Erin Donovan

Erin Donovan has spent her career helping young people learn how to read, write, tell their stories—and, most importantly, own the space their words take up.

She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on literacy and has worked as a middle school teacher, reading specialist, literacy educator, professor, and learning designer.

But long before all of that, she was the kid with her nose permanently stuck in a book.

At thirteen, while other kids were discussing considerably more normal things, Erin was reading All the President's Men and desperately wishing she had a best friend willing to discuss her inexplicable crush on Richard Nixon.

Spoiler: she did not.

Books became the place where she didn't have to tuck away the parts of herself that were too strange, too curious, too loud, too imaginative, or simply too much. Inside a story, being different wasn't something to fix. It was usually where the interesting stuff started.

Years later, as a teacher, Erin began noticing young people doing the same thing, quietly tucking away pieces of themselves to fit into spaces that weren't quite built for them.

So, she began writing the kinds of stories she wanted those kids to find.

Stories about imperfect young people with complicated lives, unusual obsessions, big questions, questionable decisions, and wonderfully odd ways of seeing the world.

Her hope for every reader is simple:

Find the stories that make you feel less alone.

Write the ones you can't find.

And whatever you do, don't tuck away your wonderfulness just to fit in.

Stay curious. Stay odd. Take up space.