Young Adult
Writers of Young Adult books from Minnesota.
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…
Joyce Sidman
Joyce Sidman’s books have won a Newbery Honor (Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night), a Sibert Award for Nonfiction (The Girl Who Drew Butterflies) and two Caldecott Honors. Her book What the Heart Knows was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2013, she received the NCTE Award for Excellence…
Jane St. Anthony
Jane St. Anthony’s first middle-grade book, The Summer Sherman Loved Me, was followed by Grace Above All, Isabelle Day Refuses to Die of a Broken Heart (Minnesota Book Award Finalist and winner of the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award for Young Adult and Middle Grade), and Whatever Normal Is. For several years St. Anthony has taught…
Rachel L. Coyne
Rachel Coyne, a novelist and poet, is a graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts in Minnesota and Macalester College. She is a devotee of Pablo Neruda, a lover of Don Williams songs, and collects vintage editions of Jane Eyre. Her published works include the novels The Patron Saint of Lost Comfort Lake and Whiskey…
Beth Dooley
Beth Dooley has been writing about the Northern Heartland for over 20 years. She is the author of six books, including Minnesota Book Award finalist In Winter’s Kitchen. Her column, “Seasonal Kitchen,” appears weekly in the Star Tribune, and she contributes regularly to Minnesota Public Radio’s “Appetites.” Dooley is the co-author with Sean Sherman of…
Swati Avasthi
Swati Avasthi (SWA-thee Of-US-thee) started writing when she was five, but she took a serpentine career path (working as domestic violence legal coordinator, law student, theater director, and stage manager) before she returned to writing. Her first book, Split, received the International Reading Association Award, Cybils Award, and has been translated into four languages. Her…
Caren B. Stelson
Caren Stelson is a Minneapolis writer for children and young adults, with a passion for nonfiction. Her work explores stories that struggle with issues of war and peace. Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story is such a book, revealing the horrors of nuclear war and Sachiko Yasui’s long arc toward peace. Stelson visited Nagasaki, Japan…
Michael Fridgen
Michael Fridgen loves theme parks, Dolly Parton, baking, Christmas, and playing the piano. His guidebook, Dollywood and Beyond, attained the top spot on Amazon’s list of bestselling books about theme parks, as did his World Traveler’s Guide to Disney. A former elementary school teacher, Fridgen began writing full-time after his first novel, Ruth3:5, was named…