Kirstin Cronn-Mills is an American author of children's books including the Minnesota Book Award finalist The Sky Always Hears Me And the Hills Don't Mind (2009) [1] and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children (2012) which was a Stonewall Book Award winner and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. [2] Her third novel, Original Fake (2016), was a Minnesota Book Award finalist in 2017, along with her third nonfiction volume for high school libraries, LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field. Her fourth novel, Wreck, will be published in 2019.
Cronn-Mills received a doctorate from Iowa State University and currently teaches at South Central College, a two-year college in North Mankato, Minnesota. [3] [4] [5]
Kirstin Cronn-Mills was born in Virginia and raised in Cozad, Nebraska [6] before she moved to Mankato, Minnesota in 1992. [3] She met her husband, Daniel Cronn-Mills while attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and their son was born in 1998. [6]
Cronn-Mills's family enjoyed reading, and "according to her mother, she learned to read when she was three." [3] She began writing poetry in middle school, though now primarily writes young adult fiction. [3]
Cronn-Mills received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her Ph.D. from Iowa State University. [5] She currently teaches writing, literature, and critical thinking at South Central College. [4]
After the 2016 election, Kirstin and her husband founded the Ally Network of Minnesota, later renamed the Solidarity Network of Minnesota, which "supports work in the community focused on fair and equal treatment, alerts members to people who could use support, posts educational resources, and works to hold members of the majority culture accountable." [7] In 2019, the Cronn-Mills received the Greater Makato Pathfinder Award for founding the network. [8] [7]
The Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don't Mind, published in 2009 by Flux, is a young adult novel about Morgan, a teen living in Nebraska, who, despite having a boyfriend, kisses her classmate Tessa. [9]
The book was a 2010 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young People's Literature. [10]
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children , published in 2012 by North Star Editions, is a young adult novel about Gabe, a transgender youth. [11] When Cronn-Mills was writing the book, she frequently visited RECLAIM, "a Twin Cities-based organization that offers counseling and other services to transsexual [sic] and LGBT youth;" all who donate at least ten dollars to the organization will receive a copy of Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. [12]
The book received the following accolades:
Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices, published in 2014 by Twenty-First Century Books, is a nonfiction anthology of seven transgender individuals who share their stories about what it means to be transgender. Through the book, readers will "earn how they each came to better understand, accept, and express their gender identities," and will "follow them through the sorrows and successes of their personal journeys." [19]
In 2015, Bank Street College placed the book on the list of Best Children's Books of the Year. [20]
Original Fake , published in 2016 by Penguin Young Readers group and illustrated by E. Eero Johnson, is an illustrated young adult novel about Frankie Neumann, an introvert with an eccentric family, who dreams of becoming a street artist. [21]
The book was selected by the Junior Library Guild and received favorable reviews from the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, The Horn Book Guide, and Kirkus Reviews, as well as a starred review from Publishers Weekly. [22] Additionally, in 2017, the book was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young Adult Literature. [10] The same year, Bank Street College selected it as one of the Best Children’s Books of the Year. [23]
LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field: Striving for Equality, published in 2016 by Twenty-First Century Books, is a nonfiction book about queer athletes and how their status has changed—and still needs to change.
The book received favorable reviews from Kirkus Reviews [24] and School Library Journal, [25] a starred review from Booklist , [26] as well as the following accolades:
The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) and have been part of the American Library Association awards program, now termed ALA Book, Print & Media Awards, since 1986 as the single Gay Book Award.
The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies is a collection of LGBT historical materials housed in the Special Collections and Rare Books section of the University of Minnesota Libraries. It is located underground in the Elmer L. Andersen special collections facilities on the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. The Tretter Collection houses over 40,000 items, making it the largest LGBT archive in the Upper Midwest and one of the largest GLBT history collections in the United States. The collection, which was created by Jean-Nickolaus Tretter, is international in scope and is varied in media.
Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". She is also the only two-time recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award for Young Adult Literature for Dig (2019) and as editor and contributor to The Collectors: Stories (2023).
Candace Groth Fleming is an American writer of children's books, both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-honored The Family Romanov and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award-winning biography, The Lincolns, among others.
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is a young adult novel by Kirstin Cronn-Mills, published October 8, 2012, by North Star Editions. The book tells the story of Gabe, a transgender high school student. It received various awards and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
Susin Nielsen is a Canadian author for children, adolescents and young adults. She received the 2012 Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature and the 2013 Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award for her young adult novel The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, which deals with the aftermath of a school shooting.
Abdi Nazemian is an Iranian-American author, screenwriter, and producer. His debut novel, The Walk-In Closet, won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction at the 27th Lambda Literary Awards. He has subsequently received a second Lambda Literary Award for his young adult novel Only This Beautiful Moment, as well as a Stonewall Book Award for Only This Beautiful Moment and a Stonewall Honor for Like a Love Story, both from the American Library Association.
Meredith Russo is an American young adult author from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Anna-Marie McLemore is a Mexican-American author of young adult fiction magical realism, best known for their Stonewall Honor-winning novel When the Moon Was Ours, Wild Beauty, and The Weight of Feathers.
Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children's fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award—winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child (2018). Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award, and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
Kyle Lukoff is a children's book author, school librarian, and former bookseller. He is most known for the Stonewall award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother and for Call Me Max, which gained attention when parents in Texas complained about the book being read in an elementary school classroom and a Utah school district canceled its book program after the book was read to third graders.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out is a 2014 book written by American author Susan Kuklin. For the book, Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults, describing their sense of identity before, during, and after transitioning.
Leah Johnson is an American writer. Her debut novel You Should See Me in a Crown (2020) received critical acclaim, including a Stonewall Book Award Honor. She is the author of Rise to the Sun (2021) and Ellie Engle Saves Herself! (2023).
Original Fake is a young adult graphic novel written by Kirstin Cronn-Mills, illustrated by E. Eero Johnson, and published April 19, 2016 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.
LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field: Striving for Equality, written by Kirstin Cronn-Mills and published August 1, 2016 by Twenty-First Century Books, is a nonfiction book about queer athletes and how their status has changed—and still needs to change.
Lee Lai is a transgender, Asian-Australian cartoonist who presently lives in Canada. In 2021, the National Book Foundation named her an honoree of their 5 Under 35 award for her debut graphic novel, Stone Fruit. The following year, Stone Fruit was a finalist for the Barbara Gittings Literature Award, Lambda Literary Award for Graphic Novel/Comics, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics, among other awards.
Transphobia in the United States has changed over time. Understanding and acceptance of transgender people have both decreased and increased during the last few decades depending on the details of the issues which have been facing the public. Various governmental bodies in the United States have enacted anti-transgender legislation. Social issues in the United States also reveal a level of transphobia. Because of transphobia, transgender people in the U.S. face increased levels of violence and intimidation. Cisgender people can also be affected by transphobia.
Lev A. C. Rosen, also known as L. C. Rosen, is an American author.