short bio
Photo credit: Michael Bisberg
Grace Elizabeth Kendall, Senior Editor, Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers/Macmillan. Grace works on a range of projects from picture books to YA novels, fiction and nonfiction. She publishes exciting projects from debut authors, seasoned veterans, and award-winners, including A PLACE INSIDE OF ME by Zetta Elliott, illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Noa Denmon; MAMA AFRICA! by National Book Award Winner Kathryn Erskine, illustrated by CSK John Steptoe Winner Charly Palmer; YOU BRING THE DISTANT NEAR by Mitali Perkins, which was a Walter Honor Book, South Asia Book Award Winner, and a National Book Award Nominee; ALL BOYS AREN’T BLUE by George M. Johnson, a groundbreaking IndieBestseller about growing up Black and queer in New Jersey ; and BETTY BEFORE X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Newbery Honoree Renée Watson. Grace also publishes ongoing series, like the Jasmine Toguchi chapter books by Debbi Michiko Florence and Elizabet Vukovic. And she has a special love for fantasy that questions power structures, as in BLACK WINGS BEATING by Alex London and THE BONELESS MERCIES by April Genevieve Tucholke, both of which received several starred reviews. You can keep in touch with her on Twitter at @GraceKendallLit.
longer bio
Grace and Mitali Perkins at the National Book Awards, where Mitali was a judge for the Young Reader’s category, 2018.
Grace Elizabeth Kendall is a Senior Editor at Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers (An Imprint of Macmillan). Grace works on a wide range of material from picture books to young-adult novels, both fiction and nonfiction. Since joining FSG in the spring of 2014, Grace has acquired exciting projects from debut authors, seasoned veterans, and award-winners, including Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by lauded debut novelist Kate Beasley, which features illustrations from Caldecott Honoree Jillian Tamaki; Mama Africa! by National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine and John Steptoe New Talent Award winner Charly Palmer; You Bring the Distant Near by National Book Award nominee and Walter Honor recipient Mitali Perkins, as well as her first picture book, Between Us and Abuela, which will be illustrated by Pura Belpré Honoree Sara Palacios; Betty Before X by National Book Award nominee Ilyasah Shabazz and Newbery Honor recipient Renée Watson; and A Place Inside of Me by Zetta Elliott and illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Noa Denmon. Grace also publishes the Jasmine Toguchi chapter books by Debbi Michiko Florence, the first of which appeared on the Amelia Bloomer List. Previous to FSG, Grace spent the first seven years of her career at Scholastic, where she worked mainly on picture books, including Hot Rod Hamster: Monster Truck Mania! by Newbery Honor author Cynthia Lord and New York Times Bestselling Illustrator Derek Anderson, and Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat and illustrated by Alix Delinois, which was published to national media acclaim.
She is a graduate of Connecticut College, where she earned a B.A. in Post-Colonial Literature and completed a creative honors thesis in Poetry. Grace also studied abroad at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she worked on Early South African Literature, Modernism, and the Xhosa language. In addition to her semester at UCT, she volunteered in local township schools, teaching basic journalism skills to underprivileged youth. She is also proud to have attended the Columbia Publishing Course before coming to children's literature. She is a frequent speaker at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conferences across the United States and abroad. She is originally from Miami, Florida, and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. You can keep in touch with her on Twitter at @GraceKendallLit.