MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults Archive

Kelly Starling Lyons is a founding member of The Brown Bookshelf, teaching artist and award-winning children’s book author. Her mission is to center Black heroes,...

Evan Griffith is the author of the middle-grade novel Manatee Summer (a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection) and the picture book biography ...

Erica S. Perl (she/her) is the author of more than forty popular and critically-acclaimed books for children and teens. A former criminal defense attorney, she...

Veera Hiranandani is the award-winning author of several books for young people. Her most recent middle-grade novel, How to Find What You're Not Looking ...

In early 2023, VCFA interviewed 2013 WCYA graduate Jen Lynn Bailey, author of the picture book This is the Boat that Ben Built (Pajama Press...

Melanie Bennett Jacobson is an avid reader, amateur cook, and champion shopper.

Donna Barba Higuera's Middle Grade and Picture books reinvent history, folklore, and or her own life experience into compelling storylines. She...

Naomi Novik is the New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The ...

In the fall of 2022, we spoke with author and alumnx Laura Obuobi (WCYA ‘21) about her 2022 picture book publication Black Gold, her upcoming...

Years after graduating from the WCYA program in 2014, Jane Houng and Heather Demetrios are still finding ways to collaborate and use their collective voices...