Middle Grade

Middle Grade writers from Minnesota.

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Sean Tulien

Sean Tulien writes and edits playful and compelling kidlit of all kinds. His specialty is fiction for kids with a strong visual component, especially comics. He loves bunnies, video games, lifting heavy things, hiking, and amusing others.

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Ty Chapman

Ty Chapman is the author of Sarah Rising, Looking For Happy, and A Door Made for Me (written with Tyler Merritt). Chapman’s forthcoming publications include multiple children’s books and a poetry collection through Button Poetry. He was a 2022 Center for Arts + Social Justice Fellow – an award that supports a speculative work in…

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Annette Gagliardi

Annette Gagliardi is a poet whose work has appeared in literary journals in Canada, England, and the US. Her first full-length poetry collection, titled A Short Supply of Viability, was published through The Poetry Box. Gagliardi notices the intricate details of lives lived around her. She notices the dimensions of nature, time, and the human…

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Karen Latchana Kenney

Karen Latchana Kenney is an Indian-Irish author and editor, born near the equator in Guyana, and raised far north in Minnesota. She’s lived in New Amsterdam, Toronto, Minneapolis, Dublin, Maynooth, Oregon, and Rhode Island, and visited many more places on far-flung adventures. She first got lost in books as a child and hoped one day…

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Michael MacBride

Originally from Michigan, Michael MacBride now calls Minnesota home. He has delivered newspapers, worked for UPS, delivered pizzas, done collections at a bank, was a roadie for a country band, and was a grant-writer and funder-researcher for non-profits. He also taught English, Literature, and Humanities courses at universities and colleges in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio,…

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William Durbin

William Durbin lives on Lake Vermilion at the edge of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness. A winner of the Great Lakes Book Award and a two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award, he has published 14 novels for young readers, including, The Broken Blade, Wintering, Blackwater Ben, Song of Sampo Lake, The Darkest Evening, Dead Man’s…

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Payal Doshi

Payal Doshi has a Master’s in Creative Writing (Fiction) from The New School, New York. Having lived in the UK and US, she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to what would become her first children’s novel. She was born and raised in Mumbai,…

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Julie Schumacher

Julie Schumacher is the author of 11 books, including the national bestseller Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. She has published five novels for younger readers, including The Book of One Hundred Truths, winner of a Minnesota Book Award; and a satirical coloring book about higher education called Doodling for…

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Nick Healy

Nick Healy writes fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. His short story collection, It Takes You Over, was a Friends of American Writers award winner and a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award in 2013. His stories have appeared in North American Review, Water~Stone Review, Speakeasy, Minnesota Monthly, Great River Review, and elsewhere. He…

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Bonnie Graves

Author of children’s books, both fiction and non-fiction, and professional books on teaching reading, Bonnie Graves spent her growing-up years in Southern California. There she romped through childhood with her boy cousins and their pals and in her preteen years wrote and produced plays for family and neighbors. A former elementary school teacher, her work…