A Tyranny of Petticoats by Jessica Spotswood

Magoon says she spent time deliberately researching the non-violent civil rights movement, has always had an interest in history, and majored in History in college. It discusses issues of class, race, and poverty. Her debut novel, The Rock and the River, set in 1968 Chicago and follows the story of the 13-year-old son of a civil rights activist and follower of Martin Luther King Jr., who has to deal with his brother joining the Black Panther Party. Magoon says that all her novels deal with how ordinary kids can make a difference in the world. Magoon lives in Vermont and teaches writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

She is a member of the NWP Writers Council. In 2017, she was faculty at the Highlights Foundation, a non-profit organization in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where she taught a workshop about developing new creative strategies through meditation sessions, workshop elements, and discussion, together with authors Laurie Calkhoven and Nicole Valentine. In 2015, she taught writing in New York City and served as a judge for School Library Journal. Magoon has a master of fine arts degree in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, which she was able to study via a low-residency program for children's writers. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, where she majored in History, with a concentration on Africa and the Middle East. Prior to becoming a writer, she worked for non-profit organizations in New York City. As a child, she spent a few years living in Cameroon. She is the biracial daughter of a white American mother with Dutch and Scottish ancestry and a black Cameroonian father.

Magoon was born in Michigan and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her works also include middle grade novels, short stories, and historical, socio-political, and economy-related non-fiction. In 2021, she received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her body of work.

Kekla Magoon is an American author, best known for her NAACP Image Award-nominated young adult novel The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, The Season of Styx Malone, and X. How It Went Down, X, The Rock and the River, The Season of Styx Malone Young adult fiction, middle grade fiction, short stories, non-fiction Vermont College of Fine Arts, Northwestern University

A Tyranny of Petticoats by Jessica Spotswood