Ann Angel considers it her good fortune that she discovered the music of Janis Joplin as a bookish teen who would rather paint or write bad poetry. That fan-crush led to writing the biography, Janis Joplin, Rise Up Singing (Abrams 2010), winner of the American Library Associations' 2010 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award. The book also made Booklist's 2011 Top Ten Biographies for Youth and the 2011 Top Ten Arts Books list. It is a 2011 CCBC Choice Book and received an SCBWI Crystal Kite Award and more. Angel is also a writer of young adult fiction and nonfiction with critically acclaimed books that include Such A Pretty Face: Short Stories about Beauty (Abrams, 2007), Robert Cormier: Writer of the Chocolate War (Enslow, 2007). A biography of Amy Tan, Weaver of Asian American Tales was released by Enslow in 2009, and a student's guide to Sandra Cisneros in 2010. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies including, Flash Forward Youth: 65 Short-Short Stories (Persea Book, 2011). Coming in September 2013, Adopted Like Me, My Book of Adoption Heroes (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, UK)Works in progress include young adult novels, a book on trafficking in the United States and more short stories. Ann often speaks to middle graders and high schoolers as well as adults about writing about tough topics/ "When I'm not pushing a deadline, I'm teaching graduates students in writing at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin or working with some of the greatest local writers through SCBWI-Wisconsin. You can also find me hanging out with my husband Jeff and whichever of our four twenty-somethings happens to be wandering around the house. You can read more about my years as one of nine kids growing up in Wisconsin on my website."Contact:Website: www.annangelwriter.comE-Mail: aangel@aol.com