About

Emily Inouye Huey

Emily writes historical fiction for children and teens. Her first novel, BENEATH THE WIDE SILK SKY, won the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators’ Golden Kite Award and the Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. Her first picture book, WAT KEPT PLAYING, releases in 2024. Emily holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and is a former teacher.

Emily is Japanese American and her work often draws on her family’s experiences. During World War II, the Inouye family was forcibly removed from their homes and farms in California and Washington State. Her grandparents, Charles and Bessie, met and married in an incarceration site at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Her father was born in the prison hospital. When the war ended, the family was sent to Utah, where they started over and where Emily still lives, now with her husband and four children.

Besides books, Emily’s passions include education, the arts, the outdoors, and her family.