Shelley Tanaka
Shelley Tanaka is an editor, writer, teacher and translator of books for young readers. She is the long-time fiction editor at Groundwood Books, where she has edited more than a dozen Governor General’s Award-winning titles. She is the author of thirty books for young readers, including seven titles in the popular I Was There series. Honors include the Orbis Pictus Award (Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator), ALA Notable (On Board the Titanic), USBBY Outstanding International Book Honor List (Nobody Knows), as well as two nominations for Germany’s Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis and runner-up for the Texas Bluebonnet (Attack on Pearl Harbor).
For the past twelve years, Shelley has been on the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts, teaching in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, where she has mentored more than a hundred MFA students.
Take a class with Shelley:
Awards
Orbis Pictus Award, 2009
IBBY Honour, 2006
Science in Society Children’s Book Award, 2000
Mr. Christie’s Book Award, 1997
Silver Birch Award, 1997
Information Book Award, 1996
Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis