Clifton Taulbert is the author of three memoirs: Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored, the basis for the critically acclaimed feature film by the same name; The Last Train North, Watching Our Crops Come In, and most recently, Little Cliff and the Porch People. He was the recipient of the 27th annual NAACP Image Award for Literature, and was also one of the first African-American writers to win the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Nonfiction.

Time magazine named him one of America's outstanding black entrepreneurs. He is an acclaimed speaker who lectures around the world to schools, educators, businesses, and professional groups on the subject of the Eight Habits of the Heart.