Lucinda Roy is an award-winning, multi-genre author whose essays, poems, and articles have appeared in numerous national and international publications. She's the author of The Dreambird Chronicles trilogy, a speculative novel series about the legendary Flying Africans; the poetry collection Fabric ; and the memoir No Right to Remain Silent: What We've Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech , among others. Lucinda Roy delivers keynotes and plenary addresses on creative writing, race and gender issues, and higher education reform. An award-winning teacher, she has been interviewed extensively by media outlets in the US and UK about the importance of campus safety and how best to respond to troubled students. She is also an accomplished visual artist. One of her lifelong projects is a series of oil paintings about spiritual endurance during and after the Middle Passage. One of these paintings became the inspiration for her picture book Sailing Home on an Elephant .