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Meg Medina Faculty Profile

Margaret Medina

Graduate Adjunct - CLA
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Meg Medina is the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist, and which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award, and which was published in 2023 as a graphic novel illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of picture books Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez, Jumpstart’s 2020 Read for the Record selection; Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, which was a Pura Belpré Author Award Honor Book; and Tía Isa Wants a Car, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award; and the biographies for young readers She Persisted: Sonia Sotomayor and She Persisted: Pura Belpré, co-authored with Marilisa Jiménez García. Her most recent title is No More Señora Mimí (Sept 2024.) The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia.

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Publications

Young adult

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass: The Graphic Novel (Adapted by Mel Valentine Vargas)*
Candlewick Press, 2023

Burn Baby Burn
Candlewick Press, 2016

Middle grade

Merci Suárez Plays It Cool
Candlewick Press, 2022 

Merci Suárez Can’t Dance*
Candlewick Press, 2021

Merci Suárez Changes Gears*
Candlewick Press, 2018

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
Candlewick Press, 2013

The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind
Candlewick Press, 2012

Milagros: The Girl from Away
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, 2008

Chapter book

She Persisted: Pura Belpré (nonfiction, co-authored with Marilisa Jiménez García, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger)*
Philomel, 2021

She Persisted: Sonia Sotomayor (nonfiction, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger)*
Philomel, 2021

Picture book

No More Señora Mimí (illustrated by Brittany Cicchese)*
Candlewick Press, 2024

Mango, Abuela, and Me (illustrated by Angela Dominquez)*
Candlewick Press, 2021

Tia Isa Wants a Car (illustrated by Claudio Munoz)*
Candlewick, 2020

Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away (illustrated by Sonia Sánchez)*
Candlewick Press, 2020

 

*Indicates that the title is also available in Spanish