Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2017 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include a hard-edged, ripped-from-the-headlines book dramatizing police brutality and race relations in America; a novel where sixteen-year-old gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical; and story of a teenager learning to live with clinical depression.

Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely authors of All American Boys

Jason Reynolds didn’t grow up expecting to be a writer: indeed, he was 17 before he read a book from start to finish. But it might be his atypical background that allows him to connect so powerfully with teenage readers.

Jason published several poetry collections before publishing his first novel, When I Was The Greatest, in 2014. In 2015, Reynolds published The Boy in the Black Suit, about a child grieving the loss of his mother and All American Boys, which he co-authored with Brendan Kiely.

Brendan Kiely is the co-author, with Jason Reynolds of the young adult novel, All American Boys, which won the Coretta Scott King Honor Award and the inaugural Walter Dean Myers Award for outstanding children’s literature in the young adult category. Brendan is also the author of the novel The Gospel of Winter, which has been published in ten languages.

Brendan grew up in the Boston area and attended The City College of New York where he earned an MFA in creative writing. He found his enthusiasm for young people working at a high school in New York City for ten years before becoming a full-time writer.These days, Brendan lives with his wife in Greenwich Village

Melanie Crowder author of Audacity

Melanie Crowder is the acclaimed author of several books for young readers. She writes YA historical fiction and Middle Grade novels of all sorts. Audacity,a novel in verse featuring the real-life Clara Lemlich, a courageous, tenacious warrior for workers’ rights in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City, is a 2015 National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Melanie teaches English to non-native-English-speaking students at her local school and holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives under the big blue Colorado sky with her wife, two kids, and one good dog.

E. K. Johnston author of Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Emily Kate Johnston, publishing as E.K. Johnston, is a Canadian author and forensic archaeologist.

Johnston, who started writing fan fiction in 2002, wrote her first manuscript seven years later. Her first book, The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, was published in 2014. Exit, Pursued By A Bear is her fifth novel.

Johnson’s favourite authors include Elizabeth Wein, JRR Tolkien, and Holly Black. She plays the alto saxophone and the clarinet, and currently lives in Stratford, Ontario.

Becky Albertalli author of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli is a clinical psychologist who has had the privilege of conducting therapy with dozens of smart, weird, irresistible teenagers. She also served for seven years as co-leader of a support group for gender nonconforming children in Washington, DC. She now lives with her family in Atlanta. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is her first novel.

Frances Hardinge author of The Lie Tree

Frances Hardinge was born in Brighton, England, and dreamed of writing at the age of four. She studied English at Somerville College, University of Oxford. Her writing career started after she won a short story magazine competition. Her debut novel, Fly By Night, won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the School Library Journal Best Books, while her 2015 novel The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book Award, the first children’s book to do so since Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass in 2001.

Hardinge is often seen wearing a black hat and enjoys dressing in old-fashioned clothing.

Francisco X. Stork author of The Memory of Light

Francisco Xavier Arguelles was born in 1953 in Monterrey, Mexico and moved to El Paso, Texas at the age of nine. At Spring Hill College, Francisco majored in English Literature and Philosophy and received the college’s creative writing award. After college he attended graduate school at Harvard University and Columbia Law School. Francisco is married to Jill Syverson-Stork. He is the father of Nicholas and Anna and the grandfather of Charlotte.

He lives near Boston with his wife.

Patrick Ness author of The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Patrick Ness was born in Virginia, then moved to Hawaii where he lived until he was six. He then spent the next several years in Washington state, before moving to study English Literature at the University of Southern California. Patrick moved to the United Kingdom in 1999, where I’ve lived (mostly in London) ever since.

Ness is the author of several novels, including The Knife of Never Letting Go, A Monster Calls and The Rest of Us Just Live Here.

Stephanie Oakes author of The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

Stephanie Oakes lives in Spokane, Washington, and works as a library media teacher in a combined middle and elementary school. She has an MFA in poetry from Eastern Washington University. Her first novel, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, was a Morris Award finalist.

You can follow Stephanie on Facebook and twitter.

Susin Nielsen author of We Are All Made of Molecules

Susin Nielsen got her start writing a spec script for the popular television series Degrassi Junior High. She went on to pen sixteen episodes of the hit show and four of the Degrassi books. She has written for many TV series, including Heartland.  Her first novel, Word Nerd, was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature. Her next two novels, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, won numerous awards.  

Susin lives in Vancouver with her family and two destructive, naughty cats. When not writing, she loves to road bike, be in the great outdoors, read and travel.

Ryan Graudin author of Wolf by Wolf

Ryan Graudin was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. With a severe case of wanderlust, she has travelled to South Korea, New Zealand, Peru and Kenya. When she’s not traveling, she’s busy writing and spending time with her husband and wolf dog.