Saundra Mitchell

About Saundra Mitchell

Saundra Mitchell was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and began writing stories as a child. Before turning to fiction full-time, she spent two decades as a screenwriter and producer, and she has also written under the pseudonyms Jessa Holbrook and Alex Mallory. Her debut novel, Shadowed Summer, won the Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Children's Book, and she has since published across genres including contemporary, historical, and speculative fiction for teen readers.

Much of Mitchell's work centers queer characters and history, reflecting her own life as an openly gay writer. She lives with her wife, Jayne Walters, who was the first openly transgender manager at the Indianapolis Public Library. In 2023, the couple relocated from Indiana to Maryland, citing state legislation restricting library books and gender-affirming care.

Editing All Out

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages (2018), which Mitchell edited and contributed to, gathers short historical fiction from more than a dozen acclaimed young adult authors, each imagining LGBTQ+ characters across different eras and settings. The anthology was praised for expanding the historical record available to queer teen readers and was selected for multiple best-of-year lists.

Book Challenges

Mitchell's novel All the Things We Do in the Dark (2019), which won the Indiana Authors Award for Best Young Adult Novel, along with All Out and her other books, has been targeted in book challenges and removals recorded in 10 states and 24 school districts in this catalog, part of a broader wave of challenges aimed at LGBTQ+-themed young adult literature. Mitchell has spoken publicly against these efforts and continues to write and edit anthologies centering queer teen experiences.