Patricia McKissack is an award-winning author of many fiction and nonfiction titles for young readers. She grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1940s and 1950s, a difficult time in history for Americans of African descent—not until May 7, 1954, did the Supreme Court declare school segregation to be unconstitutional. But of that time, McKissack has said, "Nashville's public libraries were not segregated. We could get books. The librarians smiled and treated me like a human being . . . They opened up a world to me I otherwise wouldn't have had."

McKissack went on to earn a degree in English from Tennessee State University. After graduating, she married Frederick McKissack and began teaching. In 1984, Patricia and Frederick collaborated to publish their first book together. Since then, the McKissacks have published many books together and separately. In 1990 they won the Coretta Scott King Award—an award that celebrates literature that promotes unity and peace and inspires young people to strive toward their goals—for A Long Hard Journey: The Story of the Pullman Porter. They received this award again in 1993 for Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman? and in 1995 for Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters.

Many of the tales in Patricia's books are based on stories her grandmother told her. The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural grew out of monster stories her brother told her while staying at their grandmother's house.