In Between: Writing for Middle Grade Readers

Erin Teagan is the author of several books for kids including The Friendship Experiment (Clarion), Survivor Girl (Clarion), two series for American Girl and the forthcoming Missing and Presumed Dead (Chicago Review Press, 2027) and The Pinky Pact (Delacorte, 2028). She has a background in science and uses her experience from the lab in her books. She loves sharing the best and most interesting (and most dangerous and disgusting) parts of science with kids. Erin lives in Virginia with her family and their two droopy hound dogs named Beaker and Bunsen Burner. Visit her at www.erinteagan.com.

Ciera Burch is a ghost lover, writer of ghostly stories, and a huge ice cream fan. She’s the writer of Finch House (a book about a haunted house), Something Kindred (a book about a town of ghosts), Camp Twisted Pine, Out of Step Into You, and Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away.

Alyssa Colman is an award-winning author who writes heartwarming stories for kids. Her novel, Where Only Storms Grow, won the 2026 American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award, the 2026 Josette Frank Award, and is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Her other books include The Tarnished Garden and The Gilded Girl, both historical tales with a magical twist. Alyssa graduated from Wake Forest University and lives in Virginia.

Anna Lapera is a Guatemalan-American author and public middle school teacher. Her debut novel, Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice, is an International Latino Book Award winner, a 2025 International Literacy Association Honor Book, and was named one of the Best of 2024 by the School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, and others. Her forthcoming 2028 novel, Birdsong in the Long Night, is a YA thriller set in 1978 Guatemala City that follows a burgeoning journalist as she awakens to the resistance movements unfolding around her and uncovers the truth about the mother she believed to be long dead.

Amy Tern is the author of Sneaks (Holiday House, 2026), a Hitchcock-inspired middle grade mystery that earned starred reviews from Kirkus and the Horn Book. The book was selected by indie booksellers for the Kids' Indie Next List and the Indies Introduce program. Previously, Amy worked as an editor and associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in DC and contributed a monthly column to a Japanese magazine. Amy lives in northern Virginia with her husband, two sons, and a petulant gecko. When not working on her next novel, she enjoys reading and woolgathering in the nearby woods.