Biography

Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of picture books and middle grade novels. Her picture book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a New England Book Award, and a Boston Globe—Horn Book Honor. She is also the author of the APALA Honor-winning The Nian Monster, the Sakura Medal and Freeman Book Award Honor-winning Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando, and the acclaimed books The Many Meanings of Meilan and Luli and the Language of Tea.

Andrea was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and Newton, Massachusetts. She attended Wellesley College, graduating with dual degrees in biology and Chinese studies. She went on to receive a Master of Science degree in environmental studies from the University of Indiana – Bloomington and moved back to Massachusetts to become an environmental consultant. For over a decade, she conducted human health and environmental risk assessments, helping to clean up polluted places all over the state. After her children were born, Andrea decided to return to her childhood dream of becoming an author and subsequently earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing for Young People from Lesley University. She is thrilled to be able to utilize all her degrees to create fiction and nonfiction books for young people, mostly centered on themes of culture, identity, and connection.

After many years in the Boston area, Andrea now lives in the Denver, Colorado suburbs where she writes full time from a salmon-pink office stocked with chocolate and tea. Her love of food and nature is reflected in her former and current dogs’ names: Mochi and Tupelo.