PatriceGopo

Patrice Gopo is an award-winning writer and author of essay collections and picture books. Her picture books include: Ripening Time (WorthyKids 2025), recipient of a North Carolina Book Award and finalist for a Southern Book Prize; All the Places We Call Home (WorthyKids 2025); and the upcoming Beyond Alaska’s Window (Viking Books for Young Readers 2026). Patrice is the child of Jamaican immigrants who was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. In her work, she often draws on family experiences as she crafts stories steeped in themes of place, belonging, and home.

In addition to other honors, Patrice is the recipient of an Arts & Science Council Creative Renewal Fellowship, a North Carolina Arts Council Artist Fellowship, and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award. When she’s not writing, Patrice hosts the podcast Picture Books Are for Grown-Ups, Too!, because she believes in the power of stories to help build connections between people. Patrice lives with her family in Charlotte, where she enjoys walks just after dawn and thinks a perfect day ends with ice cream.

Forthcoming in November 2026

Recipient of the inaugural 2024 Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award

Ripening Time praise:

“Delectable prose and jewel-toned illustrations come together as a young narrator counts down until a bunch of plantains are ripe enough for eating. . . rich, saturated colors . . . create a domestic world filled with flowers and produce, amplifying the sensory-rich storytelling.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Gopo’s poetic talent meets kids and families in a sweet spot that is not heavy-handed, but wonderfully inspiring. I can’t wait to share this with our readers.”
—The Southern Bookseller Review

Recipient of the 2025 North Carolina AAUW Award for Children’s Literature

All the Places We Call Home praise:

“With bright vibrant patterns and dreamlike layering of drawings paired with poetic dialogue and narrative description, words and art set the scene for a mother and daughter bedtime story with a gentle dose of geography and genealogy....Purchase as a class read-aloud, for parents as a bedtime story, a class history introduction on geography, immigration, and the African diaspora.” — School Library Journal

“All the Places We Call Home is a gorgeous, poetic reminder that the many countries and customs add dimension and breadth to what it means to be Black in America.”
— Oprah Daily