Shana Youngdahl Books in Order

If you want the easiest entry point: As Many Nows as I Can Get
If you want her YA novels in order: As Many Nows as I Can Get → A Catalog of Burnt Objects
If you want family, fire, and a strong sense of place: A Catalog of Burnt Objects
If you want to start with the poetry: History, Advice, and Other Half-Truths

Shana Youngdahl was born and raised in Paradise, California, and the feel of that place, small-town life, western history, dry landscapes, stays close to her work. She writes poetry and young adult fiction, and across both forms she returns to memory, family, longing, and the stories people tell to explain where they come from.

Writing was part of her life early. She grew up in a household of book lovers, her mother wrote historical nonfiction, and her older sister made homemade stories starring Shana-Bear. By seventh grade she was writing for herself, and in high school the California State Summer School for the Arts showed her what a serious creative community could look like.

Poetry came first.

Youngdahl studied English at Mills College and later earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota. Before her novels reached teen readers, she published the chapbooks Donner: A Passing and Of Nets, then the full-length collection History, Advice, and Other Half-Truths. Her poetry often braids western legend, real history, women's lives, and the messy gap between fact and the stories people hand down. She has also received support from the Iowa Arts Council and the American Antiquarian Society.

Teaching has been a big part of her life too. She spent years at the University of Maine at Farmington, where she taught writing and directed the Longfellow Young Writers Workshop. She has said that one of her greatest joys is helping people embrace the stories they need to tell, which feels like a good key to reading her work as a whole.

Then she turned to novels.

Her YA debut, As Many Nows as I Can Get, follows Scarlett, a smart and ambitious teen from a small Colorado town, as an old friendship with the magnetic David turns into a love story with a long aftershock. The book moves through shifting timelines and holds first love, grief, guilt, and self-reinvention in the same frame. Readers who like emotionally intense coming-of-age fiction tend to respond to its unusual structure and to the way Youngdahl lets Scarlett be funny, wary, bright, and imperfect. The novel was picked for several 2019 best-of-the-year lists, including honors from the New York Public Library, Kirkus, and Seventeen.

A Catalog of Burnt Objects comes from even closer to home. After the 2018 Camp Fire devastated Paradise, Youngdahl has said she kept circling questions about how people live through disaster, how communities help one another, and what remains after a town is broken apart. The novel follows Caprice, a California teenager dealing with her brother's return, first love, and plans for the future just as wildfire bears down on her town. It is a disaster novel in part, but also a sibling story, a love story, and a book about home.

Place matters in her work.

Whether she is writing poems about the American West or fiction about teenagers standing at the edge of adulthood, Youngdahl keeps returning to a few steady concerns: the pull of hometowns, the weight of family history, and the hard work of making peace with yourself. Her characters often want motion, escape, or reinvention, but they also want connection. That tension gives her books much of their feeling. She now lives in Missouri with her husband, two daughters, a dog, and a cat, and teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Lindenwood University. The mix of teacher, poet, and novelist suits her. She writes like someone who knows that stories can be both refuge and reckoning.