Dyan Sheldon

Dyan Sheldon has written over fifty titles, ranging from picture books and children’s fiction to young adult and adult novels. Her work includes the widely translated and internationally bestselling picture book The Whales’ Song and the New York Times’ bestseller Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, which became a major Disney film. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies. Her one foray into non-fiction was a travel book.

In recent years she has concentrated on fiction for young adults. Although she has been known to incorporate elements of fantasy or science fiction into her writing, her novels are about today’s teenagers and today’s world. Sheldon’s novels focus on character, and employ humour to explore themes of independence, identity and self-realization — as well as contemporary issues. In Crazy Things Girls Do for Love the girls of the title take a crash course in green issues and the damage being done to our beleaguered planet when they all get a crush on the new boy in school and join the Environmental Club to be near him. In More than One Way to Be a Girl she uses the friendship of two very different girls – one über girly and one who once would have been called a tomboy – to examine the gender stereotypes and feminist issues that affect everyone.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Dyan worked in publishing in London, first as a blurb writer and then as a commissioning editor. Born in the United States, she now lives in London.

Dyan Sheldon is a novelist and short story writer. She has written over fifty books for children – ranging from picture books (including the award-winning The Whales’ Song) to Young Adult. She has also written three adult novels and one travel book. She worked as an RLF Fellow at Goldsmith’s University in London for three years, which has given her an insight and understanding of the challenges many students face with essay writing. It’s that experience that attracted her to working in the Bridge programme. She has done many visits to both primary and secondary schools, as well as having run writing workshops at Arvon and the Mary Ward Centre.