“Sometimes things just fall out of your head on the paper, and if you're smart, you learn not to touch them.” – Laurie Halse Anderson
Born in upstate New York on this date in 1961, Anderson is winner of the 2010 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association (for her contribution to young adult literature). And she is a finalist for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, sponsored by World Literature Today. The NSK Prize is the most prestigious international children’s literary award given in the United States.
A graduate of Georgetown University, Anderson began her writing career as a freelance journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer while simultaneously working on children's and young adult novels. After minor successes for several children’s books, she published (in 1999) her award winning YA novel Speak – about a young girl’s trauma dealing with a rape. The book, also made into a movie, is now out in 16 languages worldwide.
To date, Anderson has written 10 YA novels, 2 graphic novels, and 16 children’ books. Her latest is this year’s graphic novel Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed.
“If I can write a book that will help the world make a little more sense to a teen,” she said, “then that's why I was put on the planet.”
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