As writers, we come to love our characters. We love them so much that often, we seek to protect them. Nora Shalaway Carpenter will help us see that it’s essential to the story to know the rock bottoms of our characters…and to let them hit that rock bottom and hurt.

Nora Shalaway Carpenter is the author of the Kirkus-starred YA novel The Edge of Anything (Running Press, 2020); contributing editor of the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions about Small-Town America (Candlewick, 2020); and author of the picture book Yoga Frog (Running Press). She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.