Patricia McKissack (1944-2017) was a children's author who published more than 100 books of fiction and nonfiction, with a particular interest in the African American experience. She received a Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement as well as three individual Coretta Scott King Awards for A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter, The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, and Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters (all written with her husband, Fredrick McKissack).