April Sinclair is the author of three novels, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Coffee Will Make You Black, Ain’t Gonna Be The Same Fool Twice, and I Left My Back Door Open. The American Library Association named Coffee Will Make You Black 1994 Book of the Year (Young Adult Fiction Category.) April also received the Carl Sandburg Award in Literature from The Friends of the Chicago Public Library for Coffee Will Make You Black.

Before April burst onto the national literary scene in 1994, she was an Oakland-based community activist who read from her work in progress to large, enthusiastic audiences in San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouses, bookstores and at grassroots events. April has been a fellow at the Djerassi, Yaddo, MacDowell and Ragdale artist colonies.

April is a Chicago native who graduated from Calumet High School on the city’s South Side. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Western Illinois University. April also did graduate work at San Francisco State University. April has championed the cause of literacy inside the walls of adult prison, juvenile halls, alternative schools and drug rehabilitation centers.

April currently lives in Berkeley, California, where she is working on her fourth novel.