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Laurie Halse Anderson
Meg Cabot
Chris Crutcher
Sarah Dessen
Walter Dean Myers
Garth Nix
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YA GROWS UP: 6 Bestselling Young Adult Authors Discuss The Most-Misunderstood Genre
 What fiction gets the least attention from readers? YA. This long overlooked, sorely underestimated genre has some of the most thought-provoking, creative and adept prose out there today. So, why hasn't Oprah come a-calling for Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak or Walter Dean Myers' Monster? Read on as best-selling novelists Laurie Halse Anderson, Meg Cabot, Chris Crutcher, Sarah Dessen, Walter Dean Myers and Garth Nix discuss the trials and triumphs of Young Adult literature.
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| Laurie Halse Anderson |
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| Meg Cabot |
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Meggin Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. Her childhood was
spent in pursuit of air conditioning, of which there was little at the
time in southern Indiana. A primary source proved to be the Monroe County
Public Library, where Meggin whiled away many hours, reading the complete
works of Jane Austen, Judy Blume, and Barbara Cartland.
Armed with a fine arts degree from Indiana University, Meggin moved to
New York City, intent upon pursuing a career in freelance illustration.
Illustrating, however, soon got in the way of Meggin's true love, writing,
and so she abandoned it and got a job as the assistant manager of an undergraduate
dormitory at New York University, writing on the weekends, and whenever
her boss wasn't looking.
Inspired by her mother, who recently began dating again after the death
of Meggin's father, Meggin wrote both The Princess Diaries and The Mediator: Shadowland (under the name Jenny
Carroll), the first books
in two series for young adults which happen to be about, among other things,
teenage girls dealing with unsettling family issues.
Meggin now writes full time, and lives in New York City with her husband,
Benjamin, a poet, financial market writer, and fellow Hoosier, and their
one-eyed cat, Henrietta.
YA Books: The Princess Diaries and Princess in the Spotlight
Meg Cabot's Summer Reading List
Meg Cabot's Website
Browse Meg Cabot's books on Amazon.com.
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| Chris Crutcher |
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Chris Crutcher lives in Spokane, Washington. He was born to an Air Force pilot and a homemaker in July, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Cascade, Idaho, a tiny logging community north of Boise. Living in the rural Pacific Northwest definitely influenced Crutcher's fiction. "Everyone was into sports because there was not much else to do," he has said. But the heart of his work --- human struggle and triumph --- is universal and draws largely on his work as an educator (he was a teacher and the director of an alternative school) and, currently, as a therapist and child protection advocate. Critically acclaimed as an author, Crutcher was named the 2000 recipient of the ALA's Margaret A. Edwards Award for his ongoing devotion to young adults. He received the National Intellectual Freedom Award, given by the National Council of Teachers of English, in 1998 and has been honored twice by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents.
YA Books: Whale
Talk, Athletic
Shorts: Six Short Stories, Chinese Handcuffs, The Crazy Horse
Electric GamE, Ironman, Running Loose, Staying Fat for
Sarah Byrnes, Stotan!, and The Deep End
Chris Crutcher Interview on Teenreads.com
Chris Crutcher's Website
Browse Chris Crutcher's books on Amazon.com.
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| Sarah Dessen |
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Sarah Dessen grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she also attended college at the University of North Carolina. Her first novel, That Summer (Orchard), an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, was published in 1996. Her other books include Someone Like You (Viking) and Keeping the Moon (Viking) both ALA Quick Picks and School Library Journal Best Books of the Year. Her fourth novel, Dreamland, was published in the fall of 2000. She now teaches creative writing at her alma mater, and is at work on her fifth novel.
YA Books: Dreamland, Keeping the Moon, Someone Like You, and That Summer
Sarah Dessen's Website
Browse Sarah Dessen's books on Amazon.com.
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| Walter Dean Myers |
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Walter Dean Myers lives with his wife, Constance, and his son, Christopher, the youngest
of his three children, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was recently awarded the first ever
Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature for Monster.
YA Books: Bad
Boy: A Memoir, Monster, The
Greatest Muhammad Ali, 145th
Street: Short Stories, Malcom
X: A Fire Burning Brightly, Fallen
Angels, Fast Sam, Cool Clyde And Stuff, The
Glory Field, The
Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner, Shadow
of the Red Moon, and Slam!
Walter Dean Myers Interview on Teenreads.com
Walter Dean Myer's Website
Browse Walter Dean Myers' books on Amazon.com.
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| Garth Nix |
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Garth Nix was born in 1963 and grew up in Canberra, Australia. After taking his degree in professional writing from the University of Canberra, he slowly sank into the morass of publishing industry, steadily devolving from sales rep through publicist, until in 1991 he became a senior editor with a major multinational publisher. After a period in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia in 1993, he left publishing to work as a marketing communications consultant. In 1999, he was lured back to the publishing world to become a part-time literary agent. He now lives in Sydney, a five-minute walk from Coogee Beach, with his wife, Anna, and lots of books.
Garth is the author of Sabriel, Lireal and Shade's Children.
YA Books: Sabriel and Lireal
Garth Nix's Website
Garth Nix Interview on Teenreads.com
Browse Garth Nix's books on Amazon.com.
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