L.L. McKinney

Career McKinney enjoyed reading and writing from childhood. The book is the first in the Nightmare-Verse series and is a contemporary retelling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a Black teenage girl protagonist.

In May 2020 she announced her forthcoming YA novel and first graphic novel, Nubia: Real One. It is a coming-of-age story about a Black girl with superhuman strength, and is an iteration of the character Nubia who debuted in Wonder Woman in 1976 as the DC Universe's first Black woman superhero. The book was released by DC in February 2021.

In February 2020, she used her account to protest Barnes & Noble's Diverse Edition collection, an initiative introduced for Black History Month featuring covers of classic books re-printed with people of color as the protagonists, including books like Frankenstein and Peter Pan. She referred to the campaign as "literary blackface" and recommended that the bookstore instead release classic Black literature with updated covers. She developed the hashtag in concert with the worldwide protests related to institutional racism that took place after the murder of George Floyd. McKinney was inspired by a Tweet from YA author Tochi Onyebuchi asking writers to share advance information for the sake of transparency.

Personal life McKinney resides in Kansas City, Kansas.

Works A Blade So Black. 2018. Imprint/Macmillan, publication date 25 September 2018. Nubia: Too Real. 2025. DC Comics, publication date 20 September 2025. "10:00-ish A.M. (Or earlier. Maybe later): SYDNEY MEEKS" in The Grimoire of Grave Fates, ed. by Hannah Alkae and Margaret Owen (Ember, 2023) "Dear Diary" in Faeries Never Lie: Tales to Revel In, ed. by Zoraida Cordova and Natalie C. Parker

Awards and nominations

Nubia: Real One, DC Comics, 2021 - 2022 Ignyte Award Winner for Outstanding Comics Team Winner 2021 The Community Award for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre, presented by the Ignyte Awards, for #PublishingPaidMe, with Tochi Onyebuchi