SATA

PERSONAL

Married, husband’s name Aki; children: one son.

Attended Pomona College; Hollins University, M.F.A. (children’s literature); University of Cambridge, M.Phil (children’s literature).

ADDRESS

• Home - Raleigh, NC.
• Agent - Chelsea Eberly, Greenhouse Literary Agency, info@greenhouseliterary.com.

CAREER

Writer, editor, and educator. Formerly worked as a teacher and program administrator in the public schools of Washington, DC; part-time editor.

Gardening, baking.

WRITINGS

• MIDDLE-GRADE NOVELS
• The Ethan I Was Before, Harper (New York, NY), 2017
• August Isle, Harper (New York, NY), 2019
• Bad Bella, Harper (New York, NY), 2019
• How to Disappear Completely, Harper (New York, NY), 2020
• The Mending Summer, Harper (New York, NY), 2021
• Yonder, Harper (New York, NY), 2022
• "IMPROBABLE TALES OF BASKERVILLE HALL" SERIES; IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CONAN DOYLE ESTATE
• The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall, Harper (New York, NY), 2023
• The Sign of the Five, Harper (New York, NY), 2024
• The Valley of Fear, Harper (New York, NY), 2025
• FOR CHILDREN
• The Climbers (picture book), illustrated by Alette Straathof, Kane Miller (Tulsa, OK), 2019

SIDELIGHTS

Former educator Ali Standish is an author of thoughtful tales, like How to Disappear Completely and Yonder, featuring middle-school characters who overcome challenges with family relationships, trauma, bullying, physical appearance, and other coming-of-age issues. Standish imagines boarding-school life for Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle in her “Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall” series, and she has also written for a younger audience with the picture book The Climbers. [open new]The guiding inspiration of her youth came from the fantasy worlds of C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” and Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia. She dubbed her backyard “Narbithia,” naturally served as the queen, and scrawled fantastic adventures in a notebook that she kept in the hollow of a tree. She attended Pomona College and worked in the public schools of Washington, D.C., before earning master’s degrees in writing children’s literature from Hollins University and in reading it from the University of Cambridge.[suspend new] Referring to her process of character development in an interview with the Greenhouse Literary Agency, Standish remarked: “I want to write characters with voices who echo in my head long after I’ve finished writing, and who readers will hear in theirs long after they’re done reading.”

Standish’s critically acclaimed debut novel, The Ethan I Was Before, is the story of twelve-year-old Ethan, who moves with his family from Boston to Georgia to live with his Grandpa Ike. Ethan’s parents say it is to assist Grandpa Ike as he ages, but it is really a result of what happened to Ethan’s friend Kacey. When Ethan challenged Kacey to climb a tree, she fell and is now in a coma. The move is an effort to give grieving Ethan an opportunity for a fresh beginning. Aside from the stress of moving, Ethan faces challenges at home including parental arguments and issues with his brother, Roddie, who is unhappy with the move. In Ethan’s new school, he meets outsider Coralee, who takes him on interesting adventures. A writer in Kirkus Reviews considered Standish’s writing to be “smooth.” Kaitlin Malixi, in School Library Journal, praised The Ethan I Was Before, noting that “Standish skillfully weaves the events and characters into the fabric of a story that is emotionally charged and well-developed.” Malixi concluded that “there is never a dull moment.”

Another coming-of-age story, August Isle, finds middle-schooler Miranda struggling in her relationship with her absent mother, who is constantly traveling around the globe as a freelance photographer. Miranda’s maternal grandparents and her mother’s past are a mystery, contributing to the distant mother-daughter relationship. The summer before eighth grade, Miranda travels to August Isle, in Florida, where her mother grew up. She stays with one of her mother’s former friends, Clare, and Clare’s daughter, Sammy. Miranda hopes to find answers to many of the questions she has about her family and her mother’s past. Throughout this summer of exploration on August Isle, the truth reveals itself. In School Library Journal, Martha Simpson suggested that “Standish has created engaging characters, a pleasant setting, and enough intrigue to hook young readers.” Critiquing August Isle, a Kirkus Reviews writer commented that “the result is a beautifully written story, lush as a Florida mangrove.”

Standish again features a female middle-schooler in How to Disappear Completely. While Emma is mourning the loss of her beloved grandmother, she discovers a white spot on her dark skin. The spots continue to multiply on her body. Finally, Emma visits a doctor, who confirms that she has an autoimmune disorder, vitiligo, instigated by stress. Along with being a new student at school, Emma finds herself bullied at school, but she also uncovers support from her new friend, Fina. Not only does Fina teach Emma about her Mexican American heritage, but she also provides much-needed comfort and sage advice to struggling Emma. A Kirkus Reviews critic described the conclusion of How to Disappear Completely “as subtle as an extremely heartwarming brick.” “Standish knits reality and imagination together seamlessly into an absorbing story of loss, identity, and human connections,” concluded Carolyn Phelan in Booklist.

