Written by Mackenzie Manley, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library
CHPL's 2025 Writer-in-Residence is Mary Kay Carson, award-winning author of children’s nonfiction books. Attend her upcoming workshops and writer office hours. Listen to her as host of CHPL's "Inside the Writer's Head" podcast.
In this podcast episode, 2025 Writer-in-Residence Mary Kay Carson interviews Keila Dawson, a fiction and informational author of children's books.
About the Guest
A New Orleans native, Keila Dawson writes fiction and nonfiction children's books. She is the co-editor and a contributor to No Brain the Same: Young Neurodivergent Activists Shaping Our Future (2026), and its award-winning companion titles, No World Too Big: Young People Fighting Global Climate Change and No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History. She is also the author of Yumbo Gumbo; Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book; and the forthcoming Annabelle’s Beignet Café; and is a co-editor and contributor to How We Got Here: Conversations with United States History. She has lived and worked in states across the United States and abroad in the Philippines, Japan, and Egypt. She currently resides in Cincinnati.
Subscribe to Inside the Writer's Head and all of CHPL's podcasts by subscribing on Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Apple Podcasts. Attend Mary Kay’s upcoming workshops and writers' office hours.
Funds to support the Writer-in-Residence program are provided through the generous donation of a private donor and The Library Foundation.
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