Meet the authors of the ten books shortlisted for the 2019 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. This year’s contending novels include a work of nonfiction, a graphic novel, Black fiction, mystery fiction, realistic fiction, and historical fiction. The books, a diverse collection, explore subjects such as gender nonconformity, adoption, teenage pregnancy, rape, and murder.

Dashka Slater author of The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives

Dashka Slater has been telling stories since she could talk. When she was little, she told stories to her mother, who wrote them down until Slater was old enough to write them down herself.

An award-winning journalist she is also the author of nine books. The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the 2018 Stonewall Book Award and the 2018 Beatty Award from the California Library Association.

Natalie C. Anderson author of City of Saints & Thieves

Natalie C Anderson is an American writer and international development professional based in Geneva, Switzerland with her husband and son. You can also sometimes find her in the mountains of North Carolina or Nairobi, Kenya. She’s spent the last decade working with NGOs and the UN on refugee issues around the world, mainly Africa.

Francesca Zappia author of Eliza and Her Monsters

Francesca Zappia lives in central Indiana. When she is not writing, she spends most of her time reading, drawing, watching anime, and playing way too much Pokémon. She is also the author of Made You Up and Eliza Mirk’s favorite,The Children of Hypnos, a biweekly serial novel posted on Tumblr and Wattpad.

Robin Benway author of Far from the Tree

Robin grew up in Orange County, California, attended NYU, where she was the 1997 recipient of the Seth Barkas Prize for Creative Writing, and is a graduate of UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she spends her time hanging out with her dog, Hudson, making coffee, and procrastinating on writing.

Jeff Zentner author of Goodbye Days

Jeff Zentner lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually becoming a songwriter. He’s released five albums.and has recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. 

As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

Goodbye Days is his love letter to the city of Nashville and the talented people who populate it. He lives in Nashville with his wife and son

Antonio Iturbe author of The Librarian of Auschwitz

Antonio Iturbe is a Spanish journalist, novelist and professor. While pursuing his degree in journalism, Antonio balanced his studies with several jobs: parking guard, baker, and bill collector.

In researching this story, he interviewed Dita Kraus, the real-life librarian of Auschwitz.

Jason Reynolds author of Long Way Down

Jason Reynolds graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in English. He writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences, including Long Way Down, a novel written in verse.

Reynolds was motivated to write Long Way Down by his visits to juvenile detention centers, where he often meets children caught in a cycle of violence that, under slightly different circumstances, might have been his own.

Karen McManus author of One of Us Is Lying

Karen M. McManus earned her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross and her MA in journalism from Northeastern University. When she isn’t working or writing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, McManus loves to travel with her son.

One of Us Is Lying, her debut novel, is a New York Times bestseller, a CBC Teen Choice Book Award Nominee, and a Goodreads Best Young Adult Book of the Year Nominee.

Elizabeth Acevedo author of The Poet X

Elizabeth Acevedo is the daughter of Dominican immigrants. She has a BA in performing arts from George Washington University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Elizabeth has been on television, given TEDTalks, and traveled all over the world.

She is the winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the recipient of the Boston-Globe Hornbook Award Prize for Best Children’s Fiction of 2018.

Laurie Halse Anderson author of Speak: The Graphic Novel ; illustrated by Emily Carroll

Laurie Halse Anderson is an American writer, known for children’s and young adult novels.

She lives in Pennsylvania, where she likes to watch the snow fall as she writes. She and her husband, Scot, plus dogs Kezzie and Thor, and assorted chickens and other critters enjoy country living and time in the woods.

Emily Carroll, an Eisner Award winning illustrator and author of Through the Woods, has also illustrated the children’s graphic novel Baba Yaga’s Assistant in addition to creating numerous popular Web comics.

Carroll entered into the world of independent video game development in 2013, creating illustrations for The Fullbright Company’s Gone Home, as well as collaborating with game developer Damian Sommer to create The Yawhg.

I live in Stratford, Ontario with a very large dog, a very small dog, one cat (no teeth), and a wife who is extremely wonderful.