Karen S. Hesse (born August 29, 1952) is an American author ofchildren's literature andliterature for young adults, often withhistorical settings.^[1] She received theNewbery Medal forOut of the Dust (1997).

Karen Hesse was born inBaltimore, Maryland. She studied at nearbyTowson State College and married Randy Hesse in 1971 before completing her studies.^[2] She attended college at Towson State College and the University of Maryland. She earned a B.A. in English with double minors inpsychology, andanthropology,^[3] during which she began publishing poetry.

After graduating, she moved with her husband toBrattleboro, Vermont, had two children, Rachel and Kate, took jobs in publishing, and started writing children's books.

Her first novel was a rejected story about meetingBigfoot, but her next proposal was published by Henry Holt in 1991 asWish on a Unicorn.^[2]

Out of the Dust is a story of a girl living through the dust bowl of theDepression. The mother of the central character dies giving birth to her stillborn brother Franklin. After the mother dies, Billie Jo and her father try to continue with their lives.

Hesse tackled a more disturbing subject in the 2001 verse novelWitness. TheKu Klux Klan, re-invigorated in the 1920s (in this book, 1924 and '25) tries to take over a small Vermont town. The book is written from the perspectives of several people - Merlin Van Tornhout and Johnny Reeves, both members of the Klan; Sara Chickering, a farmer; Esther Hirsh, a six-year-old Jewish girl; Leonora Sutter, an African American girl; Iris Weaver, a restaurateur; Harvey and Viola Pettibone, shop owners; Reynard Alexander, a newspaper editor; Fitzgerald Flitt, the doctor; and Percelle Johnson, the town constable. InWitness Hesse continued the distinctive poetic/prose style she pioneered inOut of the Dust.

Hesse also wroteThe Music of Dolphins, about a girl who was raised bydolphins.

Stowaway, first published in 2000 by Simon & Schuster USA, is based on the true story of an 11-year-old boy who stowed away on CaptainJames Cook's shipEndeavour in 1768. The UK version of this book is published under the titleYoung Nick's Head. It is in the format of a diary written by Nicholas Young, the cabin boy on theEndeavour.

Brooklyn Bridge is based on the true story of the family who created the teddy bear in Brooklyn in 1903.

At age 68 years, she was living with her husband, still inBrattleboro, Vermont.

Hesse was aMacArthur Fellow in 2002.

ForOut of the Dust (Scholastic, 1997), she won theNewbery Medal from theAmerican Library Association, recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children", and the annualScott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.

Letters from Rifka (MacMillan, 1992) won anInternational Reading Association Award and aNational Jewish Book Award.^[4]

In 2012 Hesse received thePhoenix Award from theChildren's Literature Association forLetters from Rifka, recognizing the best children's book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award.^[5]

• 1991,Wish on a Unicorn (Henry Holt,ISBN 978-0-8050-1572-0, reprintGoogle Books edition, Macmillan, 2009,ISBN 978-0-312-37611-6)
• 1992,Letters from Rifka (MacMillan, 1992) (reprint Macmillan, 2009,ISBN 978-0-312-53561-2)
• 1993,Lester's Dog, illus.Nancy Carpenter (Crown,ISBN 978-0-517-58357-9)^[6][7]
• 1993,Poppy's Chair, illus. Kay Life (Macmillan,ISBN 978-0-02-743705-8)
• 1994,Phoenix Rising (Macmillan,ISBN 978-0-8050-3108-9)
• 1994,Sable, illus. Marcia Sewall (Henry Holt,ISBN 9780805024166) (Google Books edition, San Val,ISBN 978-0-613-08689-9)
• 1995,A Time of Angels (Hyperion,ISBN 9780786800872)
• 1995,Lavender, illus. Andrew Glass (Google Books edition, Macmillan,ISBN 978-0-8050-4257-3)
• 1996,The Music of Dolphins (Google Books edition, Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-590-89797-6)
• 1997,Out of the Dust (Google Books edition, Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-590-36080-7)
• 1998,Just Juice, illus. Robert Andrew Parker (Google Books edition, Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-590-03383-1)
• 1999,Come on, Rain, illus. Jon J. Muth (Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-590-33125-8)
• 1999,A Light in the Storm: the Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin (Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-439-44557-3)
• 2000,Stowaway (Google Books edition, Simon & Schuster,ISBN 978-0-689-83987-0)
• 2001,Witness (Google Books edition, Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-439-27200-1)
• 2003,Aleutian Sparrow (Google Books edition, Simon & Schuster,ISBN 978-0-689-86189-5)
• 2003,The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories of Hanukkah through History, illus. J. Brian Pinkney (Hyperion,ISBN 978-0-7868-0619-5)
• 2004,The Cats in Krasinski Square, illus. Wendy Watson (Google Books edition^{[permanent dead link‍]}, Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-439-43540-6)
• 2005The Young Hans Christian Andersen (Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-439-67990-9)
• 2008,Spuds, illus. Wendy Watson (Scholastic,ISBN 978-0-439-87993-4)
• 2008,Brooklyn Bridge (Google Books edition, Macmillan,ISBN 978-0-312-37886-8)
• 2011, "Nell" — a short story included in the young-adult anthologyWhat You Wish For (Putnam,ISBN 978-0-399-25454-3) (also available onTor.com)
• 2012,Safekeeping (Feiwel & Friends,ISBN 9781250011343)
• 2016,My Thumb (Feiwel & Friends,ISBN 978-0-312-67120-4)
• 2018, "Night Job" (Candlewick Press),ISBN 978-0763662387)
• 2022, "Granny and Bean" (Candlewick Press)ISBN 9781536214048)

• Official website— Karen Hesse Blog: snapshots of a writer's life
• Karen Hesse at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Karen Hesse at Macmillan US
• Karen Hesse at Scholastic Teachers

• 1952 births
• Living people
• American women children's writers
• American children's writers
• Newbery Medal winners
• Writers from Brattleboro, Vermont
• Writers from Vermont
• Writers from Baltimore
• University of Maryland, College Park alumni
• Towson University alumni
• MacArthur Fellows
• 21st-century American women

• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from May 2017
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with dead external links from February 2023