Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Farmer.
Hi Craig, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Of course! I was born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where I did everything from baseball to band to spelling bees to Science Bowl to school plays. Even though I did a lot of activities growing up, there was only one thing I was in love with: storytelling. I first fell in love with stories when I read the first Percy Jackson book – it was so fun, fast-paced, accessible, and engaging. I loved reading those stories so much that I started writing in between releases, just to make the time go faster. I loved the opportunity to create a world, craft a conflict, and build a story from scratch.
From there, I wrote on-and-off, all through middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. I wrote on Fanfiction and some other sites, learning how to write from the in-the-moment feedback that readers would give me. But for a while, writing was something that I kept under the surface. I didn’t tell my friends, my teammates, or my teachers about it. My family knew a little bit, but I didn’t talk about it all that much. It wasn’t until 2020 when I found myself reflecting on mortality and on legacy; and those reflections encouraged me to take something I loved to do and to try to share it with the world in the form of an original story. It took a couple tries, but eventually, I wrote the manuscript for what would become my debut middle grade novel KWAME CRASHES THE UNDERWORLD (2024), which gave me an agent, an editor, a publisher, a couple of awards, and a new career path for myself.
Now, I proudly call myself an author. I balance writing with my full-time job, which is in higher education administration. In my day job, I work with college students to make sure they have everything they need to accomplish their goals. But I also find time to write children’s books that are focused on representation, innovation, and education. My second book, A METHOD FOR MAGIC AND MISFORTUNE, comes out September 2025. I thank God for it all, and I hope to use writing and education to pour into my community through school visits, mentorships, and volunteer work.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There were definitely challenges; it can be difficult to turn your passion into a job. One of the biggest challenges included putting myself out there and owning the fact that I’m an author. I’d spent so long writing in secret, that owning the identity of an author, publicly, loudly, was a challenge for me.
Another challenge was getting to know an entirely new industry — with new standards, customs, and expectations. I messed up a lot, like sending emails to the wrong people, or not following proper protocol for certain procedures. My agent and editor really helped me through the learning process, but I’m definitely still learning.
The last challenge I’ll name here is finding the right “fit,” whether that’s the right story, the right agent, the right publisher, the right editor, the right cover art, the right audiobook narrator, the right time, or the right message. If any of these things are not the right “fit,” a book could struggle to reach its audience.
But I’m happy to say that my team was the right team; and they really helped me through all these challenges.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a children’s author, who specializes in middle-grade fantasy/fiction novels. I’m probably best known for my debut novel, KWAME CRASHES THE UNDERWORLD, which won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent, the Children’s Africana Book Award, and the International Literacy Award for Best Intermediate Fiction. All my stories, including KWAME, push for representation in publishing and center heroes that are not often seen in literature — young Black boys, in particular. This leads into the thing I’m probably the most proud of, which is creating a book and a hero that young Black boys, in real life, see themselves in.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Publishing is like a lot of careers; there are some things in your control and some things that you can’t control. It’s said that out of all the people who want to write a book, only a fraction of them actually start writing. Out of that fraction, only a sliver finish the story. Out of that sliver, only a handful will show their story to another person, and only some of those people will try to publish the book. These are the things we can control; we can write the book, finish it, show it to others, and take steps to try to publish it – no matter how difficult or intimidating it might be.
But what happens after? That is luck, fortune, blessing, fate, God, whatever you want to call it. To get a book on shelves, an author needs many things to align — including an agent, an editor, a publisher, cover artists, authenticity readers, copyeditors, designers, publicists, distributors, library systems, educators, and finally, the audience. If you see a book on shelves, chances are that all these things aligned for that author — which is pretty much a miracle.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://craigkofifarmer.my.canva.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craigkofifarmer/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-kofi-farmer-m-ed-72a333178
- Twitter: https://x.com/State_Farmm
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craigkofifarmer
