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Stephanie R. Pearmain is a children’s book author and Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Arizona. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hollins University. She teaches English and Honors courses in Children's and YA Literature and publishing and is the Coordinator of Undergraduate English Internships. She has been a Reader for the Andrea Brown Literary Agency as well as a book reviewer for Children's Literature Database (picture books through novels), and a Fiction Reader for YARN, an award-winning young adult literary magazine. She oversees Pine Reads Review, an online children's and YA literature publication run by UA undergraduates. Stephanie’s first nonfiction book is Animal BFFs, (Scholastic, 2012). She has two forthcoming picture books in 2025 from Bloomsbury and Beaming Books and her writing has been published in anthologies and magazines, including the Nancy Drew Anthology. She resides in Tucson, Arizona.

Stephanie is represented by Wendi Gu of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates

Select Honors & Awards

  • Marshall Foundation Grant 2022 (co-PI) for the project: "Cooking up Science: Engaging Kids 3-5 in Scientific Thinking"
  • Undergraduate Teaching Award from the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • Experiential Learning Faculty Grant, UA Student Engagement & Career Development (to support Pine Reads Review intern community outreach)
  • Poets & Writers, Inc. Grant to support Guest Speaker Mahogany Brown
  • Poets & Writers, Inc. Grant to support Guest Speaker Dhonielle Clayton
  • English Studies in Action Grant for "Stories & Literacy for Tucson's Under-served Children" (a collaboration with Make Way for Books)
  • Professional Development Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts (2010, 2016)
  • John Woods Scholarship for Prague Summer Creative Writing Program
  • Scholarship to attend Whidbey Island Writer’s Association Conference
  • Career Development Grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW)
  • Hispanic Scholarship Fund Grant Recipient