The Pacific Northwest has a plethora of talented writers and illustrators. The list below contains just a few of them. Some of these creators make their home here, some no longer do.
Diana Abu-Jaber – her novels include Fencing With the King and Birds of Paradise
Ellie Alexander – writes cozy mysteries, including series set in Ashland and Leavenworth
Chelsea Bieker – author of Godshot
Aaron Bobrow-Strain – The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story
Jill Louise Busby – Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity
Deb Caletti – primarily writes teen and children’s fiction, including A Heart in a Body in the World and The Epic Story of Every Living Thing
Raymond Carver – the short story writer and poet grew up in Yakima and later lived in Port Angeles
Beverly Cleary – the beloved children’s author, creator of Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, Socks the cat, and a motorcycle-riding mouse, among others, grew up in Oregon and once worked as the children’s librarian at Yakima Valley Libraries
Chris Crutcher – writes contemporary teen fiction, including Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Deadline, and Period 8
Christine Day – a citizen of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe writes children’s fiction set in the Pacific Northwest, including I Can Make This Promise and The Sea in Winter
Anthony Doerr – award-winning author of bestselling novels All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, among other books and essays
Ivan Doig – the author and novelist published 16 books before his death
William O. Douglas – The Supreme Court justice and environmentalist grew up in Yakima. Our collections contain several of his works – and works about him. (Don’t forget that biography square!)
Omar El Akkad – an author and journalist whose novels include the dystopian cli-fi American War and What Strange Paradise, about the global refugee crisis
Kelli Estes – the novelist grew up in Yakima County and has written two books, The Girl Who Wrote in Silk and Today We Go Home, which both alternate between the present and the 1800s (bonus – both of these books would also qualify the “dual time periods” square)
Jonathan Evison – the longtime Pacific Northwest resident’s works include Small World, Lawn Boy and West of Here
Kim Fu – novels include The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore and Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
Thor Hanson – his science books cover topics such as seeds, bees and climate change adaptations
Jane Kirkpatrick – a New York Times best-selling and award-winning author of more than 39 books, primarily historical fiction
Sasha taqšblu LaPointe – LaPointe, who is Coast Salish, released a memoir, Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography, last year
Emme Lund – the Oregon author released her debut novel, The boy With a Bird In His Chest, last year
Betty MacDonald – author of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series of children’s books and memoirs such as The Egg and I
Debbie Macomber – the bestselling novelist grew up in Yakima
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – the Mexican-Canadian author of several genre-blending works, including Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, lives in British Columbia
Steve Olson – two of his nonfiction books are highly relevant to our area, The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age (strong focus on Hanford) and Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens
Nisi Shawl – science fiction author and editor
Roscoe Sheller – wrote various histories about Yakima County and Central Washington.
Dana Simpson – author and illustrator of the delightful children’s graphic novel series, Phoebe and Her Unicorn
Jess Walter – a novelist from the Spokane area whose works include Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions
G. Willow Wilson – a novelist and comic book writer, co-created the award-winning series Ms. Marvel that relaunched the character as a 16-year-old Muslim superhero named Kamala Khan
Lidia Yuknavitch – the Oregon-based novelist has also written a memoir, The Chronology of Water
Xiran Jay Zhao – writes fantasy and science fiction for teens and children
And if you’re in the mood for a picture book – and why wouldn’t you be – here are a few Pacific Northwest authors who create these stories:
Alexandra Day, Phoebe Wahl, Corey Tabor, Hannah Viano, Ann Dixon, Keith Baker, Katie Yamasaki or Jordan Scott