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Revision as of 03:30, 8 October 2022

Tracy Deonn
BornUnited States
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina
GenreYoung Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary
Years active2020–present
Notable worksLegendborn
Website
tracydeonn.com

Tracy Deonn is an American author. Her debut novel Legendborn (2020) was a New York Times bestseller and received a Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Deonn was raised in central North Carolina.[3] As a child, she was a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, and science fiction and fantasy stories.[4] However, she notes, "Growing up in North Carolina, there would be coursework as elementary and middle school, like, tell where your family came from, and this assumption that there was a European origin. And so, students could come to class and be like my family, way back when, they came from France or they came from Scotland. And for the Black American students, this was just this horrifying, sort of traumatic, school assignment that white instructors never really thought about how painful that was."[5]

She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating with a bachelor and master's degree in Communication and Performance Studies.[4][6] While there, she was a member of the fraternity of St. Anthony Hall.[7] Although she was accepted into the Ph.D. program at UNC, she decided to turn down the spot.[8] Instead, Deonn spent a summer doing yoga and exploring San Francisco.[8]

Her mother died in 2008, soon after Deonn graduated from UNC.[5][4]

Career

After a summer in San Francisco, Deonn returned to Chapel Hill and worked for the PlayMakers Repertory Company.[8] She also taught undergraduates at the UNC Communications Department.[8] Deonn has also worked in video game production and K-12 education.[9][10]

After her mother's death in 2008, Deonn did not wrote prose for ten years.[8] However, in 2018, she wrote an essay, "Black Girl, Becoming", that was published in the book, Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America.[11][12] This led to Simon & Schuster editor Liesa Abrams contacting Deonn to express interest in any YA fiction that Deonn might write.[11] Deonn followed up by sending her unfinished novel and was then encouraged by Abrams to find an agent.[11]

Deonn was also a contributor in the 40th Anniversary The Empire Strikes Back anthology, From a Certain Point of View.[5] She was a co-writer and consulting producer of the 2019 Star Wars fandom SyFy Channel docu-series Looking for Leia; she was also featured in the series as an expert.[5]

Her debut novel Legendborn, a fantasy young adult book, was released in September 2020 by Simon & Schuster/McElderry Books.[13] It was nominated for a Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel and a Hugo Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2021.[14][15] Deonn drew inspiration from African-American folk magic and tied them together with her own experiences and family history. In particular, she employed themes present in retellings of the legend of King Arthur.[9] In a review for Tor.com, Alex Brown writes, "Legendborn is an intoxicating mix of Southern Black traditions, the King Arthur mythos, and teenage melodrama. Tracy Deonn delves into age-old tropes and twists them into something bigger and better."[16]

For Legendborn Deonn won a Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award for New Talent from the American Library Association's Book and Media Awards.[1][10][5] She says, "Winning the Steptoe feels like a huge win not just for me and this book, but for fantasy as a genre and Black American fantasy in particular.[10]

Deonn has stated that one of her inspirations for Legendborn was her "own grief journey after the passing of my mother saying, "We often look for stories in loss, and Legendborn is part of the story I told myself."[17] She has also described Susan Cooper as a literary influence.[11] She has been writing the second novel in the Legendborn trilogy which is scheduled to be released in November 2022.[11][18][3]

Deonn feels the challenge and obligation as a black writer. She says, “I think as a writer I need to be able to—I want to be able to—rep my community well, but it isn't possible to represent that whole population. All you can do is represent yourself and your own experiences. But that pressure is there and it's hard to juggle.”[8]

Publications

Novels

  • Deonn, Tracy (2020). Legendborn (Legendborn Cycle #1). Simon & Schuster / McElderry Books. ISBN 978-1534441606.[3]
  • Deonn, Tracy (2022). Bloodmarked (Legendborn Cycle #2). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1534441637.[3]

Anthologies

Year Contribution Anthology
2007 "Authentic Chameleons" "Authentic Chameleons: Mythic Identity, Performative Trickster-ing, and the Potential of the Telephone Booth Moment". Carolina Digital Repository. May 2007. doi:10.17615/r8w4-xt40.
2020 "Vengence" "Vergence". From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back. Del Rey. 2020. ISBN 978-0593157749.[3]
"Black Girl, Becoming" "Black Girl, Becoming". Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America. Simon & Schuster. 2020. ISBN 978-1534409002.[3]
2022 "The Nightingale" "The Nightingale". At Midnight: 15 Beloved Fairy Tales Reimagined. Flatiron Books. 2022. ISBN 978-1250806024.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b admin (2009-01-18). "The Coretta Scott King Book Awards". Round Tables. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
  2. ^ "Young Adult Hardcover Books - Best Sellers - Books - Oct. 4, 2020 - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-27.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Tracy Deonn". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  4. ^ a b c Wilde, Susie (September 25, 2020). "Launching a universe: NC author's first YA novel debuts on NYT Best Sellers list". The News & Observer. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e Sizing, Jaqueline; Devine, Ivana; Hunter-Pillion, Melody. "Legendborn + Legendmaking". Southern Futures. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  6. ^ "Southern Futures Podcast with Carolina Alumna Tracy Deonn". Tar Heels Together. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Uncle Tony's Alumni Spotlight Series: Noble Sister Tracy Deonn, Xi'01". St. Anthony Hall. March 21, 2021. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Gomez, Kiara H. (April 5, 2022). "Artist Profile: Tracy Deonn on Fear, Grief, and Storytelling". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  9. ^ a b "An Indies Introduce Q&A With Tracy Deonn". the American Booksellers Association. 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  10. ^ a b c Gaetano, Siân (January 29, 2021). "Tracy Deonn: Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award Winner". Shelf-Awareness. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  11. ^ a b c d e Kirch, Claire (December 18, 2020). "Fall 2020 Flying Starts: Tracy Deonn". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  12. ^ Hunter-Pillion, Melody. "Legendborn + Legendmaking | Southern Futures". Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  13. ^ "Children's Book Review: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn". www.pubishersweekly.com. 2020-09-01. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  14. ^ locusmag (2021-05-01). "2021 Locus Awards Top Ten Finalists". Locus Online. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  15. ^ "2021 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. 2021-01-01. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  16. ^ Brown, Alex (September 21, 2020). ""Take Risks, Follow Your Heart, and Move Forward": Legendborn by Tracy Deonn". Tor.com. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  17. ^ "What was the inspiration behind your... — Tracy Deonn Q&A". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  18. ^ Dodor, Elikem; Holub-Moorman, Grant; Rao, Anita (November 12, 2020). "Forget Hogwarts: Author Tracy Deonn Uncovers Magic And Darkness At UNC-Chapel Hill". WUNC 91.5. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  19. ^ "At Midnight". Macmillan. Retrieved 2022-08-18.
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