About Alison

Alison Merz has been a classroom teacher for almost 20 years, including in Boston, MA, Berkeley, CA, and Bellingham, WA. She is writing a nonfiction book on the historical gains of social movements for young people. Alison is represented by Charlotte Sheedy at Sheedy Lit.

Alison served as an instructor in the graduate programs for pre-service teachers at the University of Oregon and Western Washington University. In 2022, Alison won a Highlights Foundation Scholarship based on her manuscript, Thank a Movement, which teaches young readers about the gains of U.S. social movements. She was also selected to participate in the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Western Washington Mentorship Program in 2019 with mentor author, Brianna Caplan-Sayres. Alison has long been involved in social justice work. She is currently on the board of RE Sources, an environmental justice organization in Bellingham, Washington and she previously served on the board of Green Branch, a social justice children's library in Berkeley, California. Alison lives in Bellingham, Washington with her partner and their two young children.