Kathi Appelt

Kathi Appelt (born July 6, 1954, in Fayetteville, North Carolina) is an American author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the teen writing guide Just People & Paper/Pen/Poem: A Young Writer’s Way to Begin. She grew up in Texas, graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A., and has pursued additional study at the University of Iowa.

Appelt’s work spans novels, picture books, poetry, and nonfiction, and her titles have received numerous honors, notably the PEN USA Award for Children’s Literature and Newbery Honor recognition for her novel The Underneath, as well as National Book Award finalist nods for The Underneath and The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp. In addition to her extensive publishing career—often cited at forty to fifty books—she has taught writing and serves as emerita faculty in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband and has two grown sons.