Tucker Reed

Tucker Reed is an American author best known for her civil rights activism. Reed co-authored the young adult novel Amber House published in October 2012 and its sequel Neverwas, released internationally in January 2014.^[1]

Early life

Tucker Moore Reed was born in Los Gatos, California. Reed is the daughter of New York Times best-selling authors Kelly Moore and Dan Reed.^[2] Through her maternal grandfather, she claims descent from Jamestown settler and Mayflower Compact signer Stephen Hopkins.^[3]

As a teenager, Reed gigged with an alternative rock band as a singer-songwriter,^[4] and played leading roles in community musical theatre productions.^[5] She also served as a reporter, web designer and editor-in-chief for her high school's newspaper, The Rogue News. Reed went on to be recognized on the national level for her essays and short stories during her junior and senior years at Ashland High School.^[6][7][8]

In 2009, Reed persuaded her mother to collaborate on a novel. Reed’s sister Larkin was later included in the collaboration as well. In 2011, the trio negotiated and received a six-figure financial deal with the Arthur A. Levine imprint of Scholastic Press for the North American rights to their planned Amber House Trilogy.^[9]

Reed studied theatre and cinema at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. She also served as a reporter and assistant editor for the university's student newspaper, the Daily Trojan, in 2010.^[10]

Written works

Reed, along with her mother and younger sister Larkin, co-authored Amber House, the first installment of the Amber House trilogy, which was released by Scholastic's Arthur A. Levine Books imprint on October 1, 2012.^{[1][11][12][13]} Amber House received a positive critical reception, with Publishers Weekly praising the book's "intricate plot" and originality in a starred review, dubbing the story "rich, strange, and utterly fascinating."^[14] Kirkus Reviews singled out the book's heroine as being a "strong, admirable character" for young female readers, specifically contrasting her with Bella Swan from the Twilight franchise.^[15] Amber House was a finalist for the 2014 Oregon Book Award for Young Adult Literature, and was selected for the Texas Library Association's 2014 TAYSHAS List.^[16][17] Reed acted as narrator of the audiobook edition of Amber House and its sequel Neverwas, which was released on January 7, 2014.^[18][19] Reed is also co-author of the series' forthcoming title Otherwhen.^[20]

Activism and self-advocacy

As an activist, Reed helped to organize college students in support of women's rights and to raise public awareness about the issue of gendered violence, appearing on CNN, CBS, NBC, HuffPost Live and other news programs.^{[21][22][23][24][25]} Reed founded the Student Coalition Against Rape (SCAR), originally a sub-org at the University of Southern California and now a national organization.^[26]

In 2013, Reed aided students at multiple institutions in filing Office for Civil Rights complaints against their colleges.^[24][27] In September 2013, Reed was recognized for her activism by the Veteran Feminists of America when she was awarded the Lucy Burns "Challenger" award at the organization's 20th anniversary celebration. Reed received her honor alongside feminist icons such as attorney Gloria Allred, singer-songwriter June Millington and Grammy Award-winner Helen Reddy.

Also in September 2013, Reed spoke out as a proponent of "mandatory exit surveys" at college campuses, designed to better monitor the efficacy of policies and programs regarding student safety. Such surveys would, according to Reed, prevent internal corruption and dismissal of valid student claims because they would create an external reference monitoring whether colleges remain in compliance with the Clery Act and their own safety policies.^[28]

Since late 2012, Reed has blogged for Jane Pratt's xoJane.com and the Huffington Post, and written for Cosmopolitan magazine.^[29][30]

References