JERVEY TERVALON is the author of All the Trouble You Need, Understand This (winner of the 1994 New Voices Award from the Quality Paperback Book Club), and the acclaimed Los Angeles Times bestseller Dead Above Ground. In 2001, he received the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles National Literacy Award for Excellence in Multicultural Literature. He is also an award-winning poet, screenwriter, and dramatist. Currently, he’s the writer-in-residence at Pitzer College and is a California Arts Council Fellow. Jervey was born in New Orleans, raised in Los Angeles, and now lives in Altadena, California, with his wife and two daughters.