Erin and Sharon at the 2021 launch of Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey at Hockessin BookShelf in Delaware. Photo courtesy of Sharon Huss Roat.

Looking back on 2024, two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly will tell you it was the worst year of her life. She spent most of it undergoing chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation treatment for a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer (from which she is now thankfully in remission). She lost her beautiful hair, suffered constant fatigue, and developed a staggering array of debilitating and frightening side effects. Also, her dog died.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Except that it was also her Best. Year. Ever.

Driven in part by previous commitments, but more so the need for distraction (“Writing is my therapy,” she says), Erin authored, revised, illustrated, developed, contributed to, and/or released fifteen (!) different books last year. The catalog of titles she worked on, developed, or released in 2024 includes two standalone middle-grade novels, five books in a coauthored series, her first nonfiction work, two illustrated books for younger readers, a picture book manuscript, and four anthologies.

Most notable, though, is The First State of Being, published by ­Greenwillow Books in March 2024. Too sick for a launch party or book tour, Erin expressed modest ambitions for her ninth standalone novel. She stayed home and suffered through nine months of cancer treatment while First State made its way into readers’ hands and hearts, eventually becoming a ­finalist for the 2024 National Book Award, landing on New York Times and Indie bestseller lists, and making Erin one of only seven authors ever to win the Newbery Medal twice.

Set in Delaware (the “first state,” as all the license plates will tell you) in 1999, The First State of Being tells the story of twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, who worries about everything — especially the approach of Y2K and his hard-working single mom. Michael soon comes face-to-face with even greater fears about an uncertain future when he and ­babysitter Gibby encounter a time-traveling teenager from two hundred years hence. Described by the Newbery committee as a “masterful blend of science and historical fiction…that leaves readers ­knowing that each of us matters,” the novel features a cast of unique yet classic Erin Entrada Kelly characters: lovable, relatable, vulnerable outcasts who discover they are not alone.

Young readers respond to Erin with heartfelt letters, which are sometimes funny, but mostly reveal the shy, quiet kids who relate to Erin’s characters. Writers, too, find a kindred spirit in Erin, who is not afraid to get vulnerable on her social media platforms. She allows followers to see her at both her lowest (when her bald head was covered in a chemo rash, for instance) and her highest (winning the Newbery Medal or surrounded by kids at a school visit). She cries and laughs with equal abandon and sings joyfully, loudly, and yes…badly. Gloriously badly.

“One of the greatest compliments I get is when someone tells me they feel like I’m a friend, even though we’ve never met,” she says. “Writing definitely led me to be more open. But honestly, this is the time to be vulnerable, because so many people are vulnerable right now. If someone reads one of my books and feels less alone, if I make them laugh on my Instagram, or give them a compliment in the grocery store, whatever it may be, I just want to leave this earth a better place than I found it.”

She leaves no stone unturned when it comes to finding the ­readers who need her most, branching out into an ever-widening collection of genres. In ­addition to her well-established ­presence in middle-grade contemporary fiction with titles such as Hello, ­Universe (which earned her first ­Newbery Medal in 2018), she has ­ventured into fantasy (Lalani of the ­Distant Sea), ­historical ­fiction (­Newbery Honor Book We Dream of Space), illustrated books for young readers (the Marisol Rainey and Felix Powell series), middle-grade horror and ghost stories (the ­upcoming Fatal Glitch series and ­interactive ­mystery The Last Resort), and YA rom-com (On Again, Awkward Again, cowritten with Kwame Mbalia).

But the most adventurous, and daunting, is her recent foray into nonfiction. Erin was eager to dive into the growing middle-grade nonfiction market with the support of her longtime editor, Virginia Duncan, and had a long list of topics she wanted to explore. First and foremost was leprosy, now known as Hansen’s disease, which appealed to Erin’s lifelong interest in giving voice to the outcasts of the world. But how would she find that voice without a character to inhabit? She began researching, and discovered a book called Carville’s Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice by Pam Fessler, which centered on a leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana — a two-hour drive from Erin’s hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

She came to a single paragraph about one of Carville’s most famous patients — Josefina “Joey” Guerrero, who was diagnosed with leprosy in her native Philippines at the start of World War II. Joey became a spy for the Allies, carrying maps taped to her body and trekking long distances over enemy lines. The occupying Japanese soldiers would take one look at her ­visible sores and let her pass. Her disease made her an excellent spy, and her covert ­missions changed the course of history. She went on to receive the U.S. P­residential Medal of Freedom.

Erin’s discovery of Joey was more than serendipitous. As a Filipino American, she often includes Filipino characters in her stories. But to find a Filipino woman who not only lived with, and overcame, Hansen’s disease, but was also a spy, a war hero, and had lived in Erin’s home state of Louisiana? It was too perfect.

At Last She Stood: How Joey ­Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom is one of four books by Erin Entrada Kelly coming out in 2025, a ­testament to the author’s own strength and perseverance through the worst — and best — year of her life.

“I think I’m still processing it,” Erin says of her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survival. “Our world is very dark right now. It’s easy to get extremely pessimistic about everything, and I still do sometimes. But when I told people I had cancer, the outpouring of love was overwhelming. The world didn’t seem like such a terrible place then. It put things into perspective. It showed how wonderful people can be.”

As for what comes next in Erin’s ­writing journey, it’s hard to say. The First State of Being sprang from her interests as both a history buff and sci-fi fan. After all, you’re as likely to find Erin roaming the moors of Yorkshire on a Wuthering Heights pilgrimage or touring a medieval castle as you are to spot her rocking a Leonard Nimoy cardigan at a Star Trek convention. Her curiosity about everything — and everyone — knows no bounds.

One thing’s for sure: Erin will find a way to process what we as a society are facing. She will show readers how to be allies to those who are vulnerable, as she does in every book she writes. So, stay tuned. There is another book in the making.

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: ALA Awards. For more speeches, profiles, and articles, click the tag ALA 2025.

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