Erica Simone Turnipseed is the author of Hunger. Her debut novel

Debut novel

A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...

 was A Love Noire, which won the Atlanta Choice Award Author of the Year from the Atlanta Daily World. Complementing Turnipseed's first two novels is A Love Noire/Hunger: The Soundtrack. In addition, Turnipseed was nominated for Breakout Author of the Year for the African American Literary Awards Show Open Book Award.

Among her many appearances, Turnipseed has served as a guest lecturer at Spelman College

Spelman College

Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...

, Medgar Evers College

Medgar Evers College

Medgar Evers College is a senior college of The City University of New York.Medgar Evers College was officially established in 1970 through cooperation from educators and community leaders in central Brooklyn...

, Baruch College

Baruch College

Bernard M. Baruch College, more commonly known as Baruch College, is a constituent college of the City University of New York, located in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, New York City. With an acceptance rate of just 23%, Baruch is among the most competitive and diverse colleges in the nation...

, Midwood High School

Midwood High School

Midwood High School, at Brooklyn College, is a public, urban, co-ed high school located on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City.Midwood High School was for many years the recipient of multiple accolades because of its competitive educational programs and for the achievements of its students...

, and her alma mater, Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. Notably, she was a panelist at the inaugural Brooklyn Book Festival

Brooklyn Book Festival

The Brooklyn Book Festival is an annual book fair held in Brooklyn, New York. It was begun in 2006 by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who wanted to showcase the "Brooklyn voice" in literature, as numerous authors reside in the borough...

, the Brooklyn Best Festival, and the Up South International Book Festival. A full-time writer, Turnipseed has B.A. and M.A degrees in anthropology from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 and Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

respectively. She is also the founder of the "Five Years for the House Initiative," a fund raising drive for the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn, New York.