| Wendy Mass | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 17, 1967 |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Tufts University |
| Genres | Children's literature, Young-adult fiction |
| Notable work(s) | A Mango-Shaped Space |
| Notable award(s) | Schneider Family Book Award 2004 A Mango-Shaped Space |
Wendy Mass (born January 17, 1967), is an award-winning author of young-adult novels and children's books. Her most successful book was A Mango-Shaped Space which won the American Library Association (ALA) Schneider Family Book Award for Middle School in 2004.[1] Her book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life won a Peoples' Choice Award.
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Born in Livingston, New Jersey, Mass's favorite subjects in school were reading and writing. Wendy worked at town libraries and ghostwrote her friends' college applications. As a child she would compete with friends to see who could read the most books; this helped develop her writing skills. Mass's first story, co-written by her two siblings when she was in junior high, starred a pet that somehow turned into a goat and destroyed the neighborhood.
In high school, Mass worked at local public libraries and continued to hone her writing skills. She took writing classes and decided on writing for her career.
As an English major at Tufts University, Mass continued to develop her writing skills. After graduation she moved to Los Angeles, where she tried her hand at a multitude of writing businesses, including working as a literary agent, at a television casting company, editor of a magazine, and a script reader for a film producer. Mass however found none of these jobs suitable and realized she wanted to inspire pre-teens, teens, and adults by writing books for children, teens, and adults. She moved back to her New Jersey hometown and while writing, worked as a book editor, operating out of New York City and Connecticut. After six months, Mass submitted her first book for publication but no publisher accepted it. Soon, Mass settled on writing educational books for teens, hoping that would lead to writing children's fiction.
Over the next six years, Mass wrote seventeen successful educational books for teens. Mass won the American Library Association (ALA) Schneider Family Book Award for her children's fiction book A Mango-Shaped Space in 2004.[1] She won the American Library Association Award (best books for the teen age selection), New York Public, and New York Public Library Best Books for the teenage designation, Peoples' Choice Award, Great Lakes Book Award and Michigan State award.
Mass currently lives in Sparta Township, New Jersey, with her twins Griffin and Chloe, her husband Mike, and her cat Zoey.[2]