Biography

Alverne Ball has an M.F.A in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. His forthcoming graphic novel is set to be published by Abrams comic arts in 2026. He is the contributing writer to the graphic novel, Epiphany Engine (Advent comics 2025), as well as a contributing writer to the 2025 Glyph story of the year, Shook: a Black horror anthology (Dark Horse comics 2024). He is the writer of Across the Tracks (Abrams 2021), a homage to Greenwood, Oklahoma, illustrated by Stacey Robinson, as well as the graphic novels Virgin Wolf and Dime: a choose your own adventure mystery ( Arion Digital Media Group 2016).

He is also the writer/creator of two web comics, When We Were Kings and Zulu, in partnership with Afropunk.com. Mr. Ball is the 2019 inaugural Tin House Graphic Novel Scholar as well as the 2018 headlining Graphic Novelist for Chicago’s Teen Lit Festival. A recipient of the first ever Luminarts graphic novel writing award, he has also twice received the Glyph Rising Star award for his writing on the OneNation comic series. He has written comic and graphic novel material for such companies as Di Bona Ventura Productions, Paramount Pictures, Mcgraw-Hill, Lion Forge Comics, New Paradigm Entertainment, Campfire Graphic Novels, 133art.Com

Mr. Ball is the creator and writer of the crime drama series, Roman, now streaming on Tubi. He has also traveled to South Africa to work as a storyline writer on the hit telenovella, Uzalo. He was also a story writer on the South African fantasy series, Ifalahke. Mr. Ball has written and produced a short film, Crossroads, which was shot on the Warner Bros. back lot via the AT&T Shape competition. He has also written and produced the short film, Tattooed Tears, which was directed by Aaron Lewis and was chosen as a 2016 selection for the Indiewise, Sankofa, MeccaCon and Egypt film festivals. Mr. Ball is the author of the crime thrillers, Blue Religion and Only The Holy Remain.