Standish’s 2021 novel, The Mending Summer, features Georgia, a twelve-year-old girl in North Carolina, whose summer at first seems to be a big flop. Her mother is busy studying for her biology degree and her father is working nights. When he is at home, he is not his usual self, acting erratically, and he and her mother often argue. Her mother ultimately sends Georgia away from the chaos of the house to spend the summer with her great aunt, Marigold. There, she meets another young girl, Angela, and they become friends, exploring the nearby woods and discovering a hidden lake that is said to impart magic powers if you make a wish. At first this lake is a diversion from the arguing she experienced between her parents, and she learns the true cause of their problems and the hard realities of alcohol addiction, from which her father suffers. Soon the magic of the lake fades, replaced by the sure knowledge that Georgia must deal with the actual complexities of life as well as the limits of magic.

A Kirkus Reviews critic lauded this fabulist tale, noting, “Readers will be drawn into this story of friendship, magic, and the heartbreak—and healing—of addiction.” In an interview on MG Book Village, Standish commented on the blend of realistic fiction with the magical lake: “I always try to balance weighty, important themes with mystery and adventure in my books. I don’t want the ‘issue’ of the book to edge out the sense of wonder that all children have about the world. Wounded hearts can feel joy, too, as Georgia does when she first experiences the lake’s magic. I also wanted to play with the idea of wish fulfillment fantasies. We are all familiar with them, and it can be tempting to lose ourselves in wishing we could control things we ultimately can’t.”

Standish turns to historical fiction with her 2022 middle-grade novel, Yonder, set on the home front during World War II. Danny Timmons has seen Jack Bailey as a real hero ever since Jack saved two drowning children. Now Danny’s father is away at war and he has come to rely on Jack more than ever. Thus, when Jack suddenly goes missing from their Appalachian town, Danny is desperate to find him. He at first wonders if Jack’s abusive father might be responsible for his disappearance, but the later begins to think it could be related to the magical town, Yonder, Jack often spoke of. Yonder was filled with rainbow birds and was a place beyond war. Yet as his searches continue, Danny begins to see that there are no easy answers to this disappearance and to realize that he did not know Jack at all. Finally, his searches begin to make Danny ask bigger questions about heroism and why America was fighting in a global war.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor had high praise for Yonder, terming it “multilayered, moving, and tremendously powerful.” Writing in Booklist, Bridget Ward was also impressed with the novel, commenting that it “challenges readers to explore the irony of Americans supporting the war effort abroad while denying the humanity of many back home.”

[resume new]Standish gained the approval of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate to write the pseudo-biographical novels of her middle-grade series starting with The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall. In Edinburgh in 1868, humble Arthur Conan Doyle has his wits about him, enabling him to save a young mother and her baby—and getting him invited to attend the exclusive Baskerville Hall. An uncommon boarding school, Baskerville Hall boasts quirky professors and students including an Irish girl who collects miscellany, a writer of premature obituaries, and a haughty son of a member of Parliament. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are professors, James Moriarty is Arthur’s roommate, and a sketchy secret society may have something to do with a series of serious break-ins.

Impressed by the “intricate worldbuilding,” a Kirkus Reviews writer affirmed that the “details will delight fans” as The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall proves a “satisfying mystery shrouded in layers of scene-setting.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer enjoyed the “wry humor” of the narrative voice and how, prefiguring the persona of Doyle’s fictional detective, “adventure and academic exploration are central pillars” of Arthur’s “unusual education.” The reviewer proclaimed that Standish’s “tautly constructed tale of suspense” makes for a “tantalizing playground for inquisitive minds.”[close new]

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, November 15, 2019, Carolyn Phelan, review of How to Disappear Completely, p. 57; May 15, 2022, Bridget Ward, review of Yonder, p. 57.

• Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2016, review of The Ethan I Was Before; February 1, 2019, review of August Isle; January 1, 2020, review of How to Disappear Completely; April 1, 2021, review of The Mending Summer; March 1, 2022, review of Yonder; August 1, 2023, review of The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall.

• Publishers Weekly, July 24, 2023, review of The Improbable Tales of Baskerville Hall, p. 73.

• School Library Journal, February, 2017, Kaitlin Malixi, review of The Ethan I Was Before, p. 92; March, 2019, Martha Simpson, review of August Isle, p. 106.

ONLINE

• Ali Standish website, https://www.alistandish.com (April 22, 2025).

• Fantastic Fiction, https://www.fantasticfiction.com/ (June 26, 2020).

• From the Mixed Up Files, https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/ (May 23, 2021), “Author Ali Standish Discusses ‘The Mending Summer,’ the Power of Healing and Writing Honestly about Addiction.”

• Greenhouse Literary Agency website, https://www.greenhouseliterary.com/ (June 26, 2020), author interview.

• Melissa Roske website, http://www.melissaroske.com/ (October 30, 2016), author interview.

• MG Book Village, https://mgbookvillage.org/ (May 17, 2021), “Interview with Ali Standish about ‘The Mending Summer.’”

• Winged Pen, https://thewingedpen.com/ (February 22, 2017), Michelle Leonard, author interview.