. Her novel, My Love: My Love or, the Peasant Girl was the inspiration for the Broadway musical Once on This Island. Today, Ms. Guy continues to live and work in New York City.