By Andrea Ruggirello

Over the last seven years, WNDB has been proud to provide Walter Grants to promising writers and illustrators from diverse communities. Below are the books that have been published or announced by grantees since receiving their grants. Congratulations to everyone!

2020

• Desiree Evans
  • Contributor to Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA (October 2020, Algonquin Young Readers)
• Brian Wasson
  • Seven Minutes in Candyland (Fall 2023, Quill Tree/Harper Collins)

2018

• Adriana Hernández-Bergstrom
  • Countdown to Nochebuena (Fall 2023, Little, Brown)
  • Tumble (Summer 2023, Scholastic)
  • Abuelita & I Make Flan (August 2022, Charlesbridge Publishing)
  • Boomer at your Service by Vanessa Keel (October 2019, Spork) 
• Yasmine Mahdavi
  • Roots in Iran: Inspiring Stories of Visionary Women (September 2021, Self-published)
  • Nicholas Solis
  • My Town, Mi Pueblo illustrated by Luisa Uribe (August 2022, Nancy Paulsen Books)
  • The Color Collector (April 2021, Sleeping Bear Press)
  • The Staring Contest (September 2020, Peter Pauper Press)

2016

• Jacqueline Alcantara
  • Climb On by Baptiste Paul (March 2022, North South Books)
  • Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos (April 2021, Versify Books)
  • Jump at the Sun: the true life tale of unstoppable storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston by Alicia D. Williams (January 2021, Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / Atheneum Books for Young Readers) 
  • Freedom Soup by Tami Charles (December 2019, Candlewick Press)
  • The Field by Baptiste Paul (March 2018, North South Books)
• Jennifer De Leon
  • Borderless (April 2023, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books) 
  • White Space (March 2021, University of Massachusetts Press)
  • Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (July 2021, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)
• Francesca Padilla
  • What’s Coming to Me (August 2022, Soho Teen)

2015

• Naadeyah Haseeb
  • Manic Depressive Dream Girl (2015, Maudlin House)
• Jami Nakamura Lin
  • The Night Parade (2023, Mariner/HarperCollins)
• Yamile Saied Méndez
  • Contributor to The Grimoire of Grave Fates (June 2023, Delacorte Press)
  • No Place Like Home (Horse Country 4) (February 2023, Scholastic)
  • Twice a Quinceañera (2022, Kensington)
  • Our Shadows Have Claws (2022, Algonquin Young Readers)
  • Where There’s Smoke (Horse Country 3) (2022, Scholastic)
  • Friends Like These (Horse Country 2) (2022, Scholastic)
  • Can’t Be Tamed (Horse Country 1) (2022, Scholastic)
  • Contributor to Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space (2022, Wednesday Books)
  • Contributor to Game On: 15 Stories of Wins, Losses, and Everything in Between (2022, Viking Books for Young Readers)
  • Contributor to Our Shadows Have Claws (2022, Algonquin Young Readers)
  • Wish Upon a Stray (2021, Scholastic)
  • What Will You Be? (2021, HarperCollins)
  • Shaking Up the House (2021, HarperCollins)
  • Furia (2020, Algonquin Young Readers)
  • On These Magic Shores (2020, Lee & Low/Tu Books)
  • Contributor to Come On In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home (2020, Inkyard Press)
  • Contributor to Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-town America (2020, Candlewick Press)
  • Random Acts of Kittens (2019, Scholastic)
  • “Where Are You From?” /“¿De Dónde Eres?” (2019, HarperCollins)
  • Contributor to Take The Mic (2019, Arthur A. Levine Books)
  • Blizzard Besties (2018, Scholastic)
• Shveta Thakrar
  • The Dream Runners (2022, HarperTeen)
  • Star Daughter (2020, HarperTeen)
  • Contributor to A Thousand Beginnings and Endings (2018, Greenwillow Books)
  • Contributor to Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft (2018, Harlequin Teen)
  • Contributor to Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World (2017, Algonquin Young Readers)
  • Contributor to Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (2014, Twelfth Planet Press)
• Angie Thomas
  • Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy (April 2023, Balzer + Bray)
  • Contributor to Whiteout (2022, Quill Tree Books)
  • Contributor to Blackout (2021, Quill Tree Books)
  • Concrete Rose (2021, Blazer + Bray)
  • Find Your Voice (2020, Blazer + Bray)
  • On the Come Up (2019, Blazer + Bray)
  • The Hate U Give (2017, Blazer + Bray)

******

Andrea Ruggirello‘s stories, essays, and poetry appear or are forthcoming in Gay Magazine, Zora, Hobart, The Baltimore Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Electric Literature, Catapult, Third Coast, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in fiction from West Virginia University, and her novel manuscript was a semi-finalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Andrea was born in Korea, adopted as a baby, and raised on Staten Island, NY. She lives in Washington, D.C.