August 2022: Attended Yeats Summer Institute in Sligo, Ireland, as granted by the Seamus Heaney Prize in literature.
April 2021: My middle grade magical realism story set in 1920’s NYC is a finalist in the upcoming 2021 Katherine Paterson prize!
July 2020: Read my poem “Jane Eyre Reads Coetzee by the Fire” in Barzakh Literary Journal.
January 2020: My novel manuscript “Bird Girl” won the Seamus Heaney Prize which grants travel to Sligo, Ireland, where I will attend the Yeats Summer Institute (postponed to 2022).
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 highlight.
October 2019: My Middle Grade debut novel, The Forty Thieves, releases from Yellow Jacket!
July 2019: The Forty Thieves is a Junior Library Guild selection!
August 13, 2018: From Publishers Weekly Rights Report:
 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, 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.
March 2016: Release date for my YA debut, Stone Field (Roaring Brook Press), a retelling of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights set in the rolling hills of war-torn Missouri.
January – May 2016 from Cricket Magazine: Read the five-part illustrated serial of my middle-grade adventure story, “The Forty Thieves,” set in medieval Baghdad.
June 2015: Forty Thieves, my middle-grade novel manuscript, won the 2015 Eldin Fellowship! 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. ”
June 2015: Hunger Mountain VCFA Journal for the Arts, LOVE issue: In this month’s LOVE issue, my YA re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet in medieval Iceland, “Pieces of Sky”.
Christy Lenzi 