A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book of 2025
Winner of the 2025 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award
A Bookshop Best Young Adult Book of 2024
A 2025 Southwest Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
An American Booksellers Association
Indies Introduce Selection
An American Booksellers Association
Kids Indie Next List Selection
An NECBA
Windows & Mirrors Shortlist Selection
A Green Mountain Book Award Shortlist Selection
A Massachusetts Teen Choice Book Award Shortlist Selection
Words about Me
Longtime Montessori educator Josh Galarza writes fiction and creative nonfiction, and is a multidisciplinary visual artist specializing in printmaking and book arts. His research centers around male gender performance, queer issues, body liberation, and Chicano studies. His debut novel, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky (Henry Holt & Company), was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.
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Galarza earned his BA in English and BFA in art from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he later taught printmaking. He currently lives in Richmond, VA, where he teaches in the English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University while completing an MFA in creative writing.
Appearances
teens read: 2024 National Book Awards
In Conversation with Jacqueline Woodson and the other NBA Finalists!
Tuesday November 19th, 2024
Peter Norton Symphony Space
New York, NY
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"Central to Teens Read is the annual mainstage event, held each year the day before the National Book Awards. New York City’s middle and high school students are invited to attend free of charge, receive free copies of the Young People’s Literature Finalists, and have the unique opportunity to connect and interact with high-profile authors in what is often their first exposure to a literary arts event."-----NBF Website​