Lamar Giles

Lamar Giles is an author, speaker, and founding member of We Need Diverse Books (weneeddiversebooks.org), a non-profit dedicated to changing the face of publishing. His love of stories and storytelling began at an early age in his hometown of Hopewell, Virginia. After graduating from Hopewell High School in 1997, he attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. It was at ODU where he decided to pursue writing as a career, making his first professional short story sale at the age of 21.
From there his work was featured in the DARK DREAMS anthology from Kensington Publishing, he was honored with a fellowship from the Virginia Commission of the Arts, and was a Top 10 finalist in the ScifiNow/TorUK International War of the Words Competition. His debut Young Adult novel, FAKE ID, sold to HarperCollins in 2011, and since its publication in 2014 has gained national acclaim. Among the many accolades are a 2015 Edgar® Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America, and inclusion on the Virginia State Reading Association’s 2015-2016 Readers Choice List.
Lamar has spoken and taught at a number of middle schools, high schools, and for prestigious conferences and organizations like Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Virginia Children’s Book Festival, BookExpo America, and his work has been featured on NPR, CNN, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Flavorwire, Mother Nature Network, etc.
His books for young readers are represented by Jamie Weiss Chilton of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and he lives in Chesapeake, Virginia with his wife.