Tina Fakhrid-Deen has been an educator/activist for over 15 years. She has worked in higher education, Federal TRIO Programs, alternative schools, social services, arts education, and college prep programs. Currently, she is a freelance writer, educator, consultant, and LGBTQ family activist. Having grown up with a gay parent, she founded the Chicago Chapter of COLAGE which she volunteer coordinated for seven years. Tina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Speech (Performance Studies), a Master’s in Education (with an emphasis on Multicultural/Urban Education and Educational Policy) and an MFA in Creative Writing and Black Literature.
She just completed Let’s Get This Straight: The Ultimate Handbook for Youth with LGBTQ Parents (Seal Press) and is at work on her first young adult novel, Puma is Not a Shoe. Her essays, insight, and poetry have been published in anthologies such as Without A Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class, Sometimes Rhythm, Sometimes Blues: Young African-Americans on Love, Relationships, Sex, and the Search for Mr. Right, My Soul to His Spirit: Soulful Expressions From Black Daughters To Their Fathers, Homegirls Make Some Noise: Hip-Hop Feminism Anthology, and Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is. She has also written and/or edited for Just For Us, Melanin Magazine, Mosaic, Venus Magazine, Not For Tourists Guide to Chicago, and Scott Foresman. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators of Illinois.
She lives with her beautiful husband and brilliant daughter in the heart of Chicago. A true Chicagoan, Tina craves Italian Icies (with lupini beans) and the magnificent lakefront. She’s a fiend for Nutella & raspberry crepes, white cake icing, and traveling to places where they don’t speak English, but not necessarily in that order. At any given moment, challenge her to a dance battle or an old school hip-hop verse battle and you will surely lose.
For more information about Let’s Get This Straight, author interviews, excerpts, and reviews, contact:
Andie East, Publicist
Seal Press
510.809.3872 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting <SPAN dir="ltr" class="skype_pnh_highlighting_inactive_common" title="Call this phone number in United States of America with Skype: +15108093872 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +15108093872 end_of_the_skype_highlighting“> 510.809.3872 end_of_the_skype_highlighting | andie.east@​perseusbooks.com
To contact Tina, e-mail her at tina@tinafakhriddeen.com.
