Press Kit

Really Short Bio: Shana Youngdahl is a poet, professor, and fiction writer. Shana loves helping young people embrace the stories they need to tell and teaches at the University of Maine-Farmington. Her debut novel As Many Nows As I Can Get (Dial/Penguin Teen) was a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and a New York Public Library top-ten book for teens. Connect with her online at www.shanayoungdahl.com, twitter @shanayoungdahl or instragram @shanayoungdahl

Short Bio: Shana Youngdahl is a poet, professor, and fiction writer. Shana loves helping young people embrace the stories they need to tell. Educated at Mills College and The University of Minnesota, Shana teaches writing at the University of Maine-Farmington, where she has also directed the Longfellow Young Writers Workshop, and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. The author of several poetry chapbooks and one volume of poems, her debut novel As Many Nows As I Can Get, was a Kirkus Best Book of 2019, and a New York Public Library top-ten book of 2019 (Dial/Penguin Teen). Connect with her online at www.shanayoungdahl.com, twitter @shanayoungdahl or instragram @shanayoungdahl

Long Bio: Shana Youngdahl is a poet, professor, and fiction writer originally from Paradise, California. Shana loves helping young people embrace the stories they need to tell. Her first writing workshop was at the California State Summer School for the Arts in high school. It was at CSSSA where she first had the opportunity to work with other serious young artists. This experience galvanized her love of language and made her a stalwart supporter of positive creative communities.

Shana went on to earn a degree in English from Mills College and an MFA in poetry from The University of Minnesota. She’s held drivers licenses in five states, but currently teaches writing at the University of Maine-Farmington, where she has also directed the Longfellow Young Writers Workshop. A California girl who has found herself living in rural Maine, she actively tries to embrace winter through cross-country and down-hill skiing, but can often be found curled up with her cats and a book, or sledding in the yard with her husband and daughters.

She works to support creative community by overseeing the Sandy River Review Online at UMF and serving as a board member for the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. The author of several poetry chapbooks and one volume of poems, As Many Nows As I Can Get, (Dial/Penguin Teen) her debut novel was a Kirkus best book of 2019 and a New York Public Library top-ten book of the year. She’s received fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society and the Iowa Arts Council. Connect with her online at www.shanayoungdahl.com, twitter @shanayoungdahl or instragram @shanayoungdahl