Just posted! An interview with award-winning author Ellen Oh!

Born in South Korea and raised in New York City, Oh was originally a “boring lawyer” (her words, not mine!) before she decided that writing children’s and YA books is where her heart truly lies. Oh is also one of the founding members of We Need Diverse Books, a non-profit organization with a mission to change how the publishing industry promotes and highlights the voices of marginalized authors, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA+, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.

It is difficult to summarize Ellen Oh’s books because she delves into a prolific multitude of topics and genres. There is the spooky supernatural Spirit Hunters series, the classic fantasy of The Dragon Princess and the Prophecy series, the retelling of Asian myths in A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, the suspense and horror of Haru: Zombie Dog Hero, the touching historical novel Finding Junie Kim, and the modern day You Are Here: Connecting Flights. She has also contributed essays and short stories to multiple collections.

Though Oh’s range is vast, running through all her works are three beautiful threads: 1) Her wry sense of humor and perfect comedic timing; 2) Her experiences as a Korean American and what that means historically, personally, and culturally; 3) Her powerful strength in writing about difficult, painful, and terrifying things while still encouraging readers to have courage and faith.

Oh’s most recent young adult novel is The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee. It’s senior year for Mina Lee, and her father has her life set and planned and none of those plans involve art school. Mina pours her creativity into her webcomic, The School of Secrets. Suddenly and shockingly, she wakes to find herself actually in her webcomic, interacting with her characters. The stakes are high, and the consequences serious as her epic story twists, turns, and rockets to its conclusion.

Follow this link to the BiblioFiles interview

Image courtesy of Ellen Oh