Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen, born June 6, 1970, is an American novelist associated with young adult fiction from the mid-1990s onward. She was born in Evanston, Illinois, to Alan and Cynthia Dessen, both professors at the University of North Carolina, where they taught Shakespearean literature and classics. Dessen has described herself in adolescence as shy and introverted, details that sit close to the emotional territory of her later books.

Her path to writing was not direct. Dessen attended Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina, but left before the end of her first semester. After moving back home, she enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she took creative writing classes and graduated with highest honors in 1993. In her early working life, she waitressed at the Flying Burrito restaurant in Chapel Hill and worked as an assistant to author Lee Smith. Smith later passed one of Dessen’s manuscripts to an agent, helping her career begin.

Dessen’s first book, That Summer, was published in 1996. She kept working at the restaurant after its publication, and later, after Dreamland, she taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By the time Just Listen was released in 2006, she had become a full-time writer. She went on to publish more than a dozen novels and novellas, and Along for the Ride made the New York Times Best Sellers List in 2009. After that book, she was referred to as a “best-seller machine.”

Her books have often been recognized by librarians and readers of young adult fiction. Several were named among the American Library Association’s “Best Fiction for Young Adults” selections, including That Summer, Someone Like You, Keeping the Moon, Dreamland, This Lullaby, Just Listen, and Along for the Ride. Someone Like You was one of two winners of the 1999 School Library Journal Best Book award, and Keeping the Moon was the sole winner the next year. Two of her books were adapted into the 2003 film How to Deal. In 2017, Dessen received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for a group of her novels, including Dreamland, Keeping the Moon, Just Listen, The Truth About Forever, Along for the Ride, What Happened to Goodbye, and This Lullaby.

Dessen’s fiction is known for its attention to adolescent identity, personal growth, and complex relationships with families and peers. Her novels often center on a female protagonist in a major period of change, learning more about herself as the story moves forward. She has also described “effortless perfection” in some of her books: girls who seem able to have friends, look good, succeed in school, and keep life together while making it appear easy. Her work often lets readers see that it is acceptable not to have everything together and not to be perfect. That plain, humane idea is a large part of why her books continue to find readers.