Dashka Slater

Fiction Writer, Creative Nonfiction Writer

Author's Bio

Award-winning journalist Dashka Slater has written for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and Mother Jones. Her New York Times-bestselling young-adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award, the California Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by the Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. The author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, Dashka teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives and writes in Oakland, California. Learn more at dashkaslater.com.

Publications & Prizes

Creative Nonfiction

Book:
The 57 Bus (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017)

Fiction

Books:
The Book of Stolen Time (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022)
,
The Book of Fatal Errors (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)
,
The Sea Serpent and Me (Houghton Mifflin, 2008)
,
Baby Shoes (Bloomsbury USA, 2006)
,
Firefighters in the Dark (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
,
The Wishing Box (Chronicle Books, 2000)
Prizes won: 

2023 Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Award, North American Review

2023 Katherine Anne Porter Award, 2nd Prize, Nimrod Magazine

2018 Stonewall Book Award, American Library Association

2004 Creative Writing Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Jewish
Prefers to work with: 
Adults, Any, Children, Incarcerated Individuals, Teachers, Teenagers
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Boston
Raised in: 
Cambridge, MA
Massachusetts
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Oct 23, 2023