Don Tate is an award-winning author, and the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children. Books he’s illustrated include the Roto and Roy series, books one and two (Little Brown, 2021); Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters (Little Brown, 2020); Carter Reads The Newspaper (Peachtree Publishers); and No Small Potatoes: Junius Groves and His Kingdom in Kansas (Knopf). Books he’s authored and illustrated include Pigskins to Paintbrushes: The Story of Football-Playing Artist Ernie Barnes (Abrams, 2021); William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad (Peachtree Publishers, 2020); Strong As Sandow: How Eugen Sandow Became the Strongest Man On Earth (Charlesbridge), and Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Peachtree Publishers).
Don’s forthcoming books include Jerry Changed The Game! How Engineer Jerry Lawson Revolutionized Video Games Forever (Simon &Schuster, 2023), and A Poem for Dudley Randall (Abrams, 2025).
Don is a founding host of The Brown Bookshelf, a blog dedicated to advocating for books created by African American youth literature creators. Don lives in Austin, Texas, with his family.
