Saturday, June 6, 2026, was a full-circle moment for me.

A couple of weeks earlier, I had been notified I was a finalist for the Distinguished Alumnus award for The Malone Society, a chapter of the University of Alabama National Alumni Association. To say I was honored and humbled is an understatement. Imagine my surprise when I actually won.

If you’ve known me for any length of time, you probably know that I’ve wanted to write books since I was 14 years old. I was so passionate about books that I used to get in trouble all the times because my nose was always in one. The first time I saw a book by J. California Cooper on a library shelf, it sparked something in me, and I knew I wanted to one day see my books on a library shelf too.

Thanks to some amazing teachers at Ramsay High School, I was given the opportunity to participate in The Minority Journalism Workshop at The University of Alabama where I won an award for my writing. I set my sights on attending The University of Alabama. In fact, it was the only school to which I applied, and by the grace of God, I got in.

When I was getting ready to go off to college, my momma asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and when I told her I wanted to write books, she told me writing books wouldn’t pay the bills, and she strongly encouraged me to find a career to all back on, so I majored in journalism because that was the closest I could get to writing, but I found that I hated journalism because the writing was too structured. My senior year of college, I ended up taking a class in copyediting, which looks at the grammar, spelling and punctuation in a story. I found that not only did I like it, I was really good at it, and I landed a job in New York right after I graduated from college. I worked in New York in various aspects of publishing for about 13 years.

But I never forgot about my dream of writing books.

In 2004, after I had my daughter, it occurred to me that rather than telling my daughter her dreams could come true, I had to show her, so I challenged myself to write a book before she turned a year old. I finished my first manuscript a month after her first birthday. I then challenged myself to land a book deal before she turned two. I received the offer for my book Spin It Like That two months after her second birthday.

I love sharing this story with people because I’m a living example that no matter how old or young you are, your dreams can come true.

The University of Alabama played such an integral role in helping me realize my dream. In high school, it exposed me to writing; in college it exposed me to editing and to people like Paul Delaney and the late Marie Parsons who insisted I take the test to be considered for the Minority Editorial Training Program, which is the reason I moved to New York.

To be presented an award by the school that helped shaped me is such a blessing. To be presented an award by The Malone Society is humbling because the group is named after Vivian Malone, the first black student to graduate from The University of Alabama in 1965.

I stand on the shoulders of so many giants. I didn’t get to thank them on Saturday, but I’d like to thank them now:

• To the members of The Malone Society for thinking enough of me and my career to present me with this prestigious honor.
• My daughter, Jessica, who is my why and the joy of my life.
• My parents, the late Cedric Sparks and the late Doris Sparks.
• My brothers, Andra and Cedric, and my extended family.
• The late Marie Parsons
• Paul Delaney
• Anjell Harris Edwards, Dianna Minor and Allilsa Bradley Jackson
• My line sisters (22 Images of Perfection) and the Theta Sigma chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

My momma couldn’t see the dream that God placed in my heart and that I could clearly see as a 14-year-old girl. She didn’t think I could make a living as a writer, but here I am 40-plus years later doing just that. To God be the glory for the things He has done.

To my momma, my daughter, the rest of my extended family, Vivian Malone and the rest of the giants whose shoulders I stand upon, I hope I’ve made you proud.