Bio:

Steve Watkins is the author of Down Sand Mountain, a young adult novel published in October 2008 by Candlewick Press, and winner of the 2009 Golden Kite Award for Fiction from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Another young adult novel, What Comes After, was published by Candlewick in Spring 2011 and was named one of Bank Street College's Best Books of 2012. What Comes After is also a finalist for the Georgia Peach Book Award. Another YA novel, Juvie, is scheduled for publication by Candlewick Press in Fall 2013.

Steve is also author of a short story collection, My Chaos Theory (2006, Southern Methodist University Press), which was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize, and an Honorable Mention for the Library of Virginia Fiction Award. He also wrote the award-winning non-fiction book The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire, published in 1997 by the University of Georgia Press, which tells the story of the largest employment discrimination class action lawsuit in U.S. history. His fiction, poetry, and non-fiction articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, Poets & Writers, Mississippi Review, 100 Percent Pure Florida Fiction, North American Review, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.

A graduate of Florida State University, Steve is a former college teacher--he taught journalism, creative writing, and Vietnam War literature at the University of Mary Washington for more than twenty years. He teaches Ashtanga yoga, works with Tree Fredericksburg, an urban reforestation group, and volunteers as an investigator and advocate for abused and neglected children through the child advocacy organization CASA. He lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with his wife Janet, and two of his daughters–-Maggie, Eva, Claire, and Lili. Steve and Janet were long-time directors of the religious education program at the Fredericksburg Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, where Steve also recently served as president.


Writer
PAL
Member since 2008
Region: Mid Atlantic (D.C./Virginia)

Contact Information

Email:  swatkins000@gmail.com
Phone:   540-371-3935
Website:  http://stevewatkinsbooks.com

Published In Children's Market: Yes
Available for Speaking Engagements? Yes