Desmond Hall

An archive of Desmond’s posts can be found HERE.

Author photos of Desmond Hall

Desmond Hall was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He’s the author of YOUR CORNER DARK, a YA novel that was one of Bank Street’s Best YA novels of 2022, a finalist for the New England Book Award, A Nominee for the Yalsa audio book award, Essence Magazine’s 19 Children’s book list, and included on several MUST READ lists including Buzzfeed and WBUR.

His new book, BETTER MUST COME, will be released in May ’24.

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangles the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

He’s worked as both a high school biology teacher and English teacher, counseled at-risk teens from Riker’s Island prison, and served as Spike Lee’s creative director in the advertising business. He’s also written and directed the HBO movie, A DAY IN BLACK AND WHITE, which was nominated for the Gordon Parks Award. He’s written and directed the theater play, STOCKHOLM, BROOKLYN, which won the audience award at the Downtown Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane Theater. He’s also served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and was a judge for the Addys, and the Downtown Urban Arts Film Festival. Named one of Variety Magazine’s 50 Creatives to watch. Also, he’s a graduate of Grubstreet’s Novel Incubator, an MFA level year-long intensive.