Harlem Holiday was born and raised in Harlem. She spent some time in the Highbridge section of the Bronx and found her Prince Charming in Brooklyn, where they courted and married a year later on Valentine's Day. She has been writing for over thirty-years short stories and poetry, that she shared with family and her close friends. She went to Gotham Writers' Workshop to enhance her story writing skills. She attended an HBCU, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where she pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and briefly attended the New School where she studied film and screenwriting. On June 2, 1999, she graduated with a B.A. in Communications, Film, and Video from The City College of New York, and where she was honored for Outstanding Leadership and Services as a Peer Academic Advisor, and the recipient of the university's Civil City Project Award 1st Prize, for her poem, The Melting Pot. Harlem Holiday learned early on in her writing journey that authors of color often have to work harder to get published. She also learned the importance of finding quality editors, graphic designers with exceptional visions to create book covers that sell, and powerful promotional book campaigns that attract a targeted market. As a result, she has come to understand that a writer not only must have the passion to write but a certain ability to grasp the business of writing. Through Harlem Holiday's trial and error experiences, she desires to bring not only quality books but also affordable publishing services for anyone serious about investing in the art of self-publishing. Harlem Holiday founded HARLEM WESTSIDE PUBLISHING LLC in 2019, to provide exceptional publishing services and great literature: fiction, nonfiction, young adult, and children books that focus on issues and themes related to people of color.
