Stephanie Kuehn is an American author of

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

fiction, best known for her

William C. Morris Award The William C. Morris YA Debut Award is an annual award given to a work of young adult literature by a "first-time author writing for teens". It is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American ...

-winning debut novel '' Charm & Strange'', ''Delicate Monsters'', and ''Complicit''. Her novels often explore themes of mental illness and psychology.

Personal life

Kuehn wanted to be a filmmaker as a teen and grew up in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. She grew up reading books by V.C. Andrews and

Peter Straub Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

. Kuehn went to

John F. Kennedy University John F. Kennedy University was a private university based in California with offices in Pleasant Hill, California, Pleasant Hill, San Jose, California, San Jose in California; Natick, Massachusetts; and Willemstad, Curaçao. The university was ...

and the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

. She has a bachelor's degree in linguistics, a master's degree in sports psychology, and a doctorate in clinical psychology''.'' Her background as a psychologist is one of the reasons why many of her novels have narrators who are dealing with mental health issues. She currently lives in Northern California with her husband and three children.

Selected works

Her debut young adult novel, ''Charm & Strange,'' was published by

St. Martin's Griffin St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the pub ...

in 2014 and tells the story of a teenage athlete who believes he might be a werewolf. ''Charm & Strange'' won the William C. Morris Award in 2014 and was nominated for a Carnegie Medal in 2014. ''Delicate Monsters'', her sophomore novel, about the intersecting lives of three troubled teenagers, was published in 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin. It won the Northern California Book Award in the category Children's Fiction for Older Readers in 2016. Her third novel, ''Complicit'', about a teen dealing with the aftermath of his sister burning down a barn and being sentenced to juvenile detention, was published by St. Martin's Griffin in 2016. ''Complicit'' was also on Booklist's 2014 Top 10 Crime Fiction for Youth, the 2015 Reading List of the Texas Library Association, YALSA's 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults list, and YALSA's 2017 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list. ''Complicit'' was also nominated for a Kentucky Bluegrass Award in 2016 and a Rhode Island Teen Book Award in 2016. Kuehn's fourth novel, ''The Smaller Evil'', is about a teen who arrives at a self-help center to deal with his anxiety and chronic illness, but stumbled into strange happenings when the retreat leader appears not to be who he seems. The Smaller Evil was published by Dutton in 2016. It received a starred review from

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...

Kuehn was awarded the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship for ''The Smaller Evil'' in 2015. Her fifth novel, ''When I Am Through With You'', was published by Dutton in 2017. It received a starred review from Kirkus magazine.

Bibliography

Young adult novels

*''Charm & Strange'' (St. Martin's Griffin, 2014) *''Delicate Monsters'' (St. Martin's Griffin, 2015) *''Complicit'' (St. Martin's Griffin, 2016) *''The Smaller Evil'' (Dutton, 2016) *''When I Am Through With You'' (Dutton, 2017) *''We Weren't Looking to Be Found'' (Disney-Hyperion, 2022)

Short stories

* in ''Feral Youth'', edited by Shaun David Hutchinson (Simon Pulse, 2017) * in ''(Don't) Call Me Crazy'', edited by Kelly Jensen (Algonquin, 2018) *in ''His Hideous Heart'', edited by Dahlia Adler (Flatiron, 2019)

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuehn, Stephanie Living people 21st-century American novelists Women writers of young adult literature African-American novelists Novelists from California American children's writers American women children's writers 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) John F. Kennedy University alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni American women psychologists 21st-century American psychologists American writers of young adult literature African-American children's writers African-American psychologists American women novelists 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers The William C. Morris YA Debut Award winners