2024 YAAS

Rebecca Caprara graduated from Cornell University and practiced architecture before shifting her focus from bricks to books. She writes stories for readers of all ages and loves experimenting with narrative forms and new genres. Her work ranges from poetry and picture books to middle grade and young adult novels. Her most recent books include Spin, a feminist reimagining of Ovid's myth of Arachne for young adult readers. Spin has received multiple starred reviews and was named a Best Book of 2023 by School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and the Chicago Public Library. It was an ALA: Rise Feminist Book Project Top 10 selection and an NPR Book of the Day. 

Federico Erebia is a retired physician, woodworker, author, poet, and illustrator. He received the 2024 Lambda Literary Exceptional New Writer Award. His debut novel, Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido 2023), has additional commendations: the 2024 Ohioana Book Award - Finalist; the 2024 Massachusetts Book Award - Longlist; the 2024 Crystal Kite Award - Honor Book; the 2024 Américas Book Award - Commended Book; the 2024 Bank Street Best Book; the 2023 Kirkus Reviews Best Book; the 2023 Nerdy Book Club Best Book; featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition; and starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness. He and his husband live near Boston, Massachusetts.

Sara Farizan (she/her) watches ‘90s cartoons and ‘80s commercials to relax, and loves pinball but is wary of certain games. She is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of the young adult novels Dead Flip, Here to Stay, Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel, and the Lambda Literary award winning If You Could Be Mine, which was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Best YA Books of All Time. She has short stories in the anthologies Fresh Ink, All Out, The Radical Element, Hungry Hearts, Come On In, and Fools in Love. She also had a dream come true in writing a DC Comics middle-grade graphic novel, My Buddy, Killer Croc.

Desmond Hall (he/him) was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He’s the author of Your Corner Dark, a YA novel that was one of Bank Street’s Best YA novels of 2022, a finalist for the New England Book Award, A Nominee for the Yalsa audio book award, Essence Magazine’s 19 Children’s book list, and included on several must read lists including Buzzfeed and WBUR. His new book, Better Must Come, is a fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangles the lives of two teens who want to change their fate. Booklist calls it “A well-plotted, taught page-turner.” He's worked as both a high school biology teacher and English teacher, counseled at-risk teens from Riker’s Island prison, and served as Spike Lee’s creative director in the advertising business. 

Kendall Kulper (she/her) is an author and artist living in Cambridge, MA. She writes historical fantasy for young adult readers and has published four novels, beginning with Salt & Storm (YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, Junior Library Guild Selection) and Drift & Dagger (JLG Selection), and a novella, Saltwater Heart. Her latest novels, Murder for the Modern Girl (JLG Selection) and A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife (JLG Selection) are out now and received starred reviews from The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books and Shelf Awareness. Since 2018, she has hand-crafted unique, custom embroidered pieces for clients around the world. She graduated from Harvard University with an honors degree in History & Literature in 2008 and lives with her husband, two daughters, and much-Instagrammed dog, Abby.

Rajani LaRocca (she/her) was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes award-winning books for young readers, including the Newbery Honor winning middle grade novel in verse, Red, White, and Whole. She’s always been an omnivorous reader, and now she is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose and poetry. She finds inspiration in her family, her childhood, the natural world, math, science, and just about everywhere she looks. She also co-hosts the STEM Women in KidLit Podcast.

Vanessa Lillie is the author of the USA Today bestselling suspense novel, Blood Sisters, which launches a new series with #MMIW2S at the heart of the stories. She also co-authored the #1 bestselling and ITW award nominated Audible Original Young Rich Widows (April 2022). With fifteen years of marketing and communications experience, Vanessa was a columnist for the Providence Journal and hosts an Instagram Live show with crime fiction authors. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma living on Narragansett land in Rhode Island.

Rebecca Mahoney (she/her) is the author of The Valley and the Flood and The Memory Eater, and the co-creator of independent audio drama The Bridge. Rebecca is a strong believer in the cathartic power of all things fantastical and frightening in children’s literature, and she loves writing about the care and feeding of the monsters in all of us. Her work has received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly - in addition, The Valley and the Flood was a Must-Read Title for the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award, and The Memory Eater was a finalist for the New England Book Award. She lives in Medford, MA with two wonderful roommates and a cat named Mouse, and spends her spare time collecting cloche hats and cursing sailors at sea.

Marcella Pixley teaches eighth grade Language Arts at the Carlisle Public Schools. Her poetry has been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner, Feminist Studies, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review and Poet Lore, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Ms. Pixley has written four acclaimed young adult novels: Freak, Without Tess, Ready To Fall. and most recently, Trowbridge Road. Freak received four starred reviews and was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, Without Tess was a Junior Library Guild Selection, Ready to Fall was named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Trowbridge Road was a Junior Library Guild Selection. It was long listed for the National Book award and the Massachusetts Book Award. It was named a best book of 2020  by Shelf Awareness, Reading Group Choices and Mighty Girls. It was nominated for a Golden Dome Award.

Lisa Stringfellow writes middle grade fiction and has a not-so-secret fondness for fantasy with a dark twist. She is the author of two books for young readers, Kingdom of Dust and A Comb of Wishes, which Newbery Award–winning author Kelly Barnhill called “one of the most promising works of fiction in a long time.” Lisa writes for her twelve-year-old self, the kid waiting to be the brown-skinned hero of an adventure, off saving the world. Her work often reflects her West Indian and Black southern heritage. Lisa is a middle school teacher and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her children and bossy cat. 

Susan Tan (she/her) is a middle grade and early reader author, and a proud alum of CCHS (Class of 2006!). She’s thrilled to be back at Concord Carlisle, and excited to talk about her books, which include the Cilla Lee-Jenkins series (Macmillan), Pets Rule! (Scholastic), and Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards (Macmillan), which is set in a fictional version of Concord. Susan is also an assistant professor of English at UMass Boston with a specialty in the academic study of children’s literature.  She lives in Cambridge MA, and crochets tiny animals in her spare time.  

Jonathan Todd is a cofounder of the Boston Kids Comics Fest and former second-grade teacher. He was a Jacqueline Woodson Fellow in the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing program at Lasell University, where he studied writing for children and young adults. A frequent comics teacher in children’s and young adult departments in libraries and schools, Jonathan was the 2015 Graphic Novelist-in-Residence at the Morse Institute and Bacon Free libraries near Boston. Before writing and drawing graphic novels for kids, Jonathan studied journalism and illustration at Syracuse University and English and history at Emory University. He was also an education reporter and political cartoonist. His cartoons have appeared in dozens of newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Tennessean, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. He lives near Boston with his wife, two children, and an irresistible lemon beagle named Cariño.