Traci Swain was born and raised in the South Bronx and spent every summer of her childhood in Talladega, Alabama – both her parents were from this amazing small town. She and her brother, Rodney, loved going south to visit family and connect with nature.

While Traci was growing up, her mother and brother loved to read. However, she did not share this love. It wasn’t until she found stories like Are Your There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume and The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton that she began to learn to love reading. She had finally found books with interesting characters and intriguing story lines that could pique her interest and hold her attention.

One thing that Traci did love was entertainment. At an early age, Ms. Swain took her to the Mary Bruce School of Dance in Harlem, where Traci excelled in class and had her first performance at the famous Apollo Theater.

She went on to audition and was accepted into the world-renowned NYC High School of Performing Arts, now renamed the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. After graduating, Traci went on to get her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts at Stony Brook University. After college, she immediately got a job as a supervisor at a multimillion-dollar mattress company. However, she kept getting dance jobs. After a year of juggling both, she took the leap to follow her dreams. After all of her hard work, Traci turned her love and gift for dance into a career. She was a professional dancer for over 15 years.

Traci has been involved in children’s publishing since 2011. She fosters the joy of reading by producing content with students, renowned authors, and educators who go above and beyond for their young readers.

Her love of writing began after taking creative writing courses at a summer day camp when she was 12. Her class was assigned to write in a journal each day, and thus her love of sharing stories began.

Traci started writing children’s books to help connect young readers with topics that make them laugh and want to learn new things. She hopes her stories will help encourage a love of reading, inspire creativity, and build confidence and self-esteem – all while teaching empathy, inclusion and kindness.

When Traci isn’t creating books, she spends her time traveling, hanging with family and friends, and checking things off of her bucket list. Her biggest feat to date – climbing Kilimanjaro.