Courtney

Stevens

Young Adult Novelist

Librarian

Travels from: Nashville, TN

“We Were Kings is the best kind of mystery novel–intelligent and bursting with heart. As Nyla untangled her family’s secrets, the twists left me breathless.” — Brittany Cavallaro, New York Times bestselling author

Courtney “Court” Stevens grew up in the knockabout town of Bandana, Kentucky. She is a former adjunct professor, youth minister, Olympic torchbearer, and bookseller at Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN. These days she writes coming-of-truth fiction and is the community outreach manager for Warren County Public Library in Bowling Green, KY. She has a pet whale named Herman, a bandsaw named Rex, and a tiny fleet of novels with her name on the spine, including YA novels The Blue-Haired Boy, Faking Normal, The Lies About Truth, Dress Codes for Small Towns, and Four Three Two One. Her adult novels include The June Boys and most recently, We Were Kings. More importantly, she in search of the perfect biscuit recipe and a kind way to get the children who live in her house to pick up after themselves.

Courtney's Featured Titles

The Collabo-RAT

A workshop for elementary creatives who want to build their own characters with words, art, and Legos.

Young Creatives

A workshop that takes either a young person and/or young writer from idea to draft.

10 Sentences: Every Middle Schooler a Writer

This is a fast-paced workshop where every student leaves with a 10 sentence short story.

What’s In Your Crate

This is a talk about gratitude, empathy, and redefining success.

Favorite Nouns

This is a talk about the value of person, place, things and ideas by sharing Courtney’s persons, places, things and ideas.

Forest and Trees

This up to 8 hour workshop on macro and micro level pro writing tips for Language Arts/English teachers has hands on activities and usable take-away writing classroom exercises.

First Pages

This workshop teaches peer critique through the verbal anonymous evaluation process. This is for teachers and educators to get students to raise the level of their peer critiques.

Two Hats

This multimedia keynote speaks to school and public librarians on everything being a librarian has taught me about writing and everything writing taught me about being a librarian. If your librarians or teachers need inspiration and practical ideas, this is the talk for you.

“Courtney didn’t come in to talk at us about her book, she came and talked with us about life experience, healing, and strength. She is definitely one of the most open and honest people I have ever had the honor to meet. She gave me a fresh wave of confidence in myself and the dreams I have chosen to pursue, in spite of the odds of success. She told us to dedicate ourselves to what we love, and never, for a second, question our ability to do the impossible.” — Laine Binnix, Class of 2014, Bowling Green High School, Bowling Green, KY

“Courtney has the gift of connecting with young people while inspiring them to be their very best selves. I have never seen our students so riveted by a speaker before—everyone was completely engaged during her entire presentation. In the words of one of our students, “when she spoke, it felt more like a conversation with each and every person.” I loved the real world lessons about writing and following your dreams she imparted. Her visit was, hands down, the best author visit we have ever had!” — Brittany Butler, Librarian, Bowling Green High School, Bowling Green, KY

“We, at Ballard Memorial High School, were honored to have Courtney Stevens come home to Ballard County to debut her novel, Faking Normal. Courtney exceeded all of my expectations and did so much more than talk about her book. She spent the day inspiring our students and helping them to see that anything is possible if you dream, set goals, and “Channel your brave!” My students left her presentation feeling like anything was possible! Our whole community-students, faculty, parents and friends joined in celebrating Courtney’s success and were motivated to set lofty goals and work hard to attain them.” — Kristin Sickling, Media Specialist, Ballard Memorial High School, LaCenter, Kentucky

“Through exploration of her own past, Courtney Stevens raises engaging questions for adolescents. What do I want out of life? How can I reach for my dreams when they seem so far away? A charismatic and down-to-earth author and public speaker, Stevens captivates her audience through a mix of readings, multimedia, and storytelling. At the conclusion of her presentation our students felt motivated, uplifted, and hopeful about their future prospects. Her visit also ignited their desire to read for enjoyment, something desperately missing from our Common Core-driven curriculum. Ever since her visit, our students have engaged in impromptu classroom discussions about her book Faking Normal, and they eagerly look forward to reading more from her in the future.” — Lisa Williams, NBCT, Allen County-Scottsville High School

“It was a wonderful experience having Court at our school. She connected so naturally with the students and was an inspiration to all of us. It was really neat to watch how the students responded to her–they were completely engrossed in her presentation! She was extremely flexible with the different sessions and content throughout the day, and she even took the time to create a custom presentation for our students since they were working on an extended writing project. Court is a gem, and we would love to have her back to visit Central any time!” — Erin Alvarado, Media Specialist, Central Magnet High School, Murfreesboro, TN

“Court exceeded expectations! Her presentation was both informational and inspirational. It was the boost my class needed to push through our writing project.” — Cynthia Savage, Teacher, Central Magnet High School, Murfreesboro, TN

Resources for Educators

Courtney’s Website

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Undergraduate – Lindsey Wilson College (Double Major in Human Services and Christian Ministries).

Graduate —
Lindsey Wilson College (Masters in Counseling)
Campbellsville University (Masters in Theology)
University of Kentucky (Masters in Library and Information Science)

Media clips

Coming Soon!

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.