…is the author of novels, The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny (and the Women Whom Loved Him). Her fiction, nonfiction, poetry and dramatic works are widely published and produced, appearing in such outlets as Both Sides: Stories from the Border, the Anthology of Appalachian Heritage, storySouth, Another Chicago Magazine, New Daughters of Africa, Ms. Magazine, Ocotillo Review, Obsidian, the Literary Traveler and others. She coedited the anthology Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Her awards and honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship, the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Fiction Award for Younger Writers, an American Library Association Black Caucus Award for Fiction, Ragdale Foundation US/Africa Fellowship, a William Randolph Hearst Research Visiting Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, a Roots Fellowship at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and Esteemed Literary Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Sandra Jackson-Opoku has been an artist in resident in communities throughout the U.S. and around the world.