Oil portrait by Margot Bergman
Joanne V. Gabbin, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, is the author of "Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition" and the editor of "The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry" and "Furious Flower: African American Poetry From the Black Arts Movement to the Present."
With teaching, poetry, and art as three guiding passions, she gives her energy to directing the Honors Program and the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University and owning and directing the 150 Franklin Street Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This is her first children's book.