In 2017, Dessen was awarded the Margaret A.

Someone Like You was also one of the two winners of the 1999 'School Library Journal Best Book' award, and Keeping the Moon was the sole winner the next year. Some of her novels have also been among the ALA's 'Best Fiction for Young Adults' selections: That Summer (1997), Someone Like You (1999), Keeping the Moon (2000), Dreamland(2001), This Lullaby (2003), Just Listen (2007), and Along for the Ride (2010). Her novel Along for the Ride made the New York Times Best Sellers List upon its release, and following the publication of Dreamland, Dessen taught at the University of North Carolina and wrote what would later become This Lullaby. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996. Afterwards, she waitressed at the restaurant Flying Burrito in Chapel Hill where she would write during the day and waitress at night. When she was 15, she became involved with a 21-year-old, for which she received one-sided blame from her parents.Īfter high school, Dessen was a student at Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina but dropped out and later took classes at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in Creative Writing. Both of her parents were professors at the University of North Carolina, and she grew up very shy and quiet.

Sarah Dessen (born June 6, 1970) is a YA novelist from Evanston, Illinois whose novels mostly deal with the change in youth’s personality as they go through some form of tragedy or loss, comprising themes of isolation, emotional distance among family members, and a progressive change in personality.

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