Facts about Erin Bow

MY NAME  

My poetry is published under my maiden name, Erin Noteboom, simply because I've been publishing poetry longer than I've been married and someone begged me in the Name of St. Jerome Patron of Libraries and all his lions not to change it between books. My fiction is published under my married name, Erin Bow.

Noteboom rhymes with “tote a comb.” Bow as in “bow and arrow.”

I’m from

I was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1972. I grew up in Urbandale, Iowa, then moved to Omaha, Nebraska for junior high and high school. I consider Omaha my hometown. I went to Creighton University as an undergraduate. I emigrated to Canada in my 20s and have lived in the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, since 1998. I have both American and Canadian citizenships.

I Studied

I do not have a formal education in writing. In fact, I studied particle physics as an undergraduate at Creighton University and worked for a while at the CERN supercollider near Geneva, Switzerland. I dropped out of my PhD program in the wake of a health crisis and somehow started writing books. I am still passionate about physics and make ends meet as a science writer.

My IDENTITY AND FAMILY

I’m married to another novelist, James Bow, and we have two teenaged children. I am neurodivergent, and part of the LGBTQ community. James has Chinese heritage (the “Bow” is a bad Anglicanizaiton) but I am a white person of Irish and Dutch extraction, so kindly do not include me on lists of AAPI writers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I publish my poetry under my maiden name, Erin Noteboom

• GHOST MAPS: POEMS FOR CARL HRUSKA (a book of poetry) - Wolsak and Wynn 2003

• SEAL UP THE THUNDER (a book of poetry) - Wolsak and Wynn 2005

• PLAIN KATE (an upper middle grade or lower YA novel) - Arthur A. Levine Books at Scholastic 2010

• SORROW’S KNOT (a YA novel) - Arthur A. Levine Books at Scholastic - 2013

• THE SCORPION RULES (PRISONERS OF PEACE #1) (a YA novel) McElderry Books at Simon and Schuster 2015

• THE SWAN RIDERS (PRISONERS OF PEACE #2) (a YA novel) McElderry Books at Simon and Schuster 2016

• STAND ON THE SKY  (a middle-grade novel) - HMH Books for Young Readers in the US, Scholastic in Canada - 2019

• SIMON SORT OF SAYS (a middle-grade novel) - Disney Hyperion Books in the US, Scholastic in Canada, 2023

• A KNIFE SO SHARP ITS EDGE CANNOT BE SEEN (a book of poetry) - Brick Books 2023

MAJOR AWARDS:

I have many awards and shortlists. These are some I’m particularly proud of

• Newbery honor (SIMON SORT OF SAYS)

• National Book Award Longlist (SIMON SORT OF SAYS)

• Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature (Stand on the Sky)

• TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award (Plain Kate)

• Monica Hughes Award honouring Canadian literature of the fantastic (two, one for Sorrow’s Knot and one for The Scorpion Rules)

• CBC Canadian Literary Award in English-language poetry (for poems which became Ghost Maps)

• Twice appeared in Best Canadian Poetry