Dolen Perkins-Valdez is an award-winning author and professor of creative writing. She is best known for her debut novel, Wench, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010 and a finalist for the 2011 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her second novel, Balm, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and a finalist for the 2016 NAACP Image Award. Perkins-Valdez has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. She is currently a professor of creative writing at American University in Washington, D.C. and a member of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation Board of Directors.