Alyssa was born in small-town Milton, Florida, but life as a roving military kid soon mellowed her (unintelligibly strong) Southern accent. Wanderlust is in her blood, and she’s always waiting for the wind to change. Stories remain her constant. Alyssa received her BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Berry College and her MA with honors in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University. She works as a blog formatter for BookBub, and has been a Now Novel writing mentor in the past.
Alyssa is represented by Amber Caraveo at Skylark Literary. Her debut The Eleventh Trade – “a powerful story of love, loss, friendship and hope, centered around Sami, a young refugee from Afghanistan now building a new life with his grandfather in Boston” – came out Fall 2018 with Roaring Brooks/Macmillan (U.S.), Piccadilly Press (U.K.), and numerous foreign publishers. Her second book The Invisible Boy releases Summer 2020.