Meg Medina

Meg Medina is the current National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature. She is an award-winning and New York Times best-selling author who writes picture books, as well as middle grade and young adult fiction.

Her works have been called “heartbreaking,” “lyrical” and “must haves for every collection.” Her titles include:  

• the Suárez family trilogy including Merci Suárez Changes Gears, 2019 John Newbery Medal winner, and 2019 Charlotte Huck Honor Book; Merci Suárez Can’t Dance, one of the 50 most anticipated novels of 2021, according to Kirkus; and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool, which was named a Best Book of 2022 by PARENTS, Kirkus, and The Horn Book magazines;

• She Persisted: Sonia Sotomayor, with Chelsea Clinton;

• Evelyn del Rey is Moving Away / Evelyn del Rey se muda, 2020 Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Selection, winner of the Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children’s Literature, and 2021 Crystal Kite Award;

• Burn Baby Burn, long-listed for the 2016 National Book Award, short-listed for the Kirkus Prize, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize;

• Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, winner of the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award; 

• The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, a 2012 Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year;

• Mango, Abuela, and Me, a 2016 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book; and

• Tía Isa Wants a Car, winner of the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers Award.

Meg works on community projects supporting girls, Latino youth, and literacy when not writing. She is a faculty member at Hamline University’s Masters of Fine Arts in Children’s Literature and lives in Richmond, Virginia with her family.