 | An editor has performed a search and found that sufficient sources exist to establish the subject's notability.(January 2024) |
Rena Barron | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Young adult fiction, Middle Grade fiction |
| Years active | 2019–present |
| Notable works | Kingdom of Souls |
| Website | |
| renabarron | |
Rena Barron is an African American [1] author of middle grade and young adult fiction, [2] best known for her debut young adult fantasy novel Kingdom of Souls .
Barron grew up in small-town Alabama, where her family owned a farm, [1] and says she's always had an obsession with science fiction and fantasy. [3]
Growing up, she heard a lot of stories about people practicing voodoo, which initially piqued her interest, [4] since it was often talked about in a negative light. [5] As a child, she was taught vodun, a West African spiritual practice, which served as the inspiration for her debut novel. [6] The books she read most were adult, which she says is due to her love of complicated stories on the dark side, which wasn't as prevalent in children's literature at the time. Her favorite books were The Last Vampire series by Christopher Pike, the Animorphs series, and many books by R.L. Stine. [7]
She considers herself part of the West African diaspora "removed from her ancestors' traditions". [3] Some of her favorite authors include Margaret Atwood, Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black, Octavia Butler, Suzanne Collins, N.K. Jemisin, and Toni Morrison. [8]
Barrin wrote her first poem in middle school and wrote her first stories and novels in high school. [9]
She has written two-book series: Kingdom of Souls and Maya the Rising Dark. [10] [11]
Barron didn't originally set out to write a trilogy, but found that the story demanded it. She completed the first draft of the story in 2013, but put the project on hold after receiving a number of rejections on it after first sending it out in 2014. [4] She revisited the story in 2017, rewriting it from the ground up. [9] The book was originally told in dual perspective of the main character and love interest. [4]
The manuscript, then called The Last Witchdoctor, was showcased during Pitch Wars, a now-defunct online pitch contest for a spring authors, where it became the most-requested manuscript in the history of the six-year contest, having garnered interest by 43 literary agents. [6]
Set in a West African-inspired fictional kingdom, it tells the story of Arrah, a girl failing at magic to the extent that her mother conjures a better daughter, whose magic soon threatens the kingdom. [6]
Kingdom of Souls (HarperTeen, 2019) was a Best Fiction for Young Adults selection by Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). [12] It received a starred review from School Library Journal . [13] It was also published by HarperCollins UK in the United Kingdom in 2020. [14]
In 2019, Michael B. Jordan's Warner Brothers-based production company Outlier Society acquired the movie rights for the first book, with Jordan to produce alongside Alana Mayo and Pouya Shahbazian based on a screenplay by Misanthropist Sagay. [15]
The second book in the series, Reaper of Souls, about a now-magic possessing Arrah who's become the last surviving witchdoctor and is hunted by the Demon King, was first published by HarperTeen in 2021. It was also published by HarperCollins UK in the United Kingdom in 2021. [16]
Barron says she's had chronic illnesses all her life, some invisible, which inspired her to write about a main character in Maya that also has similar experiences, without making it the center of her story. [3] The neighborhood Maya lives in is modeled after one that Barron lived in herself for many years. [17]
The first book, Maya and the Rising Dark (HMH Books, 2020), based on West African mythology, tells the story of twelve-year-old Maya who starts seeing fantastical creatures around Chicago and relates that to stories her father told her that she previously dismissed as fiction. [18]
It received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews . [19] [20]
Neal Shusterman is an American writer of young-adult fiction. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for his book Challenger Deep and his novel, Scythe, was a 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor book.
Sonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written seven young adult novels in verse and one novel in verse for adults. The American Library Association (ALA) has named her one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.
Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret A. Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."
Hannah Moskowitz is an American author of young adult and middle grade novels.
Survivors is a novel series written by a team of authors under the pseudonym Erin Hunter. Survivors follows the adventures of a group of former domestic dogs who form a pack with the help of protagonist Lucky, after an earthquake separates them from their owners. The first book, The Empty City, was released on 21 August 2012, and was followed by eleven more books written between 2013 and 2019.
Untamed City: Carnival of Secrets, formerly published as Carnival of Souls is a young adult fantasy novel by author Melissa Marr. It was published by HarperTeen, a division of HarperCollins, in September 2012. Marr has stated that there will be at least one sequel to the book.
Michelle Zink is an American author. She is known for her gothic fantasy series, Prophecy of the Sisters and A Temptation of Angels. Prophecy of the Sisters was named both to Booklist's Top 10 First Novels for Youth and the Autumn 2009 Indie Next List. Other works may be found under the name of Michelle St. James.
Amy Plum is an American-born French young-adult fiction writer, best known for her Die for Me series.
Amie Kaufman is an Australian author. She has authored New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner; for her series The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff; and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.
Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.
Elizabeth Acevedo is a Dominican-American poet and author. In September 2022, the Poetry Foundation named her the year's Young People's Poet Laureate.
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.
Rebecca Podos is an American author of young adult fiction and a literary agent, best known for her Lambda Literary Award-winning novel Like Water.
Tiffany D. Jackson is a New York Times Bestselling American author of young adult fiction and a horror filmmaker, best known for her NAACP Image Award-nominated debut novel Allegedly.
Brandy Colbert is an American author of young adult fiction and nonfiction.
Rin Chupeco is a Chinese Filipino writer of young adult fiction, best known for their books The Bone Witch, The Girl from the Well, and The Never-Tilting World series.
All the Things We Do in the Dark is a young adult psychological thriller novel by Saundra Mitchell, published October 29, 2019 by HarperTeen. The book was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.
Tehlor Kay Mejia is an American author. She is best known for her novels We Set the Dark on Fire (2019), We Unleash the Merciless Storm (2020), Miss Meteor (2020), and Lucha of the Night Forest (2023).
Preslaysa Williams is an American actress, journalist, and author from New Brunswick, New Jersey. She is a novelist with HarperCollins, specializing in contemporary romance and women's fiction, with a focus on diverse characters. She has been featured in The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, NPR, and Writer's Digest.
Rebecca Ross is an American author of young adult novels and adult fantasy, best known for her New York Times bestselling Letters of Enchantment duology.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)