Nova Ren Suma

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Nova Ren Suma
Nova Ren Suma.jpg
Nova Ren Suma
Born Queens, New York, US
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAmerican
Education Antioch College (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
Period2009 - present
Genre Young adult fiction
Notable worksThe Walls Around Us
Website
novaren.com

Nova Ren Suma is an American #1 New York Times best selling author [1] of young adult novels. Her best-known work is The Walls Around Us . Her novels have twice been finalists for the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult from Mystery Writers of America. [2]

Contents

Personal life

Suma was born in Queens, New York, and grew up in the Hudson Valley. [3] She lived in Saugerties, New York, until she was five and moved to Pennington, New Jersey, after her parents' divorce. [3] She spent her teen years living in Woodstock, New York, where she frequented the Ashokan Reservoir, which became the setting for her novel Imaginary Girls. [4] [5] [6] Suma studied ballet from six to sixteen, which served as inspiration for her novel The Walls Around Us. [7]

Career

She cites discovering the works of Margaret Atwood when she was twelve years old as her reason for wanting to become a writer. [8] The first fiction she ever wrote were poems and short stories, which piqued her interest to study writing. [7] After Suma received her self-designed BA in journalism, creative writing and photography from Antioch College, she moved to New York City for graduate school at age 22, inspired by her mother's stories of her own experience in the city. [9] [3] She stayed in New York City and obtained an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. [10]

She wrote two adult novels before discovering the possibility of writing young adult novels, through her day job out at HarperCollins Children's Books. [7] She cites Laura Kasischke, Laura Ruby, Rita Williams-Garcia, Bennett Madison, and Francesca Lia Block as authors whose works deeply inspired her to write young adult novels herself. [7] Other of her past jobs include being an assistant editor at Marvel Comics and an editorial & production associate at Raw Books. [7] [11]

She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, [12] Yaddo, [13] and the Millay Colony for the Arts. [14] She was awarded an NEA fellowship for a residency at the Hambidge Center for Arts & Sciences. [15]

Her novel The Walls Around Us was a finalist for an Edgar Award for Best Young Adult in 2016. Her novel A Room Away from the Wolves was a finalist for the same award in 2019. [2]

She teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts, in the Writing for Children & Young Adults low-residency MFA program, [16] and at the University of Pennsylvania. [17]

In November 2017, she and fellow author Emily X.R. Pan founded Foreshadow: A Serial Anthology via the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, as an online venue for established authors to publish short stories alongside new voices. [18]

Bibliography

Books

Short stories

Essays

Awards and nominations

YearAwardWorkCategoryResultRef
2015 Cybils Award The Walls Around UsYoung Adult FictionWon [31]
2016 Edgar Award The Walls Around UsBest Young Adult NovelNominated (Finalist) [2]
2019 Edgar Award A Room Away from the WolvesBest Young Adult NovelNominated (Finalist) [2]

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References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 "Category List – Best Young Adult | Edgars Database" . Retrieved 2019-10-14.
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  9. Thea (2018-09-07). "A ROOM AWAY FROM THE WOLVES: An Interview with Nova Ren Suma (& Giveaway) |". The Book Smugglers. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
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  13. "Writers". Yaddo. 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  14. "Artists 2012". The Millay Colony for the Arts. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
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  24. Suma, Nova Ren (2009-09-22). Dani Noir . ISBN   9781416975649.
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