photo by Studio Rivera
Leonarda Carranza is the author of the award winning picture book Abuelita & Me/Abuelita y yo (illustrated by Rafael Mayani). Abuelita & Me is the winner of a 2022 International Latino Book Award and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. Her most recent picture book, Fighting Words is illustrated by Erika Medina.
Leonarda was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and currently resides in Brampton, Ontario, Treaty 19 part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat Nations. She holds a PhD in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto. She is the winner of Briarpatch Magazine’s Writing in the Margins contest and Room’s 2018 short forms contest.
She’s currently working on a spooky middle grade story.