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Danielle Santiago is the Essence® bestselling author of Little Ghetto Girl (2007), Grindin (2007) andAllure of the Game (2011) on Atria Books. She is also a contributor to the anthologies Crème, a novella, Street Love and Fantasy on (Triple Crown Publications) and the upcoming Soft: Cocaine Love Stories on Urban Books. She is a writer in the controversial genre of urban fiction who splits her time between Harlem and Charlotte with her family. Her work has been featured and reviewed in Black Expressions, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Urban Book Source and Black Plant Universal powered blog Hello Beautiful.

Like many writers of street-literature Danielle Santiago’s story is bitter at first bite and sweetens to the taste thereafter. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina Danielle moved to New York at the age of eight. Going back and forth between New York and North Carolina she witnessed those in her community hustling on the streets and became desensitized to the dangers of what surrounded her. Like her character Arnessa in Allure of the Game Santiago understood the importance of getting an education and was accepted to Norfolk State University in Virgina where she studied Marketing and Public Relations. After four semesters in Virginia she opted to move back home. She returned to New York, enrolled in Hunter College but never attended due to becoming pregnant with her son.

Danielle Santiago's Little Ghetto Girl: A Harlem Storywas an Essence magazine #1 bestseller, a compelling portrayal of the challenges young women face in ghettos across America. Inspired by Santiago’s own upbringing her character Kisa “Kane” was born. In this first installment we are introduced to Kisa who is done with the thug-life and has everything a ghetto girl would want: plenty of money, dropdead-gorgeous looks, and two thriving legitimate businesses. Until she falls in love with Sincere Montega, a powerful drug dealer whose down-and-dirty money pulls Kisa back into the world she is trying so hard to leave behind.

Prior to landing a deal with Atria Books a division of Simon & Schuster, Santiago wrote and then self published Little Ghetto Girl in 2002.

The author’s own street life adventures inspired the fiction novel. “I was pregnant with my son in 2000 and life just became extremely overwhelming.” Home one night Santiago’s Harlem apt door was shot up and she was forced to find temporary housing, by way of the Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx.

While residing in the shelter the 10pm curfew left many idle hours that had been previously filled with running the streets. Santiago now free to think read and write inked Little Ghetto Girl in a journal. Self publishing is not for the faint and heart and for a certified “uptown girl” like Santiago it meant putting in many hours promoting and selling the book to any and everyone. About a year after releasing Little Ghetto Girl on her own Santiago visited Dynasty Books to inquire about them stocking her book in the local Charlotte bookstore. “I met Brother James who at the time was starting his company, Two of a Kind Publishing. He was looking for a book to launch his company and he asked me for Little Ghetto Girl.”

The author remembers her beginnings. “My first year at Harlem Book Fair, it was only myself and Teri Woods pushing urban fiction. The market wasn’t saturated the way it is today.” Six months after signing with Two of a Kind Publishing Santiago connected with Triple Crown Publications author and publisher Vickie Stringer. “I hired her as my agent and thirty days later I signed with Atria.” The book ushered her into a multiple book deal where they re-issued the first title and published the next two of the Harlem girl series--Grindin andAllure of the Game Grindin' is the second installment in the Harlem girl series. It introduces readers to Kennedy Sanchez a single mother/hustler. She is very much an around the way girl who loves her family. In the book she transitions from a hustler to a rapper. Once she’s in the music industry she learns that it isn’t much different from the street game she left behind. Danielle Santiago herself tried her hand in the entertainment business in1998-99 while working in marketing and publicity at UN Entertainment, the label founded by Lance “Un”Rivera. “I did a lil rapping on a few mixtapes but I preferred writing lyrics.”

In May 2011 Atria released the third installment titled Allure of the Game. The novels title is inspired by Jay-Z’s Black album track Allure: “The allure of breakin the law is always too much for me to ever ignore”. Here Santiago continues the saga of a family moving in on the drug game between Harlem and Charlotte, NC. Arnessa has fallen in love with Butta and wants her family to go legit. But her silly sister, Cenise, falls for a thug working for rival kingpin Suef. This dude wants a war and the family must protect what belongs to them.

Always seeking to take her career to the next level, Danielle signed with the Official Writers League (OWL) in 2012 after being tapped by founders' Ashley & Jaquavius to lead off their elite roster of writers. Danielle will release her first novel on OWL, The Conglomerate, on Black Friday 2013 followed by The Circle: Fallon's Story, a joint collaboration with Ashley & Jaquavius.

For Santiago her life has completely evolved from her former years in the music industry and the street life--she is now a national bestselling author and her life serves as the backdrop for great fiction. She is now a married with three children.

The bestselling author knows that she is blessed with new opportunities to encourage others from running down the same track. Aside from penning novels her street life adventures inspired her to form the Mischievous Girls Foundation, an organization formed to lend support to misguided teens and battered women.