Nancy Churnin is the award-winning author of ten picture book biographies, with three more books due in 2023. Her books have earned starred reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly, won the 2021 National Jewish Book Award, a 2022 Sydney Taylor Honor and Sydney Taylor Notables, been chosen by the Hamilton Read Aloud project of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the 2021 Sakura Medal shortlist, a 2020 Notable Book for a Global Society, the 2019 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award, the 2018 South Asia Book Award, the 2021 and 2018 Children and Teen’s Choice Book Awards, Junior Library Guild selections, three Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, three Silver Eureka Awards and a Little Free Libraries/Children’s Book Council Pick for the Action Book Club. Her books have also been on multiple state reading lists. She is a native New Yorker, graduate of Harvard University with a master’s from Columbia University and a writing instructor at Writing Barn in Austin, Texas.

Churnin’s school presentations touch on important reading and writing skills and ideas students and teachers can carry back to the classroom. Her biographical subjects offer an opportunity to teach the values of perseverance, resilience and following your dreams.