Welcome to my author’s page! My name is Denise Michele Simsek. I was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. I am bilingual as I am Hispanic. I have one child. I was a high school math teacher for 24 years. One day I had a great desire to change my position and quickly moved into an Exceptional Education teacher position (I work with those students who have difficulties with learning). The only problem is that I was required to work in the English classroom.

This terrified me as I was entering into a new arena where my experience was quite limited. However, it is in this class where my creativity for illustrating and writing blossomed thanks to my friend and colleague Aliyat Michelle.

With her guidance, assistance, and illustrations, I self-published my first book in 2019. I am still a teacher in the public school system but I have been bitten by the writing bug and will continue to create beautiful stories and images to share with readers all around the world, as long as I live.