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Paula Yoo

Children's Author

Paula Yoo is an award-winning author of picture books including Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, and YA novels and narrative nonfiction, including From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement. Paula is also a TV writer/producer, screenwriter, and professional violinist. 

In our interview, Paula talks about her young life as a reader and identifying with book characters, why she looks for resilience in her picture book biographies, how she honed her writing skills (there’s a Hollywood connection!), why we need to learn about Asian-American history and culture in our schools, and much more. 

About Paula Yoo

Paula Yoo is an award-winning book author, TV writer/producer and feature screenwriter. She is also a former journalist, having worked for The Seattle Times, The Detroit News, and PEOPLE Magazine. She graduated with a B.A. cum laude in English from Yale University, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College.

Paula is the author of 12 books for children and young adults. Her debut YA novel, Good Enough, received an Asian Pacific American Honor for Youth Literature. Her 2021 YA narrative nonfiction book, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial That Galvanized the Asian American Movement (opens in a new window), received a Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Paula is also a professional violinist, having played with numerous symphony orchestras in the U.S., and has toured and recorded with a variety of pop and rock bands. When she’s not writing or playing her violin, Paula loves hanging out with her family and cats in Los Angeles, California. Learn more about Paula on the official Paula Yoo website (opens in a new window).

[NOTE: This brief biography is excerpted from Paula’s website.] 

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