For the Press

Biog­ra­phy

Yvonne Pear­son is the author of the pic­ture books Lit­tle Loon Finds His Voice (Col­lec­tive Book Stu­dio 2021) and Sadie Braves the Wilder­ness (Min­neso­ta His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety Press 2017). She has also writ­ten 15 non-fic­tion children’s books. Her poet­ry has appeared in Split Rock Review, Talk­ing Stick, Main Street Rag, Wolf Head Quar­ter­ly, Open to Inter­pre­ta­tion, Chrysalis, Side­walks, Lit­er­ary Mama, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. She is a 2018 Loft-McK­night Writ­ing Fel­low and has received two Min­neso­ta State Arts Board grants, the Loft Cre­ative Non-Fic­tion Award, and the Shabo Award in children’s literature.

She also worked as a social work­er and free­lancer for many years, writ­ing books, mag­a­zine arti­cles newslet­ters, and cur­ricu­lum. She has three grown chil­dren, two grand­chil­dren, and lives in Min­neapo­lis, Min­neso­ta with her husband.

Hon­ors and Recognition

• 2018 Loft-McK­night Writ­ing Fellow
• 2017 Min­neso­ta State Arts Board grant
• 2010 Min­neso­ta State Arts Board grant
• 2008 Shabo Award for children’s pic­ture book manuscript
• 2007 Shabo Award for children’s pic­ture book manuscript
• 1989 Lofts’ Cre­ative Non-Fic­tion Award; stud­ied with Vivian Gornick
• 1987 Select­ed for Loft “Emerg­ing Voic­es Series”

Win­ner in Lit­er­ary Contests

• Lake Area Writ­ers Alliance, First Place in Poet­ry 2019
  for “The School Bus Driver”
• Lake Area Writ­ers Alliance, Hon­or­able Men­tion in Poet­ry 2019
  for “Log Cabin”
• Lake Area Writ­ers Alliance, Sec­ond Place in Cre­ative Non Fic­tion 2019
  for “My Moth­er’s Gift”
• Brain­erd Writ­ers Alliance, First Place in 2015 Poet­ry Con­test for “Bird Watching”
• The Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Uni­ver­si­ty Women, St. Paul
• Writ­ers’ Journal
• Whit­ti­er Writ­ers’ Workshop