Alice Kuipers
Carnegie Medal nominee and winner of the Grand Prix de Viarmes, author of YA, children’s fiction, and memoir, including Life on the Refrigerator Door, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.
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Alice Kuipers is the bestselling, award-winning author of five novels: Life on the Refrigerator Door, The Worst Thing She Ever Did (in the U.S.A., Lost For Words), 40 Things I Want to Tell You, The Death of Us, and Me and Me. She is also the author of a memoir for teenager Carley Allison, Always Smile, and eight books for younger readers. She is a bestselling ghostwriter, experienced in writing adult memoir. Her newest book, Spark, is a guide to writing for younger readers that shares her personal journey, described by Richard Van Camp as “a masterpiece for anyone wanting to make their literary dreams come true.”
Named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, Alice’s first novel won and was shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Redbridge Book Award, the Sheffield Libraries Choice Award, the Grand Prix de Viarmes, the Saskatchewan First Book Award, the Salt Lake County Library Reader’s Choice Award, and the Carnegie Medal.
Alice’s other YA novels have been described as “gorgeous, heart-ripping, important” (Voices of Young Adults). They have continued to sell in multiple countries and won awards, including the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Fiction.
Alice’s picture books with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and her chapter book series with Chronicle Books spark creativity and joy in young readers. Polly Diamond was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and was described by Booklist as a book that “brings the imagination to life.” Her three books with Orca are fast-paced and fun, with two being selected as Junior Library Guild Gold Standards.
Alice has also written four books with online publisher Fiction Express to help hundreds of school children enjoy reading. Her essays have been published by the Huffington Post, the Bristol Review of Books, Easy Living, and Fierce Ink Press, and her work has been turned into plays and radio plays and published in anthologies. Her writing has been published in 36 countries.
As Head of Coaching at The Novelry, coaching for Alice is about helping authors find their voice and their passion. She’s an experienced and skilled writing coach and will be the right coach for you if you’re working on YA or books for children. She can also help if you want to boost your productivity and creative flow or work out how to best manage your writing life (she has four children at home in Saskatoon, Canada, and two honorary older daughters).
Alice’s Genres
- Children’s Fiction
- Young Adult
Spark: On Writing for Kids & Young Adults
Acclaimed children’s and YA author Alice Kuipers shares her rules for writing for readers both young and young at heart, all while discussing the importance of traveling through passion, purpose, joy, and fear in your writing.
In each chapter, Alice explores key aspects of writing for young readers—from voice and character to setting and plot—and provides examples and exercises to help you develop your story. Drawing on her experience as an author and writing coach, Kuipers shares crucial tips, tricks, and techniques that make all the difference for writers, along with some highs and lows of her own writing journey, and shows you how to become the writer you’ve always wanted to be.
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Life on the Refrigerator Door
Life on the Refrigerator Door is told exclusively through notes exchanged by Claire and her mother, Elizabeth, during the course of a life-altering year. Their story builds to an emotional crescendo when Elizabeth is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Stunningly sad but ultimately uplifting, this is a clever, moving, and original portrait of the relationship between a daughter and mother. It is about how we live our lives constantly rushing, and never making time for those we love. It is also an elegy to how much can be said in so few words, if only we made the time to say them...
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Always Smile
A memoir tribute to the life and legacy of extraordinary teen Carley Allison.
Not long ago, 17-year-old Carley Allison had it all. She was on the edge of fame as a singer and composer. She was reaching for the highest levels as a competitive skater. She had a new boyfriend and a golden future waiting after graduation. Her world came crashing down when she was diagnosed with a rare kind of cancer in her throat. Her case, doctors said, was one in 3.5 billion. Faced with an uncertain new future, Carley rose to the challenge. Cancer treatment tested her, but she remained fearless and strong. Carley died before her 21st birthday, but her memory lives on in the countless people she touched with her courage.
Alice Kuipers weaves their stories with the blog Carley kept in the final months of her life to show her transformation from ordinary to extraordinary, and to convey her personal rules for living well in the worst of times.
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