Erin Entrada Kelly

Erin Entrada Kelly (born September 5, 1977, Hays, Kansas, U.S.) is a Filipino American children’s author best known for writing novels for and about middle schoolers and for weaving aspects of Filipino culture into her stories. Kelly won the Newbery Medal in 2018 for her book Hello, Universe (2017).

Early life and education

Kelly was born to Virgilia Sy Entrada and Dennis Ray Kelly; she is the youngest of their two daughters. Her mother was born in the Philippines, where she met Kelly’s father, an American sailor; she moved to the United States to marry him. The family eventually settled in Lake Charles, Louisiana, when Erin Entrada Kelly was young. She received a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies and liberal arts from McNeese State University in Lake Charles and a master’s degree in creative writing from Rosemont College in Pennsylvania.

In interviews, Kelly has said she felt lonely as a child. Other than her sister, she was the only Filipino American at her school. She felt like an outsider and was bullied and teased—themes that she has woven into her stories. During her acceptance speech for the 2018 Newbery Medal, she said, “My greatest wish as a writer is that the person reading my book—or any book, for that matter—feels less alone.”

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Writing

Kelly has stated that she always wanted to be a writer and recalls composing her first story when she was about eight years old; she has continued to write ever since. As an adult, Kelly worked as a journalist, editor, copy editor, and a book publicist for many years while writing in her spare time. She did not begin to write fiction full-time until after she won the Newbery Medal in 2018.

Her first short story, “The Legend of Fidela,” was published in Story Philippines, a literary magazine, in 2008. Kelly’s first published novel, Blackbird Fly (2015), was influenced by her own middle-school experience. It follows 12-year-old Apple, who had moved to the United States from the Philippines with her mother when Apple was 4 years old. She has a hard time fitting in with the other middle-school students, even the girls who used to be her friends. She hates her dark hair and eyes and is embarrassed by her mother, who cooks Filipino food and does not speak perfect English. After Apple immerses herself in music and meets new friends, she sees that it is good to be different. Kelly’s next novel, The Land of Forgotten Girls, was published in 2016. The book tells the story of 12-year-old Sol, whose father brought her to the United States from the Philippines. Her father later returned to the Philippines, leaving Sol and her younger sister with their mean stepmother. Sol uses her imagination to create stories to help her and her sister get through the dreary days.

Kelly’s award-winning third book, Hello, Universe, brings together children of different cultures and backgrounds. After a run-in with a bully leaves one of them trapped in a dangerous situation, the others work to find and rescue him, and new friendships emerge. In You Go First (2018), Kelly writes about two middle schoolers living in different states who become friends as they play the game Scrabble online. As they both endure their own problems with their families and at school, they realize that they have a lot more in common than they originally thought. Kelly published Lalani of the Distant Sea, a fantasy book based on Filipino folklore, in 2019. The story follows a girl who undertakes a journey to a magical island in order to save her mother and the other people in her village. Along the way she learns about courage and self-reliance. Kelly’s next book, We Dream of Space (2020), features three siblings who reevaluate the meaning of family following the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986; it was named a Newbery Honor Book in 2021. In Those Kids from Fawn Creek (2022) Kelly explores the relationships among a class of seventh graders living in a small town.

Kelly has written for younger readers with her Marisol Rainey series, which she also illustrates; the first book, Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, was published in 2021. She has also contributed to collections of short stories at literary magazines. Kelly has taught writing and children’s literature classes at Rosemont College and Hamline University.

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