Earlier this year, Nigerian-American author Tomi Adeyemi landed one of the biggest YA debut novel publishing deals ever for her upcoming novel, Children of Blood and Bone, the first in a trilogy which will be released in March 2018 with Macmillan Children's Books.

The Harvard graduate, whose Black Lives Matter-inspired story of a girl who must fight to bring magic back to a land called Orïsha after a ruthless king took it away, has already sold film rights in a pre-emptive deal to Fox 2000. But at 23, Adeyemi isn’t just a first-time novelist, she’s also a mentor who coaches and inspires burgeoning writers in San Diego.