Young Adult

Writers of Young Adult books from Minnesota.

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Terry Hokenson

Terry Hokenson grew up in southeast Texas and central Minnesota and worked as a carpenter and an attorney. An avid year-round camper, he lives in Minneapolis and is active in the Minneapolis Friends Meeting (Quaker). He has one grown daughter.

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Patricia Cumbie

Patricia Cumbie is the author of two books, the memoir The Shape of a Hundred Hips, and the young adult novel Where People Like Us Live. Her writing has been supported by The Loft Literary Center’s Fiction Mentor Series, a SASE/Jerome Fellowship, a Loft Career Initiative Grant, and a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship. She…

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Frank Weber

Frank Weber is a forensic psychologist who completes assessments in homicide and sexual assault cases. He is the recipient of the MCA President’s Award for his forensic work. His work has ranged from assessing murderers chained to a prison basement floor to providing therapy for wealthy professionals who’ve engaged in multiple affairs. In addition to…

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Natalie Fowler

Once a practicing attorney, Natalie Fowler is an author, a freelance editor (for FATE Magazine), paranormal investigator (for Ghost Stories Ink) and a psychic medium. Fascinated by good ghost stories from a very young age, now she writes her own stories inspired by her work as a ghost hunter and psychic medium. An avid researcher…

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Bill Meissner

Writer/teacher Bill Meissner is the author of 11 books, including four books of fiction, five books of poetry, and two novels. His newest book is Summer of Rain, Summer of Fire, a family drama novel set during the turbulent years of the late 1960s. He frequently visits schools – from elementary school to college level…

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Kathryn Sullivan

Kathryn Sullivan writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. She started writing science fiction and fantasy not long after she had finished reading all of the books in her father’s reading collection. Stories about girl agents defeating alien bad guys and tales of wizards’ apprentices looking for forgotten treasure filled school notebooks alongside her regular…

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Mary Strand

Mary Strand is a novelist and songwriter. She practiced law in a large Minneapolis firm for 16 years until she escaped the land of mergers and acquisitions to write novels. She writes YA, romantic comedy, and women’s fiction novels. Her first novel, Cooper’s Folly, won RWA’s Golden Heart award. She has published a 4-book Bennet…

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Gary Eldon Peter

Gary Eldon Peter is the author of two works of fiction: Oranges, a linked short story collection, and the novel The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen, winner of the 2023 Minnesota Book Award for Young Adult Literature and the Acheven Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction. Oranges was a Minnesota Book Award finalist…

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Bridget Hoolihan

Bridget Hoolihan is a full-time English teacher in Minnesota and writes young adult fiction on the side. She focuses on dystopian literature that appeals to reluctant readers. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities with degrees in English and English Education.

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Duchess Harris

Duchess Harris was a Mellon Mays Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania where she graduated with a degree in American History. She earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota and did postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School and at the Womanist…