Stephanie Guerra teaches classes in writing and children’s and adolescent literature at Seattle University. She also teaches creative writing at King County Jail, and is building a fiction and memoir-writing program at the King County Juvenile Detention Center.
Stephanie’s writing career began in high school, when she was a regular columnist for SCOPE Magazine (Now Las Vegas Weekly) and contributing writer for Las Vegas People. At eighteen, she began to work as a personal biographer, writing unpublished family histories for clients. After college, she earned an MFA in creative writing at the University of Notre Dame, and then studied children’s responses to literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
As a researcher, Stephanie’s interest in young adult fiction has led her to study dystopian science fiction and street literature, among other genres. Her specialty is using young adult literature to build literacy with at-risk teens. She loves to present on this topic at conferences for teachers and librarians. Torn is her first young adult novel.
Stephanie enjoys playing piano, cartooning, hiking, and cooking. She lived in Italy at one time, and would like to move there with her family when she finds gold at the end of the rainbow. Currently she resides in Seattle with her husband and children.
Here’s Stephanie’s upcoming events: 1) From July 9th through 15th, she’ll be featured on Amazon’s Author Adventures page, which includes a short video of her doing author q and a, carousels of her summer reading recommendations, and info about her book. She is the first debut author they’re featuring . Check out this link www.amazon.com/authoradventures.
2) She was awarded a grant from Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs to build a creative writing program at King County Juvenile Detention Center. Here’s the link to her award info:
http://www.seattle.gov/arts/funding/youth_arts_partners.asp.
