Write Now with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Who are you?I’m Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, an author and teaching artist based in New York City.What do you write?I’ve published primarily children’s books, fiction and nonfiction, from picture books through young adult works. I’ve also written a play, and I’m currently working on fiction and nonfiction for adults.I started writing because I grew up immersed in stories. My mother was an immigrant from Jamaica, and my father is from Nigeria, and I grew up in a home rich with stories about migration, home, and family. Our bookshelves were always packed full, overflow towers of books perched at their edges. Weekly library visits were a highlight. We moved a lot, all over the place. I didn’t always know all of the places that I was from until I encountered them in stories. I was very shy, and I found freedom, discovered my creative and intellectual strengths through literacy.My parents provided me with a liberal supply of blank books, legal pads, and writing tools. I grew up doodling…