Young Adult
Writers of Young Adult books from Minnesota.
Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo is the author of many books for young readers. Her books have been awarded the Newbery Medal (Flora & Ulysses in 2014 and The Tale of Despereaux in 2004); the Newbery Honor (Because of Winn-Dixie, 2001), the Boston Globe Horn Book Award (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, 2006), and the Theodor Geisel…
Sara Biren
Sara Biren is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is a content and social media manager for a Minneapolis marketing firm and offers freelance editing and copywriting services. She lives northwest of Minneapolis with her husband and their two children.…
Peter Bognanni
Peter Bognanni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His debut novel, The House of Tomorrow, won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the ALA Alex Award and was adapted into a feature film. His second novel, Things I’m Seeing Without You, was a Minnesota Book Award finalist. He teaches…
Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Kirstin Cronn-Mills is a writer and teacher who lives in North Mankato with her family. She’s published both fiction and nonfiction for young adult readers. Three of her books have been finalists for the Minnesota Book Awards. Her novel, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, won the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award in 2014.
Shannon Gibney
Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color, a young adult novel that won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Young Peoples’ Literature. Gibney is faculty in English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, where she teaches critical and creative writing, journalism, and African Diasporic topics. A Bush Artist…
Molly Beth Griffin
Molly Beth Griffin is the author of several picture books including Ten Beautiful Things, Rhoda’s Rock Hunt, and The Big Leaf Leap, as well as the award-winning young adult novel Silhouette of a Sparrow. Griffin was the recipient of the 2014 McKnight Artist Fellowship in Children’s Literature along with two Minnesota Arts Board grants. Griffin…
Geoff Herbach
Geoff Herbach is the author of ten books, many for young adult audiences, including the award-winning Stupid Fast series (one of the books, Nothing Special, won the Minnesota Book Award). He focuses on writing things for kids who don’t want to read (not a great commercial choice, maybe!). When not writing, Herbach is teaching writing.…
E. Eero Johnson
E. Eero Johnson is a graphic artist from the Northern Midwest. His illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone Magazine, and Wired. His comics have been featured in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, and Nozone. He collaborated on the Minnesota Book Award nominated hybrid novel/graphic novel Original Fake with author Kirstin…
Carrie L. Mesrobian
Carrie Mesrobian is the author of five novels. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing & Hispanic Studies and an MFA in Fiction from the Rainier Writers Workshop of Pacific Lutheran University. She has written essays and poetry for Brain, Child magazine, Calyx, the Star Tribune, and two anthologies for young adults. Her first book,…
David Oppegaard
David Oppegaard is the author of Claw Heart Mountain, The Town Built on Sorrow, The Firebug of Balrog County, The Suicide Collectors, And the Hills Opened Up, and Wormwood, Nevada. He is also the author of the novella Breakneck Cove. Oppegaard’s work is a blend of horror, literary fiction, science fiction, and dark fantasy. He…