Jerald Walker is the author of How to Make a Slave and Other Essays, a Finalist for the National Book Award and Winner of the Massachusetts Book Award; The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult; and Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption, recipient of the PEN/New England Award for Nonfiction. His work has appeared in prestigious publications such as the Harvard Review, Creative Nonfiction, the Iowa Review, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Mother Jones, as well as six editions of The Best American Essays series and the Pushcart Prizes. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the James A. Michener Foundation, Walker is a Professor of Creative Writing and African American Literature at Emerson College. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.