Louise Meriwether is a novelist, journalist, and teacher. She earned a B.A. in English from New York University and an M.A. in journalism from the University of California, at Los Angeles. In the 1950s Meriwether worked for Universal Studios as the first African American story analyst in Hollywood. Her first novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner, received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Meriwether has taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Houston.