Writer-in-Residence
Mary Kay Carson

Our 2025 Writer-in-Residence is Mary Kay Carson.

Mary Kay Carson is the author of more than 50 books for young people about wildlife, space, weather, nature, science, and history. Her works encompass a wide range of juvenile genres, from nonfiction to picture books as well as historical fiction chapter books. 

Carson’s books have received more than a dozen starred reviews, as well as multiple awards, including the 2023 Giverny Award for Best Children’s Science Picture Book for The River That Wolves Moved and the 2019 AAAS Prize for Excellence in Science Books for Alexander Graham Bell for Kids. She partnered with her husband, photographer-videographer Tom Uhlman, to write and photo-illustrate seven titles in the acclaimed Scientists in the Field series, including The Bat Scientists, an American Library Association 2011 Notable Children’s Book for Middle Readers, and The Tornado Scientist, a State Library of Ohio Choose To Read Ohio title for 2021-22. 

Carson has been a full-time freelance writer and children’s book author for 30 years. She lives in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood with her husband in a century-plus-old house surrounded by urban greenspace, deer, hawks, woodchucks, coyotes, and songbirds. 

The Library Foundation’s Writer-in-Residence serves as the Library’s literary ambassador to the community by fostering engagement between the Library and local writers, providing instruction on the craft of writing, both online and in-person, and serving as the Library’s representative in the local literary arts scene. 

For more information, please visit her website MaryKayCarson.com or her entry in Something About the Author (vol. 377, Gale, 2022, pp. 58-63). 

Find upcoming events with Mary Kay on CHPL.org.

Past Writers-in-Residence 

Special thanks go out to the Selection Committee: Emma Carlson Berne, Mike Boberg, Tiffani Carter, Staci Dennison, Naomi Tucker Gerwin, Dan Hurley, Ed Loyd, Dani McClain, and Kara Sanders.