Clarence Nero

Clarence Nero is a native of New Orleans’s lower Ninth Ward that was demolished by Hurricane Katrina. He graduated from Howard University with a B.S. degree and worked as a chemist in the forensic department of the District government in Washington, D.C. before getting the bug to write.

Nero was nicknamed "Cheekie" and grew up in New Orleans’ infamous Desire Housing Project, where drugs, violence, and poverty defined the way of life. His first novel, Cheekie: A Child Out of the Desire, a story loosely based on his childhood, was nominated for ’Best Books for Young Adults,’ by the American Library Association and selected as ’One of the Best First Novels of 1998,’ by Library Journal.

He is currently an M.F.A. candidate at Louisiana State University and lives in Baton Rouge.