Nina LaCour

Nina LaCour is a bestselling author and winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for five critically acclaimed young adult novels published by Dutton Books: We Are Okay, Watch Over Me, Stay, The Disenchantments, and Everything Leads to You. She is also the coauthor of You Know Me Well, written with David Levithan and published by St. Martin’s Griffin, as well as the author of numerous anthologies, including Summer Days and Summer Nights, edited by Stephanie Perkins. Her first adult novel, Yerba Buena, was published by Flatiron Books in February 2021, and her first picture book, Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle, was also published by Candlewick in 2021.

Born and raised in the East Bay, Nina crossed the bridge to earn a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University, then returned to Oakland to receive a master’s degree in creative writing from Mills College. Her first novel, Hold Still, which won the William C. Morris Award from the American Library Association, was also her thesis.

Nina was raised with an appreciation of art and a commitment to education. Her grandmother taught china-painting classes; her father was a teacher and later a principal; and her mother taught art in high school. Nina studied in college, taught English composition to graduate students, and later went on to teach at Berkeley City College and Maybelle High School.

After several years away to stay at home with her young daughter, Nina is once again teaching in Hamline University’s MFAC program, as well as working with independent students. She excels at lesson planning and lecture writing, classroom discussions, introducing students to drafts of stories and novels, and offering interactive lectures on craft and creativity. She teaches and gives lectures and workshops at conferences and conventions across the country and abroad. Her novels have been selected by the Junior Library Guild and as ALA Best Books for Young Adults, and have been named among the year’s best books by The Boston Globe, Seventeen, Booklist, Bustle