Born and raised in the crime-ridden projects of Brooklyn’s Red Hook district, Torrey Maldonaldo admits to hating books as a child because, in his words, “they were boring or seemed to hate or dismiss people from where I’m from” (“Torrey Maldonado.” House of SpeakEasy). Like Tight’s protagonist Bryan, Maldonado found his “fortress of solitude” in superhero comics, whose bold, fast-moving sagas introduced him to the primal power of storytelling at an early age. Additionally, comics were a safer choice in his neighborhood than books, for a youth who read too many books inevitably bore the stigma of being “soft” and could get bullied as a result (“Torrey Maldonado.” The Latino Author). Maldonado recalls that comic books excited him in the same way that sports and films did, and he especially related to the darker-skinned superheroes and antiheroes, such as Black Adam. The power of comic books, with their dynamic action and diverse characters, led him to embrace literacy, art, and the mechanics of storytelling—and eventually write stories and books himself.

An acclaimed educator who has taught for 25 years in New York City public schools, Maldonado has published four novels for young readers (Secret Saturdays, Tight, What Lane?, and Hands), each less than 200 pages.