Complete Bio

Erin Entrada Kelly has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including the 2025 Newbery Medal for The First State of Being, 2018 Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe, a 2021 Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, the 2023 NAIBA Book of the Year Award for Those Kids from Fawn Creek, and the 2017 APALA Award for The Land of Forgotten Girls, among many other honors. She is also a National Book Award Finalist, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honoree, and author/illustrator of Marisol Rainey and Felix Powell, stand-alone stories for younger readers. Her books are New York Times bestsellers. In 2026, she received a Sibert Honor from ALA and an Orbis Pictus Honor from NCTE for At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom, her first work of nonfiction.

Before becoming a children's author, Erin worked as a journalist and magazine editor in her home state of Louisiana. She received numerous awards from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press for community service journalism, feature writing, and editing. She has published more than thirty short stories and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Philippines Free Press Award for Short Fiction. She has written for the New York Times, Political Research Associates, Writers Digest, People, and others.

Erin has a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from McNeese State University, an MFA in fiction from Rosemont College, and an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Moore College of Art and Design. She is on the founding faculty of the University of San Francisco's Writing for Young Readers graduate program.

Erin lives in Delaware, near Philadelphia.