Quick Facts
Biography
Kacen Callender (formerly Kheryn Callender) is a Saint Thomian author of children's fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child.
Personal life
Callender was born and raised in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Callender also has a bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Japanese and Creative Writing and a MFA from The New School’s Writing for Children program.
Prior to becoming an author, Callender was an editor at Little, Brown. In 2018, in reaction to Hurricane Irma, Callender launched the online auction #USVIPubFund, under which they and other book publishing professionals raised $104,000 to support the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Callender is Black, queer, trans, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. Callender debuted their new name when announcing their next young adult novel Felix Ever After in May 2019.
They currently live in Philadelphia.
Critical reception
Their debut novel, Hurricane Child, about a twelve-year-old born during a hurricane who believes herself to be cursed, was published by Scholastic in 2018 and received the Stonewall Book Award in 2019.
Both Hurricane Child and Callender's young adult debut, This is Kind of an Epic Love Story, were nominated for a 2019 Lambda Literary Award in the category LGBTQ* Children's/Young Adult. Hurricane Child went on to win the award.
The second young adult novel, Felix Ever After, is about a transgender teen who catfishes a classmate for revenge and ends up falling for him. Felix Ever After was published with Balzer + Bray in 2020 and sold together with This is Kind of an Epic Love Story in November 2017.
King and the Dragonflies, Callender's second middle-grade novel that explores race and sexuality, was published in 2020. It received a starred review from School Library Journal, Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly.
Their adult debut, Queen of the Conquered, was published by Orbit in 2019. It's set in a Caribbean-inspired world and tells the story of a black protagonist fighting back against colonizers. It received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal.
Awards
Won
- 2019 Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award for Hurricane Child
- 2019 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ* Children's/Young Adult for Hurricane Child
Nominated
- 2019 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ* Children's/Young Adult for This is Kind of an Epic Love Story