Natalie is an author and activist. With the Holman Prize, she would travel and collect stories from people of color with albinism around the world and share these stories in an anthology and documentary.
blind author
Troy Knight
Troy likes video games, animation and Dungeons and Dragons. With the Holman Prize, he would produce and market his novel, Blue Comet and hire voice actors to create an audiobook version.
Debbie Stein, MSW
After earning a Masters of Social Work from Smith College, Debbie Stein took a job in community mental health on New York City’s Lower East Side. Later she traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, during which time she published her first young-adult novel, Belonging. While living in Mexico, Stein also helped found the Centro de Crecimiento, a school for children with disabilities. Upon returning to the US, Stein continued with her writing career, writing fiction and nonfiction for young-adult readers. Stein recently edited “Crooked Paths Made Straight,” the autobiography of Isabelle Grant, the blind California teacher who in the 1950s became a world-circling blindness ambassador. Stein lives in Chicago with her husband, children’s author R. Conrad (Dick) Stein, and is an active member of the National Federation of the Blind