Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia (born 1957) is an American writer of novels for children and young adults. In 2010, her novel "Jumped" was a National Book Award finalist. She won the 2011 Newbery Honor Award, Coretta Scott King Award, and Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for her book "One Crazy Summer". She has won the PEN/Norma Klein Award. Her 2013 book, "P.S. Be Eleven", was a Junior Literary Guild selection, a "New York Times" Editors Choice Book, and won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2014. In 2016 her book "Gone Crazy in Alabama" won the Coretta Scott King Award. In 2017, her book "Clayton Byrd Goes Underground" was a finalist for the National Book Award for young people's literature.
Life.
Williams-Garcia was born in Queens, New York. Her father was in the military. She graduated from Hofstra University in 1980. At Hofstra, she studied with Richard Price and Sonya Pilcer. She lives in Jamaica, New York. She taught for many years at Vermont College of Fine Arts.