Shana Youngdahl - January 2026 Featured Author

Shana Youngdahl is the author of the novels  As Many Nows As I Can Get and  A Catalog of Burnt Objects. Originally from Paradise, CA, she teaches writing and lives in the St. Louis area.  Connect with her at www.shanayoungdahl.com, or instragram @shanayoungdahl 

Congrats on your recently released YA contemporary book, A Catalog of Burnt Objects, which released in March 2025. Tell us a little about it.

A Catalog of Burnt Objects is a love story, family story, and a community story. It is narrated by Caprice Alexander, a High School senior who wants nothing more than to get through her final year in small-town Sierra without the drama of her troubled brother getting in the way of finishing an app that she is making to try and win scholarship money, and bring tourists to her little-known northern California town. Her year starts to look better than expected when her brother introduces her to a new boy and but as soon as sparks start to fly, a real fire erupts and burns down their town in a matter of hours. Caprice must then find a way to forward in the face of her catastrophic losses and upended community.

How did you get started? Did you always want to be a children's author?

I always wanted to be a writer. I came to write YA because the story of my first novel fit with this audience, and I have always loved reading YA. I hope to write more books for this audience, but I also have two books of poetry for adults, and could see myself writing for whatever audience my story, or poem, needs. I do like to think of both of my novels as ones that have found cross-over interest in the adult market.

We'd love to hear more about your writing journey. What's the process been like?

I have been a writer all my life, and one thing that I have learned is that you need to write because you love it and because it is how you make and remake your world. For me writing is a way of being and living. It is a deeply ingrained part of who I am.

What is your daily writing routine?

I try to write every day for ideally two hours, usually first thing in the morning. Right now that is between 7:10 and 9:15, Monday through Friday. When I am really into a project, I will work seven days a week, but I sleep in a bit on the weekends. In the summer, when I am not traveling and off contract from my teaching, I try to write for three to four hours a day and then take the afternoon off to do fun things with my family. 

How have you stayed connected to the writing community?

I am very lucky to have a long-lasting community of writers that I can trace across my life. If your writing community is your friend group, it makes it easy. Since I moved to Saint Louis four years ago, I was lucky to meet some other YA and Kidlit authors that I started to meet up with for writing dates. That is how I found friends here, I mean I actually don’t think I know anyone in Missouri who isn’t a writer!

Since I work in an MFA in Writing program my day job is also so connected to the writing community, and because I teach many genres and coordinate our visiting writers series, I have day-job reasons to stay connected to writers working in all over the filed, so that helps too. I supposed the short answer is my life isn’t that balanced, it’s pretty much all about writing! 

How has networking with other writers helped you along the way?

Community is so important, mostly because your friends will keep you going when the business gets tough, they will celebrate with you, give you feedback on your work, and offer a helping hand when they can. While my network has resulted in some speaking gigs, the real benefit is the interpersonal connections and the creative energy that comes from being in community with other supportive people. It’s the daily text messages, the book recommendations, and having someone there to remind you that you can do it and they want to read your story no matter if it becomes a bestseller, or a book, or a manuscript gathering dust on your shelf. 

Do you have a critique group? And if so, how has that group been beneficial to your career?

At the moment, I have a writers group that formed out of my YA debut group, we live all over the country and meet by video conferencing. Not all of us have even met in person, but I presented at a conference with one member, and another has been in conversation with me at several book events. The best part about this group is having a community of professional readers who can workshop new ideas and projects, and who can be a sounding board for all of the challenges of the field. Mostly, they keep me sane and motivated. I am so grateful for them.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I am an Associate Professor in Lidenwood University’s MFA in Writing Program. I have two kids, a dog and a cat. My family says I have no hobbies, but I do yoga every day, I try to get the gym a few times a week, I read, I listen to audiobooks as a way to bribe myself to clean things. I stand in the kitchen and watch my husband cook. 

What is the best advice you've ever been given about writing?

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

The most basic advice is to read and write, but I actually think the best advice I was given is advice I hated starting out. It came from a professor in my MFA program, she said, “Don’t think about your first book, think about your 9th book.” At the time I kept thinking, but I don’t even have a first book! I need to think about that! But what she meant, and what I try to stress to students is that the work you are doing as a writer builds, your goal is to first build a sustainable writing life, a life in which you can write nine books. Do that and you’ll be sure to get the first one, and if you keep doing it, you’ll get the 9th one too (though I can’t say that from personal experience, yet!)

What are you currently working on? Anything else upcoming you'd like us to know about?

My new projects are all very secret, but A Catalog of Burnt Objects will be out in paperback in February, and is available preorder that now. I should also be doing some local events in the spring around to support the paperback launch. I’ll be presenting at the Saint Louis Writer’s guild on February 7th. 

If you are interested in hearing more from me, I publish a monthly (ish) substack called Their WIll Be Typos. It is all about living with mistakes and imperfections and writing anyway. It always has updates on events, so it is a good way to keep in touch.