Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas (born 1987 or 1988) is an African American author. She wrote the young adult novel The Hate U Give, which debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list for young adult hardcover books. 2Life and career Thomas was born in Jackson, Mississippi. She grew up near the home of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers and recounted to Ebony magazine that her mother heard the gunshot that killed him. When she was six years old, Thomas witnessed a shootout. The day after the incident, her mother took her to the library to show her that the world wasn't all like what she saw then, and this inspired her to begin writing. Thomas earned a BFA from Belhaven University, a predominantly white, private Christian college in Mississippi. Thomas was the first black student to graduate in creative writing. While she was a college student, she heard about the shooting of Oscar Grant in the news. This story was one of the influences for her novel The Hate U Give, which she initially wrote as a short stor