An Na

An Na (born 1972) is a South Korea-born^[1] American children's book author. Starting her career as a middle school English and History teacher, Na turned to writing novels after taking a young adult literature class while enrolled in an M.F.A. program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She gained success with her very first novel A Step From Heaven, published by Front Street Press in 2001, which won the annual Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association recognizing the year's "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit".^[2] It was also a finalist for the National Book Award, Young People's Literature, and later found its way onto numerous "best book" lists. Na still makes frequent visits to middle schools to talk about her works and encourages young Asian-American students to become artists and harness their creativity. She cites Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes and Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street among the influences on her writing and also admires the work of Madeleine L'Engle and of her first writing teacher, Jacqueline Woodson. She divides her time between Oakland, California and Warren, Vermont.

She grew up in San Diego, California,^[1] and has a bachelor of arts from Amherst College.^[3]^[4]

Works

Michael L. Printz Award winners

2000s	2000: Myers – Monster 2001: Almond – Kit's Wilderness 2002: Na – A Step From Heaven 2003: Chambers – Postcards from No Man's Land 2004: Johnson – The First Part Last 2005: Rosoff – How I Live Now 2006: Green – Looking for Alaska 2007: Yang – American Born Chinese 2008: McCaughrean – The White Darkness 2009: Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road

2010s	2010: Bray – Going Bovine 2011: Bacigalupi – Ship Breaker 2012: Whaley – Where Things Come Back 2013: Lake – In Darkness 2014: Sedgwick – Midwinterblood 2015: Nelson – I'll Give You the Sun 2016: Ruby – Bone Gap

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 74939963 LCCN: n00039307 ISNI: 0000 0000 6324 8661 GND: 129726184

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