Noni Carter
Noni Carter is an American author from Fayetteville, Georgia, whose first book, Good Fortune, was released by Simon & Schuster in January 2010. The young-adult novel is about the life of a slave girl who was snatched from her homeland in Africa in the early 19th century and brought to the United States, where she eventually escaped from a plantation and fled to freedom. Carter, who started attending Harvard University as a freshman in the fall of 2009, is one of the youngest writers signed by Simon & Schuster. Noni is currently completing a PhD at Columbia University.
Literary biography
Carter decided to write a novel after sitting around a kitchen table at age 12 with her family listening to a great-aunt tell the story of Rose Caldwell, Carter’s 4xgreat-grandmother. She especially recalls a description of how her Grandma Rose as a young girl watched as her mother was sold across the Mississippi River.She spent many hours from ages 12 to 15 writing and researching black history for her novel. What began as a short story became the 479-page Good Fortune. She was editing her book by the 11th grade. A writing mentor suggested that Carter start speaking at book festivals. The idea paid off, and her book was picked up by Simon & Schuster at BookExpo America in 2008.