Claire Hartfield was born on July 3, 1957 in Chicago, IL. She is an attorney, educator
and writer focusing on historical nonfiction for teenagers. She has written two books.
A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was published in 2017. It won the
2019 Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor and the 2019 Carter G. Woodson
Book Award. It tells the story of how five youths were on the Lake Michigan beach,
but got "too close" to the "white" beach one day in July, 1919. An angry white
man threw stones at the boys; one boy was killed. This incident ignited
days of racial violence in the City of Chicago. VOYA reported that "Young
readers will find this an excellent example of narrative nonfiction."