Kiara Valdez

Kiara Valdez is an Afro-Dominican writer and associate editor at First Second Books. She was born and raised in New York City (shout out to Washington Heights) and has been an avid comics reader all her life. She graduated from Williams College with a double major in English Literature and Japanese, and spends her free time reading, writing, and enjoying a long list of other hobbies she can’t keep up with.

Check out Kiara’s editorial work: Himawari House by Harmony Becker is a wonderful slice-of-life YA graphic novel about three girls living together in a sharehouse in Tokyo. It follows the ups and downs of their year together and features four different languages. Find Kiara on her website, or on Twitter and Instagram at @dezinpub.