It received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal. It's set in a Caribbean-inspired world and tells the story of a black protagonist fighting back against colonizers. Their adult debut, Queen of the Conquered, was published by Orbit in 2019. It received a starred review from School Library Journal, Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly. King and the Dragonflies, Callender's second middle-grade novel that explores race and sexuality, was published in 2020. Felix Ever After was published with Balzer + Bray in 2020 and sold together with This is Kind of an Epic Love Story in November 2017. Their second young adult novel, Felix Ever After, is about a transgender teen who catfishes a classmate for revenge and ends up falling for him. Hurricane Child went on to win the award.

īoth Hurricane Child and Callender's young adult debut, This is Kind of an Epic Love Story, were nominated for a 2019 Lambda Literary Award in the category LGBTQ* Children's/Young Adult. Their debut novel, Hurricane Child, about a twelve-year-old born during a hurricane who believes herself to be cursed, was published by Scholastic in 2018 and received the Stonewall Book Award in 2019. Callender debuted their new name when announcing their next young adult novel Felix Ever After in May 2019. Ĭallender is Black, queer, trans, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. In 2018, in reaction to Hurricane Irma, Callender launched the online auction #USVIPubFund, under which they and other book publishing professionals raised $104,000 to support the U.S. Prior to becoming an author, Callender was an editor at Little, Brown.

Callender also has a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Japanese and Creative Writing and a MFA from The New School's Writing for Children program. Personal life Ĭallender was born (in 1989) and raised in Saint Thomas, U.S. Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Children's/Middle Grade. Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children's fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child.

National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Felix ever after