Carmen Bogan is a children’s author, publisher, and frequent speaker. Her picture book, "Where’s Rodney?" (Yosemite Conservancy, 2017) illustrated by the award-winning artist, Floyd Cooper, was a starred Kirkus Best Picture Book of the Year, and a Junior Library Guild selection, which received numerous glowing reviews.  The sequel to "Where’s Rodney?", "Tasha’s Words," is slated for publishing by Yosemite Conservancy in 2023. This year, Carmen completed her first middle grade novel, "Fly Like Frankie" in which she lifts up the power of all kids to celebrate themselves.

 
A recipient of the New Voices Award from Lee & Low Books, Carmen is a staunch children’s literacy advocate.  She believes that all children must be given the opportunity and support to learn to read early. In line with that personal conviction, in 2015 she launched Dream on Publishing, a boutique publisher of multicultural children’s books, releasing "Granny, Who Is God? which she also authored.

Carmen believes that every child deserves to enjoy characters that look like them and celebrate their legacies. Her personal goal as an author is to write high-quality literature that all children can enjoy and to create protagonists and plotlines that particularly draw the interests and propel the passions of children of color. 

Carmen is a member of the Oakland Literacy Coalition and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is an alumna of Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, Willie.