Ijeoma Oluo, the author of So You Want to Talk About Race, was born in 1980 in Denton, Texas. After graduating from Western Washington University with a B.A. in political science, Oluo began her career with a stint in digital marketing.

However, after being profoundly impacted by the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012–who was the same age as her son–Oluo pivoted her career and started a blog intended to activate her Seattle community, which was largely white.

From there, Oluo went on to be published in Jezebel, Medium, The Establishment, and The Guardian as well as several other magazines and newspapers. She focused her pieces on intersectionality, feminism, misogyny, and social justice.

In 2015, she released her first book, The Badass Feminist Coloring Book.

So You want to Talk About Race, published in 2018, is her second.

Oluo currently resides in Seattle, Washington.