Pamela Erens

[6] Erens's second novel, The Virgins (2013), received accolades from many sources including The New York Times, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.

[12] Erens's middle grade novel, Matasha, was published in June 2021.

Her mother Patricia lectured on film at Rosary College and her father was an attorney.

[15][16] Erens was educated at the Latin School of Chicago, and had a novel published at the age of 14 entitled Fight for Freedom: A Slave Girl's Escape; it was written when she was 10.

It concerned the escape to the North of an Arkansas slave girl, accompanied by Harriet Tubman.