Tim Lockette is a teacher, writer, and former journalist who lives in Jacksonville, Alabama. His middle-grade debut novel, Atty at Law, was praised in a starred review from Kirkus. His next two novels, Tell It True and Atty in Love, were written for young adult readers. Tell It True was a Junior Literary Guild Selection and won the Whippoorwill Book Award, which honors books that dispel stereotypes about young people in rural areas and small towns.