author, artist, advocate.
Tonya C. Hegamin, MFA (she/her/hers), is a queer, (dis)abled award-winning author of Most Loved In All The World, M+O 4evr, Pemba’s Song and Willow. Her honors include the Ezra Jack Keats’ New Writer Award and The Christopher Award. Her books have received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, Ebony, and Essence. Hegamin is an Associate Professor and Chairperson of the English Department at CUNY Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY. She also serves on the CUNY-wide Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board as well as on the Narrative Medicine Track of Distinction Advisory Board for CUNY’s School of Medicine. Hegamin has been a victim and patient advocate since 1998, working as an educator and counselor for organizations like Women Against Rape, Police Athletic League, JPMorgan and Johnson& Johnson/Janssen Pharmaceutical.