10 women writers currently KILLING it in the YA fantasy genre

Tracy Deonn

Tracy Deonn’s debut novel Legendborn was published in 2020 and immediately became a New York Times bestseller. The novel, the first in what is set to be a trilogy, was awarded the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Legendborn was also nominated for a Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel and a Hugo Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2021.

Bloodmarked, the second book in the series, is due for release in November 2022.

Renée Ahdieh

Renée Ahdieh’s first book, The Wrath & the Dawn, was published in 2015 and has since been included on Time’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time list. The sequel, The Rose & the Dagger, came out just one year later in 2016.

Ahdieh has written a number of other series, including the duology The Flame in the Mist. Both it and Ahdieh’s previous series include companion short stories that give even more depth to her characters and worlds. Her most recent series, The Beautiful, is set to be a quartet; the final book releases later this year.

Ahdieh’s writing has been included in the short story anthologies Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy, Three Sides of a Heart: Stories about Love Triangles and  A Thousand Beginnings and Endings. She is both a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.

Stephanie Garber

The first book in Garber’s Caraval trilogy was published in 2017. Garber’s debut novel, it was on The New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks. The sequel, Legendary, came out a year later and was on the same list for eight weeks.

After the final book in the series, Finale, came out, Garber announced a spinoff about one of the fan favorite characters. Once Upon A Broken Heart was published in 2021, earning rave reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publisher’s Weekly.