The Ocean Lives There: Magic, Music, and Fun on a Caribbean Adventure (Ages 4-8)

About M.J. Fievre

Born in Port-au-Prince M.J. Fievre B.S. Ed earned a bachelors degree in education from Barry University. A seasoned K12 teacher a creator of safe spaces and an initiator of difficult conversations she spent much time building up her students helping them feel comfortable in their own skin and affirming their identities. Her close relationships with parents and students led her to look more closely at how we can balance protecting a childs innocence with preparing them for the realities of life. She has taught creative writing workshops to children and teens at the O Miami Poetry Festival and the Miami Art Museum as well as in various schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) Port-au-Prince (Haiti) and South Florida. Shes also been a keynote speaker at Tufts University (Massachusetts) Howard University (Washington DC) the University of Miami (Florida) and Michael College (Vermont) and has served as a panelist at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP). M.J.s publishing career began as a teenager in her native Haiti. At nineteen years old she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps for the publication of a YA book titled La Statuette Maléfique. Since then M.J. has released nine YA books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles and she is the author of the award-winning Badass Black Girl book series for tweens and teens (in English). One Moore Book published M.J.s first childrens book I Am Riding as part of a special limited series edited by Edwidge Danticat. A middle-grade book Young Trailblazers and picture book A Cat Named Sam are both set to be released by DragonFruit in the fall of 2021. As the ReadCaribbean program coordinator for the prestigious Miami Book Fair M.J. directs and produces the childrens cultural show Taptap Krik? Krak! For her podcast MJ has interviewed many literary legends including Edwidge Danticat Alice Randall and Nikki Giovanni.