Karen Yin
An American writer of Chinese descent, Karen Yin is the author of the picture books WHOLE WHALE (Barefoot Books, 2021), SO NOT GHOUL (Page Street Kids, 2022), DOUG THE PUG AND THE KINDNESS CREW (Scholastic, 2022); the short story “My Kinda Sorta Badass Move” (BRIDGES AND ISLANDS young-adult anthology, Inkyard Press, 2023); and the upcoming nonfiction book CONSCIOUS LANGUAGE (Little, Brown Spark).
Acclaim for her writing includes a 2021 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, a 2020 SCBWI/Smithsonian Nonfiction Grant, selection of her flash fiction by the Los Angeles Public Library for its permanent collection in 2020, a 2015 Lambda Literary Fellowship, and a 2014 Table 4 Writers Foundation grant.
After Karen founded Conscious Style Guide and The Conscious Language Newsletter to spread mindful language, she won the ACES Robinson Prize in 2017 for furthering the craft of professional editing. Conscious Style Guide was named by Poynter as one of the top tools for journalists in 2018 and is recommended by Poets & Writers, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and countless others, including NASA. She also founded the Editors of Color Database and the Database of Diverse Databases.
A member of the Authors Guild, the Dramatists Guild, and SCBWI, Karen is represented by Red Fox Literary for children’s books and DeFiore and Company for other literature. Find her online at KarenYin.com and her book recommendations at DiversePictureBooks.com.
Karen says, “I write for children as a way to invite playfulness into their lives. That might seem odd. After all, aren’t children already playful? As a child, my capacity for playfulness was unlimited, but it wasn’t always safe or acceptable to be playful. I was an American daughter of poor Chinese immigrants, which meant I was pressed into service early on—translating, negotiating with strangers, running errands, filling out forms, even signing them. If I wasn’t working, I was cleaning or taking care of something. But I had one outlet that my parents encouraged: reading. The local library was my second home. My sisters and I borrowed so many books each visit that my father made a rubber stamp of his signature. Through books, I was allowed to play. I could wear many faces, adopt unusual perspectives, and experience the beauty and cruelty necessary to nurture compassion. Stories instilled in me the belief that without playfulness, we have no imagination, no freedom, no future. So, for all children, but especially for those whose childhoods are on hold, I write in hopes that my books will help light a way back to playfulness, to ourselves.”