Elana K. Arnold

About Elana K. Arnold

Elana K. Arnold grew up in Southern California and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis. She writes children's picture books, middle-grade fiction, and young adult novels, with a particular interest in exploring what it means to grow up as a girl in a world that doesn't always have your best interests at heart. She teaches in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Hamline University.

Her 2017 novel What Girls Are Made Of was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and a finalist for the California Book Award. The same year's Alex and Eliza established her range as a writer. Her 2018 novel Damsel—a genre-subverting fantasy that interrogates the tropes of princess-rescue stories—received a Michael L. Printz Award Honor in 2019, placing it among the year's best books for young adults as recognized by the American Library Association. Other honors include a Booklist Editors' Choice selection and inclusion on the Amelia Bloomer Top 10 list for feminist literature for young readers.

Book Challenges

In August 2022, Alpine School District—the largest school district in Utah—banned 52 books from its school libraries following the implementation of Utah H.B. 374, "Sensitive Materials In Schools." Three of Arnold's books were among those removed: Damsel, Red Hood, and What Girls Are Made Of. PEN America condemned the mass ban as one of the most sweeping censorship actions against school libraries in recent American history. Utah subsequently enacted additional restrictions, and in 2024 What Girls Are Made Of was removed under statewide guidelines.