Nic Stone facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nic Stone
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Stone in 2017
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| Born | July 10, 1985 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Spelman College |
| Genre | Fiction for young adult |
| Years active | 2017-present |
| Notable works | Dear Martin |
Andrea Nicole Livingstone (born July 10, 1985), known as Nic Stone, is an American author. She writes books for young adults and middle school readers. She is famous for her first novel, Dear Martin, and her middle grade book, Clean Getaway. Her books have been translated into many different languages.
Contents
About Nic Stone
Stone was born and grew up in a town near Atlanta, Georgia. She studied Psychology at Spelman College. After college, she worked helping teenagers. She also lived in Israel for a few years.
How She Became a Writer
Nic Stone decided she wanted to be a writer during a trip to Israel in 2008. She met a family there with a very interesting story. This made her want to write her own stories.
She wrote her first young adult novel in 2017. She was inspired by Veronica Roth's Divergent series. Stone liked that it was one of the first series she read with Black characters who survived until the end. That first book helped her find a literary agent.
Nic Stone's Books
Dear Martin
Her first novel, Dear Martin, was published in 2017. It is about a high school student who starts writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. This happens after he has a scary experience with racist police officers.
Stone has said she started writing Dear Martin after the death of Jordan Davis. He was a 17-year-old Black student who was shot in 2012. The book quickly became a New York Times bestseller. It was also a finalist for the William C. Morris award in 2017. The book has been published in many countries around the world. In February 2020, Dear Martin became a New York Times bestseller again.
A second book, Dear Justyce, was published in October 2020. It is about a teenager in jail who is on trial for murder. Stone said she was not planning to write a sequel. However, her publisher encouraged her. She decided to write about a "black boy that everybody is afraid of." A third book, Dear Manny, was published in March 2025.
Clean Getaway
Her first book for middle schoolers, Clean Getaway, came out in January 2020. It has drawings by Dawud Anyabwile. The story is about an 11-year-old boy named Scoob. He goes on a road trip with his grandmother. The book received great reviews. It also became a New York Times bestseller for middle grade books. Stone said she got the idea for the novel from a news headline. It was about a grandmother who was a jewel thief.
Other Stories and Projects
Nic Stone's second young adult novel, Odd One Out, was published in 2018. It tells the story of three queer teenagers of color in a love triangle. The book explores ideas about gender and identity.
In 2019, her third novel, Jackpot, was published. This story follows a high school senior named Rico. She works at a gas station. One day, she sells a jackpot-winning lottery ticket to a customer. Stone first wrote this novel in 2015.
In September 2019, it was announced that Stone would write a novel about Shuri. Shuri is a character from Marvel's Black Panther comics. The book was published in 2020. Two more books in the Shuri series followed: Shuri: The Vanished in 2021 and Shuri: Symbiosis in 2022.
Stone also co-authored a young adult novel called Blackout. It was released in June 2021. She wrote it with five other authors: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon. A companion novel, Whiteout, was published in 2023.
Besides novels, Stone writes essays. Her short stories have appeared in many collections.
Stone also co-wrote a young adult version of Ibram X. Kendi's book, How to Be an Antiracist. The young adult book is called How to Be a (Young) Antiracist and was published in 2023.
In February 2022, Stone started hosting a podcast series. It was with Marvel and Sirius XM podcast. The podcast series was called The History of Marvel Comics: Black Panther.
Stone was a main speaker at the AASL National Conference in 2023.
