Ann & Amanda Angel
Ann Angel, a writer, editor and professor in the graduate program in writing at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, focuses her work on family and young adult sensibilities and issues. Her critically acclaimed young adult biography, Janis Joplin:Rise Up Singing, was awarded the 2011 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award by the American Library Association. Her award winning anthology looking at the many ways teens define beauty, Such A Pretty Face, Short Stories about Beauty, received a top ranking with VOYA, the young adult librarians’ journal, was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults 2008 list by the American Library Association, and was listed as Recommended Reading by the 2008 issue of Horn Book Guide. Angel has also written 8 other books. These include a number of biographies and her novel, Real for Sure Sister, for middle grades about cross-cultural adoption. Her articles for regional and national publications include essays on birth, adoption, family life, and middle grade and teen literature. After playing a role in her own adult children’s birth parent searches and witnessing her daughter’s adoption plans, Ann realized that birth parents and their feelings and needs are often overlooked in literature about the topic.