2022 Middle Grade Winner
Helen Frost was born in Brookings, South Dakota, the fifth of ten children, and lived there until moving to Massachusetts at age eleven. As an adult, she lived in many places prior to moving to Fort Wayne, where she and her family have made their home since 1991.
She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Elementary Education and a concentration in English, and received her Masters degree in English from Indiana University.
She has appreciated and contributed to the Indiana community of readers and writers in many ways, including participation in: Ropewalk, the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, the Writers Center of Indiana, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. In 2011 she received the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Regional Indiana Author Award.
Helen writes for readers of all ages. For younger readers, she has written eleven novels-in-poems, and seven nonfiction picture books. One of her picture books, Hello, I’m Here, was shortlisted for a 2020 Indiana Authors Award. Her work for adults includes two collections of poetry, two anthologies, and two plays. In 2009-2010 she received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Poetry.
Helen has also been active in the larger Indiana arts and humanities community, participating and collaborating with Young Audiences of Indiana, the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, Fort Wayne Youtheatre and Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne.
She is a frequent speaker throughout the state, as well as nationally and internationally. In 2016, she traveled to Freiburg University in Germany to see the performance of a play based on her novel Crossing Stones. She is an active member of Fort Wayne Sister Cities International, helping to build a Friendship City relationship with Mawlamyine, Myanmar. In 2019, she traveled to Mexico to see the overwintering grounds of the monarch butterflies that migrate there from Indiana.
Helen is married and has two sons. In addition to travel, she enjoys hiking, baking, craft work, and maintaining a habitat to encourage pollinators..
Learn more at www.helenfrost.net.
See all the 2022 winners and learn more about the 2022 Awards. See the entire middle grade shortlists.