Alexandra Villasante has always been drawn to storytelling, even when it takes forms beyond language. She holds a BFA in Painting and an MA in Combined Media—an art-school way of saying she enjoys creating with just about anything. Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, Alex has the privilege of dreaming in both English and Spanish.
Her most recent novel, Fireblooms, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was praised by Kirkus and Booklist. It was also named one of NPR’s Books We Love 2025. Alex’s debut YA novel, The Grief Keeper, was a Fall 2019 Junior Library Guild Gold Selection and won the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Children’s Literature/Young Adult Fiction. She has also contributed to several YA short story anthologies, including Our Shadows Have Claws, Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories, and We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels and Other Creatures.
Alex is a co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival and the LKBF Latinx Storytellers Conference.