Biography

Elana K. Arnold is the author of critically acclaimed and award-winning picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, and young adult novels, including The Blood Years, winner of the National Jewish Book Award and Sydney Taylor Book Award, as well being named a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and California Book Award honoree; the Printz Honor winner Damsel; the National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of; and Global Read Aloud selection A Boy Called Bat and its sequels. Her catalog of books for kids and teens has garnered dozens of starred reviews, state list citations, and other accolades. Her long list of titles has sold over a million copies, and she’s a fixture at conferences and schools across the country. Her work has been called both “devastatingly vital” and “comfortably familiar and quietly groundbreaking.”

Born in Long Beach, California, Elana spent her childhood and teen years in many parts of southern and central California before earning her undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature at UC Irvine and her master’s degree in English and Creative Writing at UC Davis. In addition to her work as a writer, Elana is a member of the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program. She lives with her family and menagerie of pets in Long Beach, California.