Kathi Appelt | |
|---|---|
 Appelt at the 2017 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | July 6, 1954 Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, writing teacher |
| Alma mater | Texas A&M University |
| Period | 1990s–present |
| Genre | Children's literature, picture books, non-fiction |
| Website | |
| kathiappelt | |
Kathi Appelt (born July 6, 1954) [1] is an American author of more than forty books for children and young adults. [2] She won the annual PEN USA award for Children's Literature recognizing The Underneath (2008). [3]
Kathi Appelt was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, [1] and grew up in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Texas A&M University and lives in College Station, Texas. [4]
Appelt is the author of more than 30 books. She writes novels, picture books, poetry, and nonfiction for children and young adults. [5] Her books have been translated into several languages: Spanish, Chinese, French, and Swedish. [6] She is emerita faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. [7]
Her first novel was The Underneath, illustrated by David Small and published by Simon & Schuster in 2008. It features a cat and dog who live mainly beneath an old house in the Louisiana–Texas bayou. For that work she received the annual Children's Literature award from PEN Center USA [3] and she was also a runner-up for the National Book Award (National Book Award for Young People's Literature finalist) [8] and the American Library Association Newbery Medal (Newbery Honor Book). [9]
Her papers are held in the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi (unprocessed manuscripts collection, 1985–2005). [10]
