January 2020: My work-in-Progress novel Language of Birds won the Seamus Heaney Prize which grants travel to Sligo, Ireland, where I will attend the Yeats Summer Institute in 2020.
December 2019: Children’s Book Council (CBC) really loves THE FORTY THIEVES! In addition to their “Hot Off the Press!” feature they had for FORTY THIEVES in October, CBC has now selected it to be a part of their showcase highlighting Women of Color Protagonists!
July 2019: The Forty Thieves: Marjana’s Tale is a Junior Library Guild selection!
August 13, 2018: From Publishers Weekly Rights Report:
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Charlie Ilgunas at Little Bee/Yellow Jacket has bought Christy Lenzi‘s The Forty Thieves, a middle grade retelling of the Thousand and One Nights tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” set in 10th-century Baghdad and told from the point of view of the slave girl, Morgiana. Publication is planned for fall 2019; the author represented herself in the deal for world rights.June 2018: An excerpt of my YA novel-in-progress, Language of Birds (previously titled Bird Girl), won Hunger Mountain’s 2018 Katherine Paterson Prize in its category. Bird Girl is a re-imagining of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, set in medieval Iceland.
January – May 2016 from Cricket Magazine:
Read the five-part illustrated serial of my middle-grade adventure story, “The Forty Thieves.” Based on the Arabian Nights tale, it is the story of courageous young Morgiana, who takes on the infamous Forty Thieves in medieval Baghdad.
Forty Thieves, my middle-grade novel manuscript, won the 2015 Eldin Fellowship! (June 2015)
Judge Louise Hawes says, “Christy Lenzi’s manuscript features, not only an original story, but a compelling voice, vibrant sensory description, and pacing that engages and entices. ”
Hunger Mountain VCFA Journal for the Arts, LOVE issue (June 2015):
In this month’s LOVE issue, my YA re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet, “Pieces of Sky”.
