Prize-winning author Joyce Carol Thomas dead at 78

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Joyce Carol Thomas, a prize-winning children's author and champion of multiculturalism, has died. She was 78.

Thomas died Aug. 13 at Stanford University Medical Center in California of cirrhosis of the liver stemming from a bad blood transfusion decades ago, according to her sister, Flora Krasnovsky.

Prize-winning author Joyce Carol Thomas dead at 78