Juliana Goodman was born and raised in Blue island, Illinois. She has received several awards and scholarships for her writing and was a fellow with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship for four years. Her debut YA novel, The Black Girls Left Standing was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection an Edgar Award nominee. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English. In her free time, she enjoys watching horror movies, reading the latest YA novels and hanging out with her poodle, Darcy and her cat, Jackson.