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Award-winning author & poet
Ari Tison (Bribri) is the award-winning poet and author of YA hybrid poetry & prose novel Saints of the Household (2023) with FSG/Macmillan. Saints of the Household was the winner of the 2024 Walter Dean Myers Award, the winner of the 2024 Pura Belpré Award, the winner of the Amelia Walden Award, the winner of the Américas Award, and a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the International Literacy Award. Saints was chosen as a Best Book of the Month by Amazon, and Best Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, New York Public Library, BCCB, and Chicago Public Library along with receiving starred trade reviews from Kirkus, BCCB, and SLJ. Ari was chosen as a 2023 Publishers Weekly Flying Start.
Ari's work has been widely anthologized. Her poems and short works have been published in a number of national magazines including POETRY's first ever edition for children. Her poem "The Storyteller Gets Her Name" is a part of national K-4th ELA curriculum reaching over 5 million young readers. Her debut picture book When I Was A Little Girl (HarperCollins) is out in 2027 and her next YA novel Together We See (FSG) is slated for 2026 along with her first co-edited anthology WITNESS (Zest) with Ty Chapman. Ari teaches at Hamline University's MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Ari belongs to the Bribri tribe, one of the eight federally and globally recognized tribes of contemporary Costa Rica. She lives in the Twin Cities, Minnesota with her sons.
Together we see
available for preorder

This indigenous murder-mystery set in Costa Rica is perfect for fans of Firekeeper's Daughter and Patron Saints of Nothing.
Told in multiple points of view, Together We See follows Ulá Dominguez, a Bribri-American teenager, searching for the truth behind her land-activist father's mysterious death on their Native territory in Costa Rica. Ulá and her brother, Kabék, uncover secrets and corruption as they face off against illegal loggers, kidnappers, settlers, and the local government in the hunt for clues. Their only allies are a few family friends and relatives still living in Bribri, as well as a young journalist, who may be in danger himself. But as details of their father's death emerge, long-held trust is broken.
Forthcoming novel
AVAILABLE 06.16.26


Also by Ari Tison
saints of the household
Pura Belpré Award Winner
Walter Award Winner for Young Adult Literature
A YALSA William C. Morris Award Finalist
Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Winner
Américas Book Award Winner for Young Adult Literature
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
An Amazon Best Book of the Year So Far
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults
TLA Tayshas Reading List Selection
Notable Books for a Global Society Selection
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Title
A Bank Street Best Book of the Year
International Literacy Association Honor Book
Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award Nominee
Get the teaching guide and free unit lessons!



AVAILABLE
Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indibound | Amazon | Audiobook | Birchbark Books | Red Balloon Books | Wild Rumpus
Community & representation
Ari is represented by Sara Crowe and is a member of Las Musas and a founding member of Diverse Verse and on faculty at Hamline's MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
She regularly gives lectures, panels, keynotes, & school visits throughout the year and can be booked through her booking agency at Authors Unbound.
Ari gives bi-annual pop-up creative writing classes, for discounts and book updates join her newsletter.
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