AJ Ilentamhen

AJ Ilentamhen was raised in Boston, Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area, spending time as a youth first in the neighborhood of Hyde Park then on Park Drive in the Fenway neighborhood at the convergence of the neighborhoods of Roxbury and the South End. He moved around the region with his mom, who at the time did not have much money forcing the two of them to live with numerous family friends who helped support them. Through hard work, they eventually landed in Brockton, MA, outside of the Boston area, before moving back up during his junior high school years. He began reading at a very early age when, around that time, his mom would bring him all kinds of children's books. He enjoyed the Dr. Seuss series as well as any outlet that inspired inquisition and learning. He has a brother and three sisters, all older than him. He attended catholic school all through his elementary years and went on to attend Boston College High School in Dorchester, graduating in 2011. He would later go on to the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, in State College, Pennsylvania. He was always an intelligent student while at school who thoroughly enjoyed learning, though he would often become bored with some school procedures and dreamt of becoming a writer and film director one day. He began to take that dream seriously when he turned nineteen and drafted ideas for what would soon become his debut novel, Liberty. He became committed to uniquely and positively affecting people. Liberty was released on August 2, 2016, his 23rd birthday, four years after drafting the idea. His interests include listening to and producing all kinds of music, reading, writing, spending time with the many friends he's made, sports, and video games. Some of his favorite literary works are the 1952 novel The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and the 1920 poem The Second Coming by Irish author W.B Yeats.