Tonya Abari is a multigenre storyteller — author, independent journalist, essayist, freelance editor, and book/product reviewer for children and adults. A former high school English teacher, Abari facilitated NEH-funded summer workshops on prolific Black writers, providing teachers with tools and resources to facilitate inclusive instruction of Black literature within ELA and social studies curriculum.

After leaving the traditional classroom setting, Tonya became a traveling set teacher, administering instruction to child entertainers while on television and film productions. She’s taught students on the set of HBO’s The Wire, The Lion King, The Color Purple, Next to Normal, and The Radio City Music Spectacular.

Abari’s work as an educator provided a seamless transition to writing and editing professionally and consulting across several fields including educational and book publishing, the federal government, and the non-profit sector. Abari writes for children and adults and is deeply passionate about writing as an expression of her lived experience as a Black woman and mother in the United States. Her intersectional work often centers or includes: parenting; family and relationship dynamics; motherhood and maternal health; nature; diasporic music, culture and history; the craft of writing; personal wellness; food and travel; and work-from-home/freelancing.

On the editorial side, notable projects include: research and copyediting for the U.S. Department of Labor’s grant-funded Trade and Development (TDA) reports on child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking; Cambridge University Press’ Education Reform Team curriculum redevelopment; and the U.S. Department of Education’s Digest of Education Statistics; and developmental editing, copyediting, and sensitivity review for various organizations, digital media platforms, and publishing houses. Abari also currently serves as the “Books on Books on Books” column editor for the literary magazine, Raising Mothers.

Tonya is an active member, contributor, and teaching artist at PorchTN , where she leads the Nashville Black Storytellers — an affinity group dedicated to amplifying Black voices in and around Nashville through community, workshops, and local collaborations. Abari also has active memberships with Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA); Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI); and The Author’s Guild. She is a Carnegie Hall NeOn Arts Program participant for creative nonfiction and a Hurston Wright Foundation Writers Week creative nonfiction alum under the mentorship of Dr. Emily Bernard. Abari has volunteered as an NCTE Norman Mailer Creative Nonfiction, NJ Center for the Arts, and Baldwin Prize essay judge.

A graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, Abari grew up in Baltimore, MD and currently resides in Nashville, TN. In addition to her professional endeavors, Abari enjoys reading, food, discovering new places, music, spending time with her spouse, and homeschooling two free-spirited tiny humans.