Young Adult
Writers of Young Adult books from Minnesota.
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…
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…
Carol Dines
Carol Dines’s new young adult novel, The Take-Over Friend, is a finalist for the Achevan Prize. Her recent adult fiction, a collection of stories, This Distance We Call Love, won the Eric Hoffer Book Prize in 2022 and was a finalist in the National Indies Excellence Award for short fiction. In addition, her stories have…
Naomi Hughes
Naomi Hughes writes quirky young adult sci-fi and fantasy, usually featuring monsters and mental health representation. Her novels include Refraction, which was described by Kirkus Reviews as “a wild, fast-paced ride full of unexpected turns,” and “Afterimage,” which School Library Journal said “deserves a prominent place on sci-fi shelves.” Hughes is a longtime Midwesterner but…
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…
Roy Guzmán
Roy G. Guzmán was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and grew up in Miami, Florida. Their debut collection, Catrachos, is a 2020 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. Guzmán is a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and a 2017 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg poetry fellow. They are currently pursuing a…
Nicole Kronzer
Nicole Kronzer is the author of the young adult novels Unscripted and the forthcoming The Roof Over Our Heads. Unscripted was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association and was a Minnesota Book Award Finalist. Kronzer is also a high school English teacher and former professional actor. She loves to…
Kaia Solveig Preus
Kaia Preus received her MFA from Hollins University and was a 2019 Author Fellow through the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Her first book, The War Requiem, was a finalist for the 2021 Minnesota Book Award and won the 2018 Essay Press and University of Washington Bothell MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics Book…
Joan Marie Verba
Joan Marie Verba is an author, publisher, and web developer. An experienced writer, she is the author of the nonfiction books Voyager: Exploring the Outer Planets and Boldly Writing, as well as fiction such as Twelve, Defying the Ghosts, Sword of Queens, and Wondry Dragon Finds a Home, among many other books and short stories.…
Tom Xavier
Tom Xavier is the award-winning author of Neffatira’s First Challenge, described by Kirkus Reviews as a “rousing series opener with equal portions of action and social commentary” and Dark Curses, Faerie Dreams, recipient of a Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Seal in Juvenile Fiction, a 2018 Book Excellence Awards Finalist, and a Royal Dragonfly Book Awards…