ABOUT US

Alli Frank and Asha Youmans found literary soulmates in each other after working together as teacher and school administrator in Seattle, WA. They discovered a shared mission as educators and as authors— to use humor, joy and compassion to write stories that encourage candid conversations about issues such as race, religion, culture, class, privilege, parenting and education. Their debut, Tiny Imperfections, tackled desperate parents and their ill-fated misbehaviors with razor-sharp wit, followed by Never Meant to Meet You, which deftly mined the often comedic and underexplored common ground between Black and Jewish experiences in America. In 2023 their third collaboration, The Better Half, captivated Mindy Kaling, and Mindy’s Book Studio, her imprint with Amazon Publishing.

Their fourth book BOSS LADY, out July, 2024 is about a mess of a heroine who is desperate to resolve her past so she can finally rediscover who she was always meant to be.

Alli Frank and Asha Youmans bring their very different cultural backgrounds and perspectives together to write in one seamless, cohesive voice, united in their belief that humor and fiction can inspire empathy and learning, and that exposure to diverse experiences can only enrich one’s life.

About-Us-Alli-Frank-and-Asha-Youmans

Winner of the Zibby Awards 2021 for Best Author Photo

Alli Frank

Alli Frank

The robustness of a farm girl, the honed sophistication of a city woman, a dash of Jewish chutzpah, and a heaping cup of endurance athlete and voila, you have Alli Frank. Alli was raised in Yakima, WA, the only child of two parents who instilled in her that hard work coupled with a resilient spirit will take you far. So up some of the highest mountains Alli climbed, down insanely steep terrain she skied and across long swathes of land she ran. To pay for all this adventure, Alli has worked in education for over 20 years in San Francisco and Seattle – from an overcrowded, cacophonous public high school to a pristine private girl’s school. She has been a teacher, curriculum leader, coach, college counselor, assistant head, private school co-founder, sometimes pastor, often mayor, and de facto parent therapist. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford Universities, Alli can still be found with her nose deep in a book or hunkered down watching movies, never one to miss a great story. Alli lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two daughters and terribly cute mini-Bernedoodle. When she needs good food (cause she really hates to cook) she turns to her co-author Asha Youmans. Read Alli’s essays in the USA Today Bestseller On Being Jewish Now and Moms Don’t Have Time to: A Quarantine Anthology, Frolic and Medium. She is thrilled to be able to say she became a Tall Poppy Writer in 2022.

About-Asha-Youmans

Asha Youmans

Asha Youmans was raised in Seattle, WA, by an educational and civil right pioneer father and a children’s hospital administrator mother, along with a sister and a brother she admires and adores. As a child, Asha was a member of a two-time city champions Double Dutch team, among the first wave of girls to integrate Little League baseball and rode a unicycle, tumbled and juggled as a member of a traveling circus acrobatics team. She also read everything she could get her hands on from X-Men comic books to the “Clan of the Cave Bear” series to Camus. Enrolled in gifted programs while attending public school, Asha went on to graduate from one of America’s premier private academies, Lakeside School, from which her father, TJ Vassar, earned a diploma as the school’s first Black graduate. After receiving a degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Asha returned to Seattle where she taught in public and private schools for nearly 20 years. Asha is a fabulous home cook who loves storytelling and connecting with others by making them smile. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two sons, and a dog that is part Yorkie and part who-the-heck-knows. In 2022, Asha joined with Alli as a Tall Poppy Writer.