Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, Golden Kite, Walter, Jane Addams, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt , among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate. Her most recent books are Wings in the Wild and Destiny Finds Her Way. Her next young adult verse novel is Wild Dreamers, and her next picture book is Eloísa's Musical Window.
Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her husband.
See Margarita's personal site.
Photo credit: Shevaun Williams
