About Me
Dana VanderLugt is a writer and teacher who descends from a family of Michigan apple growers and storytellers.
Her first book, Enemies in the Orchard: A World War 2 Novel in Verse was published by Zonderkidz in September 2023. The middle grades novel is based on the stories of German POWs who came to work on her grandfather’s orchard during the 1940s.
Dana’s work has been published in Longridge Review, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith, the Michigan Reading Journal, and The Reformed Journal, where she is also a frequent contributor on its daily blog.
A former middle school English teacher, Dana now works as a literacy consultant and has an MFA in Creative Writing from The Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. She lives in Michigan with her husband, three sons, and a spoiled golden retriever.
And yes, she makes a mean apple pie.
Dana is represented by Rubin Pfeffer Content, LLC.
Learn More about Me
Poetry is Noticing: Behind the Read Podcast with Dana
Get to know Dana as Deb VanDuinen, Director of The Big Read Lakeshore, interviews her about approaching poetry, teaching, and her current novel-in-verse project.