The beauty of words has infiltrated the life of Angel Ackerman for her entire life— from reading Green Eggs and Ham thousands of times to writing groundbreaking poems titled “My mom wears flip-flops” in Mrs. Sanders’ second-grade class. She started the Fashion and Fiends series at the age of 16 and rewrote the novel Manipulations at least ten times before declaring this version “the one” in 2016. Angel spent 15 years as a print journalist, specializing in weekly newspapers where reporters learned to write about every topic and take their own photographs. With the decline of print media, Angel explored the non-profit sector where she worked in public relations, program design, social media, grant writing and development.Although now separated, Angel enjoyed a 20-year marriage to poet Darrell Parry who proved pivotal to bringing Angel’s fiction writing career to fruitition. Angel and Darrell both have disabilities. Angel had mild cerebral palsy which she has embarked on a journey to understand more about. Darrell has a club hand. They have an able-bodied teen daughter, Eva, who keeps bringing home strays—leaving them with a current count of four cats, one pit bull/black lab/ mastiff puppy, one goffin cockatoo, one parrakeet and four foster cats from their volunteer work with Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab. Angel holds a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature and French from Moravian College, a bachelor’s in International Affairs (with honors) from Lafayette College, and initiated a master’s degree in World History at West Chester University. Her academic interests include French post-colonial Africa, Muslim relations, and the politics of miscenagation. She hopes to revisit her honors thesis which looked at the stereotypes of Muslims in France and how they continue the thought process of the colonial era. The update would encourage readers to compare the attitudes of European Imperialism to modern race/minority relations.In addition to Lehigh Valley, Pa., newspapers, Angel has been published in Ten Word Stories by Dime Show Review, Rum Punch Press, StepAway Magazine, two volumes of The SAGE Encylcopedia, and did book reviews for Hippocampus Magazine and Journal of Global South Studies.When not examining the world with a post-colonial critical theorist’s eye, Angel loves to travel and study foreign languages. She has visited Canada, France, Tunisia, Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen and various parts of Russia (such as trekking to Siberia for pizza). Read more of her escapades at www.AngelAckerman.com and follow her on YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram.Read more about this authorRead less about this author