Don Tate

Don Tate (born December 21, 1963) is an American author and illustrator of books for children. Tate creates both fiction and nonfiction picture books, with a focus on the biographies of little-known historical figures. He is also a strong advocate for more literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. He notes that as a child he had to read the encyclopedia to discover a multicultural world; based on the children's books of his day he "thought the world was white". He co-founded the Brown Bookshelf, a blog designed to push the awareness of African Americans writing and illustrating books for young people. Tate also assisted in the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign to help put more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of readers.

Career Tate began his career as an illustrator with Say Hey: A Song of Willie Mays (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, 2000), written by Peter Mandel.

His first book as an author, It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, was published by Lee & Low Books in 2012. It is a "captivating" and an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor. It was selected as a Kirkus Best Children’s Books List Selection, a Booklist Editors’ Choice, 2012, and a New York Public Library Top 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing as well as one of Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2012.

Tate's 2015 illustrated picture book Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton tells the story of the 19th century slave in Chatham County, North Carolina who subsequently became the first African American in the Southern United States to write a book. Tate was inspired to write about Horton via a friend; he researched his life in the University of North Carolina archives. The Wilson Library at UNC hosted the national launch of the book on September 3, 2015. A review in the School Library Journal called the book "A lovely introduction to an inspirational American poet." The Boston Globe called it "a moving biography of a slave who taught himself to read using a discarded spelling book". In 2016, Tate won an Ezra Jack Keats Book Award, A Christopher, and a Texas Institute of Letters book prize.

Tate was the recipient of the Texas Book Festival's Texas Writer Award in 2021, and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2022.

In his work, Tate often writes about historical figures who persisted during the period of American slavery. In the New York Times article "'A Fine Dessert': Judging a Book by the Smile of a Slave," Tate was quoted on the topic, saying, "children's books needed to show a range of experience, including suffering and enduring." In 2016 television segment of Texas Country Reporter, Tate spoke about his work with stories of enslaved people and preserving these important narratives, stating the importance of telling children the truth and not sugar coating history.